MUSIC

Emmanuel Parish features Sacred Music with organ and/or piano accompaniment each Sunday during the 10:00 AM service. Our Music Director and trio of Organists bring a wealth of music ministry experience, as well as unique individual talents and a heart for service.

The Professionals

The Music Director and Choirmaster is Dr. Scott Rieker, also the Director of Choral Activities and Choral Music Education at Frostburg State University.

Dr. Amy Branam Armiento is a Professor of English at Frostburg State University. Amy is an accomplished pianist and organist who got her start accompanying church services in her hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Amy has been with Emmanuel since accepting her position at FSU and relocating to Cumberland in 2006. An occasional organist and pianist at Emmanuel since that time, she will now be playing on a regular basis.

Peter Czifra is a keyboardist (piano, accordion, and Hammond organ), vocalist, and musical educator who is a recent arrival to the Cumberland music scene and to Emmanuel. He was born in Hungary, where he studied classical music and jazz, played the organ in his village church, taught in a music academy, and performed in bands. From 2000 Peter pursued a career on ships as a cocktail pianist, circling the globe and playing everything under the sun to entertain a varied clientele. Peter is looking forward to getting back to some of his earliest musical memories— making music with his new church family, to the glory of God.

David Rankin has played for church services since he was 14. Most recently, he was Music Director at St Paul Lutheran, just up the street. When he’s not in church, David is at Maryland Wellness, where he is a psychotherapist, or in a rehearsal with the Scholars of St Cecilia (Mountainside Baroque) or Cumberland Choral Society, or at home with his wife, daughter, and the three cats who just happen to live there. Please ask him about the cats! He has pictures and stories.

 Additional instrumentalists add beauty to worship on Christmas, Easter, and other special occasions, offering preludes and postludes as well as accompanying hymns and service music

The Organ

The current organ at Emmanuel is a 1984 rebuild of a 1952 M. P. Mohler instrument that is regularly upgraded by the Steiner-Murphy Pipe Organ Co. of Cumberland. It has 21 ranks, consisting of Great and Swell divisions at the back of the Church and a Chancel division at the front. In 2003, a trumpette en chamade was added as part of the Parish Bicentennial.