Providing Summer Organ Concerts, Educational Tours, and Community Outreach since 1992.
St. John’s Organ Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and appreciation of E. & G. G. Hook’s Opus 288 (1860) built for St. John’s Roman Catholic Church in Bangor, Maine.
The St. John’s Organ Society hosts a summer concert series and two international concerts each year, as well as occasional special events.
The St. John’s Organ Society, is pleased to announce that James Kennerley, a Boston-based English organist and composer, will play the Fall International concert on the historic organ at St. John’s on Tuesday, October 7, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. He will play selections composed by Johann Sebastian Bach and Felix Mendelssohn, and an original improvisation on submitted themes.
St. John’s Organ Society is pleased to host the 32nd Summer Recital Series on Maine’s largest 19th-Century mechanical-action pipe organ, E. & G. G. Hook’s magnificent Opus 288, at St. John’s Roman Catholic Church in Bangor. These hour-long recitals occur on Thursday evenings at 7:30. St. John’s Catholic Church is located at 207 York Street in Bangor. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.
Continue reading “Events”Your support of the St. John’s Organ Society is greatly appreciated. Your tax-deductible donation will enable us to continue and expand our efforts to share the beauties of E. & G. G. Hook’s Opus 288 through public concerts (Summer Organ Concert Series and a mid-winter International Artist Concert), education, and community outreach.
By Carlton Russell
In 1993, a year after being appointed Director of Music and Organist of St. John’s Catholic Church, Kevin Birch established the St. John’s Organ Society, an organization committed to the preservation and appreciation of the church’s beautiful and historic E. & G. G. Hook pipe organ, Op. 288 (1860). This large instrument was described by John Fesperman, Curator Emeritus of Musical Instruments at the Smithsonian Institution, as “a musical monument of great importance”, and by Alan Laufman, past president of the Organ Historical Society, as “a national treasure.”
Continue reading “About the St. John’s Organ Society”