Christopher McWilliams

---

FCCB is excited to welcome our new Music Director,  Christopher McWilliams! Christopher holds a BM  Summa Cum Laude in Organ and Piano Performance  and an MM With Distinction in Piano Pedagogy and  Performance from Westminster Choir College of  Rider University in Princeton, NJ. At WCC, he  studied piano with Phyllis Lehrer and organ with  Kenneth Cowan and Matthew Lewis. After  graduating, he has worked primarily as a piano  instructor at the Westminster Conservatory of Music  from 2012 to 2020, where he taught mostly one-on one lessons to students aged 7 to 17. He has also  taught music theory to violin students at the  Princeton String Academy, and he accompanied flute  and violin students during recitals both in Princeton,  NJ and at Weill Recital Hall in NYC. While he taught  at WCM, he regularly performed in chamber music  recitals with his former colleagues including Melissa  Bohl, oboe, Marjorie Selden, viola, Michael Carl  Green, trumpet, and Phyllis Lehrer, piano.Between 2011 and 2018, Mr. McWilliams served as  organist of Princeton United Methodist Church,  where he accompanied the elementary, youth and  adult choirs and collaborated with solo  instrumentalists. From 2014 to 2020, he also served  as a weekly rehearsal accompanist for both First  Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church in Princeton  Junction and for the Taiwanese/American Fellowship  Hall in Hillsborough, NJ. For a brief period between  September and October 2019, he was an intern  organist for the Abiding Presence Lutheran Church in  Ewing, NJ.  Since June 2020, Mr. McWilliams held a post as  Director of Music at Bethany United Church of Christ  in Montpelier, VT, where his main duties included leading the adult choir in worship, playing and  maintaining the organ and pianos and collaborating  with other soloists. Aside from being the new  Director of Music at the First Congregational Church  of Berlin (UCC) beginning on January 1, 2024, Christopher holds a teaching studio at his residence  in Barre, VT and will also offer lessons at the church  if needed.