Saturday 1 p.m. Recital Series
First UMC of Santa Monica is excited to announce the return of our
in-person recital series! Presented by Dr. James E. Smith, First UMC Music Director, these free recitals take place one Saturday each month at 1 p.m., with doors opening at 12:45 p.m.
If you can’t join us in person, you can also watch the recital via livestream during the performance or anytime afterward:
• Website: www.santamonicaumc.org/livestream
• Facebook: @santamonicaumc
• YouTube Channel: www.youtube/c/santamonicaumc
• The First UMC App: (To download, go to the App Store, search FirstUMC_SM)
2026-27 Schedule – Saturdays 1 p.m.
Sept 26 Dr. James Lent, piano
Oct 17 Gold Line Saxophone Quartet
Nov 21 Seraphour, quartet
Jan 9 Kenton Youngstrom, guitar
Feb 20 Philip Levy, violin; Tae Yeon, piano
Mar 13 Jon Miller and Doug Amster, 4-hand piano
Apr 17 Aaron Shows, organ
Mark your calendar for the first recital of the fall season on Saturday, September 26, 1 p.m. featuring Dr. James Lent, piano.
Dr. James Lent attended the Houston High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and the University of Houston. Since completing a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Yale University, he has been based in Los Angeles, CA. James is currently on the faculty of UCLA as the head of collaborative piano and vocal coach for the music department. He also serves as program manager of staff pianists. James is also a Principal Music Faculty, musical director, and manager of staff pianists at AMDA, the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Hollywood, CA. He has also served on the summer faculty at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA, as a pianist and opera coach for the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, and the Napa Music Festival.
As a performer he frequently performs throughout Southern California, and recently in venues including the Beverly Hills Hilton, House of Blues, LA Live, and the Ritz Carlton Hotel. He has been featured as a pianist in Cabaret, Chicago, Chess, A Chorus Line, The Fantasticks, Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Oklahoma. James is available as a soloist or he can provide additional performers including strings, drums, winds, and/or brass.
As a music director, he has directed and played for productions of Spamilton, Grease, Little Shop of Horrors, Sweet Charity, Willy Wonka, West Side Story, Seussical, AMDA’s Toonsical, Rent, Legally Blonde, Chess, Pippin and for the LA Stage Star Competition.
He made his Alabama Symphony debut to critical acclaim performing Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 2 on 24 hours’ notice to replace Andre Watts. Lent has performed with the renowned Paris-based Ensemble Intercontemporain under the direction of Pierre Boulez in a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall, and his performances have been heard on National Public Radio. He has performed with the Vancouver Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Shanghai Philharmonic, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Utah Symphony and the Florida West Coast Symphony, among others, and as solo recitalist at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany, for the National Chopin Foundation in Miami, at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where he premiered a new work written for him by American composer Frederic Rzewski.
He has received numerous awards from the New York Concert Artists Guild International Competition, the National Chopin Competition, the Washington International Piano Competition at the Kennedy Center, the Olga Koussevitsky Piano Competition in New York, and the Houston Symphony Ima Hogg National Young Artist Competition. He was a fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal.
Watch Past Recitals Below
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Various guest musicians alongside Jim Smith, Music Director, and Ty Woodward, resident organist, have been featured during the Sunday online and In-Person worship service.
Your financial support helps to keep the recitals going. Please consider making a donation to support our music program by clicking: GIVING PAGE.
Past Recitals
Watch the Online May 2026 Mid-Week Recital featuring:
Esther Yune, Susan Kim-Pedroza: 4-hand piano
View the Program
Watch the Online April 2026 Mid-Week Recital featuring:
Trio Pacifico: Chloe Descher, Flute; Hugo Nogueira, Guitar;
Maura Phelps, Cello
Watch the Online March 2026 Mid-Week Recital featuring:
Sangam: Paul Livingstone, sitar; Peter Jacobson, cello
Watch the Online February 2026 Mid-Week Recital featuring:
Gold Line Saxophone Quartet
View the Program
Watch the Online January 2026 Mid-Week Recital featuring:
Noah Sonderling, piano
Watch the Online December 2025 Mid-Week Recital featuring:
Meagan Martin, mezzo soprano; Victoria Kirsch, piano
Watch the Online November 2025 Mid-Week Recital featuring:
Laurent Jochum, organ
View the program
Watch the Online October 2025, Mid-Week Recital featuring:
Trio Autunno: Kevan Torfeh, cello; Kenton Youngstrom, guitar; and Peter Doubrovsky, string bass.
