The Church Choir

John Ferris was for thirty-two years the University Organist and Choirmaster at Harvard University. He retired from that position in 1990 and taught as a guest lecturer at Yale University, Boston University, Berklee College, other universities and colleges throughout America, and took over leadership of the choir at Colebrook Congregational Church.

He holds degrees from Michigan State University and from The School of Sacred Music of Union Theological Seminary in New York City. As a concert organist he performed throughout the United States, as well as in Barbados, St. Vincent, Trinidad, and Tobago. He made his European concert debut in 1978 at La Basilique du Sacré Coeur in Paris.

He was the editor of the Harvard Hymnal in 1964 and was also a member of the faculty of the Harvard Divinity School, teaching Hymnology and playing for services at the Divinity School. He was director of the Harvard Organ Society for many years. He was one of the organizers of the 1976 National Convention of the American Guild of Organists, which was held in Boston.

He was responsible for having a large tracker organ by Charles Fisk built in Memorial Church, replacing an older instrument. For a number of years he was the conductor of the Cantata Singers, a professional choral group in Boston. He has been guest conductor for numerous choral groups throughout the United States.

At Harvard University, in addition to conducting the University Choir in daily and Sunday services, he conducted such masterpieces as Bach’s St. Matthew and St. John Passion, Benjamin Britten’s Saint Nicholas, Handel’s Saul and many other works. Recently Bruce Humphrey released a five CD selection of major choral works he performed with the University choir.

John Ferris, the widely admired musician who served as organist and choirmaster at Harvard University for over three decades, died Aug. 1 in Great Barrington. The cause was complications from Parkinson's disease, according to Nancy Granert, the organist in residence at Harvard's Memorial Church. He was 82 years old.

Read John's remembrance from the Boston Globe >>

Vima Le Jeune has been our organist at the Colebrook Congregational Church since 1989. She accompanies rehearsals for the Adult and the Children’s choirs. She plays the Sunday services as well as special music services at the church.

The organ she performs on was built by Fritz Noack in 1964 and was presented to the church by John Ferris in 1990. She also plays at the Church in the Wildwood in North Colebrook, CT during the summer.

A native of West Torrington, CT, Ms. Le Jeune graduated from Torrington High School and studied piano with Mrs. Greenwood, Mrs. Keyes, and Anna Michna. She studies organ with John Ferris. She comes from a family of organists; her mother was a church organist, her sister is a church organist, and two of her daughters are organists in Connecticut and Alaska.

Previously she was the organist at the Barkhamsted Congregational Church in Barkhamsted, CT. She was also the manager of the Nutrition Program for the Winsted Senior Center, where she often played the piano for group singing by the members.

She is an experienced painter, both of oils and water colors and has taken classes in these art forms at Northwest Connecticut Community College and the Litchfield County Art Association of which she is a member; both are in Winsted, CT. She is the mother of nine children who reside from Connecticut to Alaska. She now lives in Winchester, CT.