After the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick was devastated by a fire in 2011, the church did a lot of fundraising, including concerts, to help rebuild the church. When the new church was in the planning process, the parishioners decided they wanted to build a church with great acoustics with the hopes of hosting more concerts and other community events. And so it was built, and so we had concerts… at first to raise money for the building fund. In 2015 the fundraising committee started calling the concerts “Concerts for a Cause,” and shared 2/3 of the profits with local charities. In 2023 the board decided that 100% of the proceeds would be given to the Charities with Soul.
*Each fiscal year, the members of UUCB vote for the 12 charities that they would like to support with their monthly plate collections. From that list, the Concerts for a Cause committee chooses two of those charities to support in the next season’s Concerts for a Cause series. At the end of the fiscal year, all proceeds raised from the entire season are distributed to the selected charities.
With great success, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick has made a name for itself as a great concert venue. Every musician who has performed at UUCB loves the acoustics and the welcoming atmosphere of the church. The audiences have been thrilled with the level of talent that has been part of the concert series; many have become loyal followers and attend many concerts each season. The first concert at the new church was Gordon Bok, followed by the Daponte String Quartet. Since that time there have been 57 concerts with a full range of music genres: singer-songwriter, traditional folk, jazz, Americana, blues, roots, soul, bluegrass, classical, choral, barbershop, Celtic, drumming, and world music. Some of the musicians are internationally known, many have multiple awards, and some are local favorites. The one thing they all have in common is talent and a love of performing. Since 2014 Concerts for a Cause has raised over $53,000 for 13 local charities.
Visit https://uubrunswick.org/concerts to see the upcoming concert.