Rev. Curran Reichert

Pastor

Pastor Curran Reichert will conduct her last service at FCC Sonoma on Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 10:30 a.m.

It is with heavy hearts and much gratitude that we say goodbye to our dear spiritual leader of the past seven years. We hold her in light and love with wishes for a bright future in the next phase of her journey.

Stephanie Ozer

Music Director

Stephanie Ozer performs in jazz festivals, concert venues, intimate clubs, house concerts, corporate events and weddings — in ensembles of jazz, folk, klezmer, and Brazilian jazz. Stephanie’s CD, “O Começo: New Beginnings in Brazilian Jazz”, was recorded in Rio de Janeiro with the legendary, Grammy winning vocalist Leny Andrade with whom she has subsequently toured.

Nominated twice as Best Jazz Musician in the North Bay, Stephanie holds a classical Piano Performance Degree from the University Of Michigan School of Music where she played in the University Javanese Gamelan. Her award winning Ozer-Moore piano/vocal jazz duo opened for Abby Lincoln and Phoebe Snow in Ann Arbor, MI.

With her inventive and poetic musical spirit, Stephanie performs in the Bay Area and nationwide — solo, duo, trio to sextet — in genre bending music in collaboration with top flight musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, including vocalists Claudia Villela, Maria Marquez, Sax/flautists Mary Fettig and Harvey Wainapel, guitarists Luiz Brasil and Randy Vincent and bass players Scott Thompson and Peter Barshay. Her most recent group, As Três Meninas (Fabiana Passoni, vocals, Ami Mollineli, percussion) performs Brazilian Jazz, Samba, Bossa Nova and Choro-inspired compositions with these bandleaders who came together to craft their unique sound.

Stephanie teaches many styles of piano, technique and improvisation and coaches vocalists in accompanying themselves and performance techniques from her home studio in Sonoma Valley and at Jazz Camp West.

Angela Ljung

Office Manager

Angela has worked for First Congregational Church since February, 2014.

Her family moved to Sonoma in 1968 following her grandparents’ move here a few years prior. She worked 12 years at Fireman’s Fund Insurance Companies where she met her future husband, Denis, and his son, Erik.

Angela devoted 18 years to raising their children, Owen and Anika, and volunteering in both their schools and at St. Andrew Presbyterian, her family’s church since 1999. She is an ordained Presbyterian Deacon and Elder. Angela is very close to her large, extended faith-filled family who make a priority of regularly visiting each other.

When not enjoying her time at FCC, Angela takes pleasure in her ordinary life of hikes and explorations with Denis, entertaining, playing card and board games, and organizing just about anything. But mostly, you’ll find her in the kitchen planning the next gathering, cooking, and baking expressions of love.