Watch the Online September 2025, Mid-Week Recital featuring:
Philip Vaiman, violin; Brendan White, piano
View the Program
Watch the Online May 2025, Mid-Week Recital featuring:
Ty Woodward, organ
Watch the Online April 2025, Mid-Week Recital featuring:
Music Matters Brass Quartet: Jonathan Sywulka, trumpet; Kristin Morrison, horn;
Robert Seitz, trombone; and Beth Mitchell, tuba.
Watch the Online March 2025, Mid-Week Recital featuring:
Erin Young & Christian Cruz, guitars
View the program
Watch the Online February 2025, Mid-Week Recital featuring:
Erin Wood, soprano, and Philip Hoch, organ
View the program
Watch the Online January 2025, Mid-Week Recital featuring:
Althea Waites, piano
View the Program
Watch the Online December 2024, Mid-Week Recital featuring:
Seraphour – Classical Quartet
Watch the Online November 2024 Mid-Week Recital featuring
Nora Chiang-Wrobel, piano; Chika Inoue, saxophone
Watch the Online October 2024 Mid-Week Recital featuring
Rodell Rosel, tenor
View the program with lyric texts
The Online September 2024 Mid-Week Recital featured
Philip Hoch, organ
The May 2024 Mid-Week recital featured: Philip Allen Smith, organ
April 10, 2024: The Elixir Trio: Lucy Nargizyan, piano; Samvel Chilingarian, violin; Fang Fang Xu, cello
March Recital: Eva Smith Schoenweiss, violin, and Wayne Smith, cello
View the February Mid-Week Recital, featuring: Coriolan Trio: Geoffrey Nudell, clarinet; Kevan Torfeh, cello; James Furmston, piano View the Program
View the January 2024 Mid-Week Recital featuring: Jeff Greif, tenor; Hui Wu, piano
View the Program
View the December 2023 Mid-Week Recital
featuring Cristina Montes Mateo, harp. View the Program
View the November Mid-Week Recital, featuring
Rufus Choi, piano; Noah Choi, cello View the Program
View the October 2023 Mid-Week Recital, featuring Aaron Shows, organ
View the September 2023 Mid-Week Recital featuring Margaret Thornhill, clarinet; Hui Wu, piano
View the May Mid-Week Recital with Evan Kahn, cello; Amy Zanrosso, piano.
View the March 2023 Recital featuring Cantilena Trio: Susan Greenberg, Jon Lee Keenan, Kenton Youngstrom
View the February 2023 Mid-Week Recital featuring Tom Batson, piano.
View the January 2023 Mid-Week Recital featuring Laurent Jochum, organ.
View the December 2022 Mid-Week Recital: with Beth Chouinard-Mitchell, tuba; Hannah Yi, piano
View the November 2022 Mid-Week Recital: with Susan Greenberg, Michele Zukovsky, and Dr. Pierre Tang
View the October 2022 Mid-Week Recital: with Nora Chiang Wrobel, piano; Limor Toren-Immerman, violin;Garik Terzian, cello
View the September 2022 Mid-Week Recital: with Mak Grgic [GER-gich], guitar.
View the May 2022 Mid-Week Recital, featuring Clayton Haslop, violin; Kevan Torfeh, cello; and Wendy Prober-Cohen, piano. View the Recital Program
View the April 2022 Mid-Week Recital, featuring Sean O’Neal, organ
View the March 2022 Mid-Week Recital, featuring Ty Woodward, organ; Dr. Jim Smith, piano and organ
View the February 2022 Mid-Week Recital, featuring Tae Yeon Lim, piano
View the January 2022 Mid-Week Recital, featuring Philip Vaiman, violin / Miloš Veljković, piano.
