Here at Heavenly Rest, music centers around worship life, music education, and creative partnerships. Our choirs of all-ages sing for weekly services, and we celebrate our core traditions with music including Lessons and Carols, the neighborhood Christmas Pageant, Holy Week and Easter. We honor our Anglican heritage, while bringing excellence in a variety of styles from jazz to new music featuring guest artists and composers. Our instrument collection includes an 8000-pipe Austin Organ, Steinway pianos and handbells. Whether you love to sing or are looking for family-friendly activities and concerts, we have a program for you!
CHR Adult Choir
The Choir of Church of the Heavenly Rest brings together 35 volunteer singers and talented section leaders in a welcoming and dedicated community. The CHR Choir leads music for the Sunday 11am Eucharist and seasonal liturgies. Recent season highlights include singing the Fauré Requiem, the 2023 World Premiere of a new Psalm Cycle, and a jazz service hosting Presiding Bishop Michael Curry with Theodicy Jazz Collective. Rehearsals take place on Sunday morning and afternoon from September through May. If you have past experience singing in a choir, have a blending voice, and can read music easily, we’d love to hear from you!
Children, Youth and Families
Does your child love music? We offer free choral and music education programs for young people ages 3-18 on Wednesdays and Sundays during the school year. All of our activities are open to the neighborhood and community, and we would love for your family to join us! Learn more below:
Early Childhood Music and Movement (age 3-grade K): On Wednesday afternoons from September through May, children ages 3-grade K learn music basics through joyful singing, movement, and games, led by Teaching Artists Lydia Saylor, Colin Robertson, Ana Smith and Elle Prado. This class participates in the Wednesday evening Family Service at 5pm and special Sunday mornings, and prepares to join the Junior Choristers.
Junior and Senior Choristers (grades 1-8): During the school year, each Wednesday from September through May, Junior and Senior Choristers learn fundamentals of choral singing, music theory, sight reading and team-building skills. These classes are led by Director of Music Janet Yieh and Chorister-Music Associate Jennifer Lane. The Choristers sing music from the Anglican Choral tradition and a diversity of styles for the 11:00 am Sunday Eucharist at Heavenly Rest, on the First Sunday of each month. They also lead music for weekly services during our Wednesday Family Afternoon, and are featured alongside the Adult Choir for special occasions including Christmas and Easter.
Heavenly Rest High School Singers (grades 9-12): Youth singers are invited to sing on Sunday mornings with the Adult Choir, working with Director of Music Janet Yieh and Chorister-Music Associate Jennifer Lane. This choir will be challenged and inspired to learn music which can be enjoyed within our Heavenly Rest community, shared out in the neighborhood, and around New York.
We would love for any child interested in singing, to make this weekly rehearsal and monthly church service commitment at Heavenly Rest. All new choristers are invited to a Singing Placement meeting and enrollment closes on September 1, 2024.
Register for all 2024-2025 Chorister-Music Classes at this link!
Seasonal Music Activities
Annual Christmas Pageant:
Our December Christmas Pageant is a traditional and lively retelling of the Nativity story in scripture and carols. Children from the parish and the neighborhood sing every role – Mary, Joseph, the Angel Gabriel, the Three Wise Men, and scores of angels, shepherds, heavenly hosts, and tumblers. Rehearsals will begin Wednesday, December 4, 2024 and continue weekly until the performance on December 24th. Check back this fall to sign-up for the December 2024 Pageant.
August Choir Camp:
This Summer, August Choir Camp returns from Monday, August 5th-Friday, August 9th. If you have a child who loves to sing, entering Kindergarten through 8th grade, we have a wonderful week of learning, singing, making, playing, laughing, praying, exploring and serving planned! All neighbors and friends welcome. Sign-up closed on July 1, 2024.
Handbells:
Our handbell choir group includes those of all levels of experience who enjoy playing as part of an ensemble in sacred settings, and occasionally outdoors! We perform for special occasions, such as Christmas and Easter, with a rehearsal or two prior to the event. We welcome new members; necessary skills are a sense of rhythm and basic ability to read music notation.
Concerts with a Cause:
Church of the Heavenly Rest is excited to present Concerts with a Cause, featuring classical, choral, jazz and Broadway musicians. Each seasonal performance benefits one of our partner organizations here in New York City.
Meet Our Music Team
Director of Music and Organist:
Janet Yieh
Director of Music Janet Yieh leads our vibrant music program for all ages here at Heavenly Rest. An innovative concert recitalist and sacred music specialist, Janet has been lauded for her “expressivity and technical prowess” (The American Organist). She has performed throughout the United States and across the globe, highlights include: New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Washington’s National Cathedral, San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, Yale University’s Woolsey Hall, Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan, and Malaysia; collaboration with the Paul Winter Consort, the Washington Chorus at The Kennedy Center, NOVUS NY orchestra at Carnegie Hall; the American Guild of Organists’ 2022 National Convention and the Association of Anglican Musicians’ National Conference; the national radio show Pipedreams, WQXR-FM and two CD recordings.
In 2020, Janet co-founded a new platform ‘Amplify Female Composers’ with Carolyn Craig, and she contributes research to an international sacred music database called “A Great Host of Women Composers.” She has taught on the faculty for summer Pipe Organ Encounter programs and played as staff organist for RSCM America courses. She is an executive board member of the New York City American Guild of Organists and a member of the Association of Anglican Musicians. A Taiwanese-American native of Alexandria, Virginia, Janet holds degrees from the Yale School of Music, Yale Institute of Sacred Music, and The Juilliard School. She has previously served at Trinity Church Wall Street, Christ Church, New Haven and Trinity Church on the Green, and directed music for Berkeley Divinity School. www.janetyieh.com
Chorister-Music Associate:
Jennifer Lane
Chorister-Music Associate Jennifer Lane is a passionate music educator, singer and choral conductor. Her responsibilities include co-teaching the choristers at our weekly afternoon rehearsals, singing with the CHR choir, music library administration, and assisting at seasonal services and concerts. Mollie Nichols gave her a choral directing start, right here at Heavenly Rest with the Children’s Choir 2002. Since then, she has worked with choristers and choir members of all ages at St. Stephen’s in Ridgefield, CT, and St. Paul’s on the Green Norwalk, CT. She has also taught Elementary and Middle School General Music in Connecticut and in Missouri. Jennifer has an undergraduate degree in music from Bryn Mawr College and a masters degree in music education from University of Bridgeport.
2024-25 Juilliard Organ
Scholar: Isaac Lee
Our Heavenly Rest Organ Scholar Internship program aims to provide promising organists with a commitment to music ministry, an opportunity to learn practical hymn playing and choir training skills in a large, supportive Episcopal Church in New York City.
2024-25 Organ Scholar: Isaac Lee is a second year C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at The Juilliard School studying with Paul Jacobs. He graduated from Yale University with a Master of Musical Arts degree. While at Yale, he received the 2022 Robert Baker Prize for performance excellence and the 2023 Director’s Prize for research excellence. He also served as the Wilson Family Sacred Music Intern at The Brick Presbyterian Church. Isaac was one of the 2024 winners of the American Guild of Organists Commissioning project in which he premiered a work by Singaporean composer, Cheng Jin Koh. Prior education include degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the Royal Danish Academy of Music. During his time in Denmark, he completed a successful fellowship at Roskilde Cathedral, a UNESCO heritage site. A native of Singapore, he is deeply passionate about raising the profile of the instrument back home.
Interested in making music? Reach out to Director of Music, Janet Yieh
jyieh@heavenlyrest.org, 212-289-3400