AUBURN – Grace Lewis-McLaren will play an organ concert of chorales Sunday, Dec. 14, at the First Universalist Church of Auburn. Proceeds will be used to help people who need assistance paying their fuel bills. Suggested donation: $8.

Organist and composer Lewis-McLaren will play on the historic Hook and Hastings organ in the sanctuary beginning at 2 p.m. The program features three chorales, including one by Cesar Franck, a French composer. McLaren has previously played this piece on the organ at Ste. Clothilde in Paris in 2007, where Franck played for 50 years.

The other chorales are also by French composers, Pachabel and Kay-Elertin.

Lewis-McLaren will explain each piece, so people will have a sense of what to listen for. For example, the Kay-Elertin chorale uses the same hymn as the Pachabel piece, yet treats it differently.

Playing piano since age 4, Lewis-McLaren took up the organ at the Eastman School of Music and continued her studies at Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music in New York City. She has held church music positions in Maine, New York, and California.

Now retired, she still plays church services and accepts commissions for compositions. Her name appears beneath five songs in the UU hymnal “Singing the Living Tradition.'” She has published a book, “Songs of Grace,” and leads worship services and workshops based on her music.

The First Universalist Church of Auburn is at 169 Pleasant St. For more information, call 783-0461 or log on to www.auburnuu.org.

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