View the November 2021 Mid-Week Recital, featuring Kirill and Anna Gliadkovsky, piano duo.
View the October 2021 Mid-Week Recital, featuring Cristina Montes Mateo, harp
September 2021 Recital: Tengyue (TY) Zhang, classical guitar
May 2021 Mid-Week Recital: Rufus Choi, piano
April 2021 Mid-Week Recital: Kevan Torfeh & Friends:
Kevan Torfeh, cello; Jim Smith, organ and piano; Tomasz Golka & Anna Kostyuchek, violins; and Linda Muggeridge, oboe.
View the Recital Program here
March 2021 Recital: David York, organ
February 2021 Recital: Aram Barsamian, baritone; accompanied by Mark Salters, piano.
View the Program
Wednesday, January 13: Ty Woodward, organ; David Searfoss, trumpet; Stephen Billington, trumpet
View the Recital Program here
Wednesday, December 9, 2020: Calico Winds, wind ensemble
View the Recital Program here
Wednesday, November 11 2020, Kirill Gliadkovsky, piano
View the Recital Program (list of pieces and artist bio)
Wednesday, October 14, 2020: Nancy Roth, violin; Lorenzo Sanchez, piano
Wednesday, September 9, 2020: Aaron Shows, organ
View the Recital Program for Aaron Shows
August 12, 2020 – Susan Greenberg, flute; Cristina Montes Mateo, harp
July 8, 2020 – Connie Sheu, guitar, and Elise Henry, flute
June 11, 2020 – Duo Imaginalis: Ekaterina Bessmettseva, piano; Hugo Nogueira, guitar
May 13, 2020 – Mark Robson, Piano Online Recital
January 8, 2020 – David Childs, baritone
David Childs is a baritone who specializes in Jewish Music. He holds a degree in Vocal Performance from UCLA and is an alumnus of the Aspen Music Festival. David’s past musical endeavors include singing solo roles with several performing groups: Guild Opera, Pacific Opera Project, Aspen Opera Center, & LA Chamber Orchestra. In 2017, David performed a recital with pianist Mark Robson as part of Boston Court’s Emerging Artist Series. David also played accordion with the Latin-American folk-pop band, We The Folk. He currently serves as Cantorial Intern at Sinai Temple in Westwood and is studying at the Ziegler School of Rabbinics at American Jewish University.
March 11, 2020 – Sergey Kosemyan, cello; Anna Markosyan, piano
Sergey Kosemyan is a recipient of the UNESCO Gold Medal, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Aram Khachaturian, 2008. He is the prize winner of the following International Competitions: Aram Khachaturian International Competition, 2006; Pierre Lantier International Chamber Music Competition (Grand Prix), Paris, 2002; the National Young Artist Competition in Yerevan, Armenia (1997) First Prize; and the winner of the Premier Prix de La Conservatoire National Superior de Paris, 2002. He is the founder of the Classic Art Trio (2014), and Kosemyan Ensemble (2017) in Mexico. His teachers have been Mstislav Rostropovich, Philipe Müller, Harry Hoffman, and Dominique de Williencourt.
Anna Markosyan is a graduate of the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory, and winner of the A. Babajanyan National Piano Competition (Armenia). She has performed in chamber ensembles in Armenia, Russia, Europe, Mexico and the USA.
May 8, 2019 – David York, organ
April 10, 2019 – The Wilder Trio, clarinet, bassoon & piano
March 13, 2019 – AlmaNova Duo, flute and guitar
February 13, 2019 – Lukas Hasler, organ
March 14, 2018 – Duo Ondine: Boglárka Kiss, Flute; Alison Bjorkedal, Harp
February 7, 2018 – Althea Waites, Piano – February 7, 2018
May 10, 2017 – Jaebon Hwang, Organ
The finale of the 2017 Mid-Week Recital series is with award-winning composer and organist, Jaebon Hwang! She is organist at Westwood United Methodist Church where she presides over one of the largest organs in the region. Awarded the Fellow of American Guild of Organists, the organization’s highest level of certification, she is active as a recitalist and as a collaborative artist.
May 9, 2018 – Christoph Bull, Organ
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