Old First Concerts: What 30 Years Has Done
by Christopher Burt

There is quite a remarkable 'Venerable' tucked inside Old First Church. In the rapidly shifting scene of San Francisco in the late 60’s, ours was the first church to schedule the arts, with church productions of “Jesus Christ, Superstar”  and “Godspell”. The church knew what a treasure the sanctuary was, and with these performances it realized what an opportunity there was to reach out to the community.

Old First Concerts was formally begun in 1970 with instructions from Session to provide a place for young and emerging musicians to perform, a place for the audiences to enjoy this music for a modest cost, and a way to enhance the name of Old First Church.

Thirty years later, after 2,500 concerts and a quarter of a million people, this still remains the fundamental purpose of Concerts. Through the years the spotlight has been refocused; the young performers are now teachers, orchestral section leaders, soloists and stars. The audiences have changed, but, like a renewable resource, they too have learned to love this place through music. The name of Old First Church is now mentioned quite literally throughout the world as a place to perform and attend concerts.

Through the years our church has had name recognition far beyond the modest size of its membership, in part because of the seeds scattered by Old First Concerts. We have created a musical community by bringing the people of the Bay area into our Sanctuary to wonder at the exonarthex ceiling, to check out the notice Boards, to ask questions about the banners and liturgical artwork, to stare at the stained glass, to read the Bibles in our pews and to experience the spiritual quality of music.

Concerts brings church members and city music-lovers together as volunteers at concerts and through its Board of Old First Concerts; about half of the volunteer workers and Board members are from the church. This means that most of the people who attend concerts can be greeted by a church member, someone who can tell them not just about Concerts, but also our music program, our services, and our church.

This March we were given the opportunity to tell the Friday night concert-goers  about our response to the homeless by housing families for the night. Regular members of the audience who enter Old First only for concerts commented how glad they were about what “their church” was doing!  This is how, for 30 years now,  Old First Concerts has been a bridge between the church and the larger community.

Click here to visit the Old First Concerts Website, www.oldfirstconcerts.org.