St. John’s Organ Society is pleased to announce our 31st 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.
July 25 – Steven Young Taunton, MA Music of Gustav Adolf Merkel, Théodore Dubois, and Charles-Marie Widor
August 1 – Erica Johnson Walpole, MA Music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Josef Rheinberger, and Elizabeth Stirling
August 8 – Hentus van Rooyen Portland, ME Music of Johann Sebastian Bach, César Franck, and Herbert Howells
August 15 – Sarah Johnson New Haven, CT Music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Amy Beach, and Horatio Parker
August 22 – Duo Edelen Christina Scott Edelen (organ), Fred Edelen (cello) Bath, ME Music of Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Willem de Fesch
August 29 – Season Finale Anatole Wieck (violin), Sarah Hoskins (cello), Kevin Birch (organ) Bangor, Maine Music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Gabriel Fauré, and Josef Rheinberger
St. John’s Catholic Church is located at 207 York Street in Bangor. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.
On April 9, 2024, concert organist, Loreto Aramendi, performed music of Buxtehude, Alain, Liszt, Franck, Messiaen, and Duruflé on the historic organ at St. John’s Catholic Church (207 York St., Bangor). Aramendi is the organist of the Cavaillé-Coll organ (1863) of the Basilique of Santa María del Coro in San Sebastian, Spain.
2022 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of César Franck; and, accordingly, Dr. Birch organized “A Celebration of César Franck” consisting of three evening programs.
On October 10, we were gifted with a varied selection of Franck’s music, with only one solo organ piece – the Chorale No. 3 in A Minor – and only one piece not by Franck (an arrangement of Duparc’s L’invitation au voyage). Performers were Anatole Wieck, violin; Carmen Peralta, piano; Scott Burditt, horn; and Kevin Birch, organ and harmonium (a Parisian instrument dating – like Opus 288 – from 1860). We heard, among other music, the famous Panis Angelicus and the great Sonata in A Major for violin and piano.
October 11, the second Franck evening, featured Jonathan Moyer, organist, who opened with several pieces by Franck’s teacher, François Benoist, and – after music from Franck’s l’Organiste played by Dr. Birch on the French harmonium — closed with Franck’s magisterial Grande Pièce Symphonique, an expansive tone poem displaying the technique of thematic transformation so beloved by Romantic composers. As Dr. Moyer says in his concise and perceptive program notes: “[the work is] a narrative of striking transformation, leading both listener and performer on a poetic journey from epic struggle to triumphant apotheosis”.
The final Franck program, on October 12, was. preceded by Kevin Birch’s demonstration of the 1860 Parisian harmonium. Dana Robinson’s program included works by Lefébure-Wely and Gabriel Pierné, the latter a pupil of Franck and his successor at Ste. Clotilde. Especially interesting for organists were two Franck organ pieces that are not part of the 12 famous works: the Fantaisie in C Major, Op. 16, No. 1 (Franck’s first major organ piece) and the Andantino in G Minor (his first published organ work). Dana ended his recital with the Trois Pièces (1878), the last of which is the Pièce héroïque. As Dana writes in his notes: “. . . this is Franck’s most programmatic organ work, evoking struggle, hope, and triumph”. Dana’s brilliant performance of it brought the Franck celebration and the 2022 season to what was, indeed, a triumphant close.
St. John’s Organ Society is pleased to announce our 30th 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.
July 27:Joshua Ehlebracht (New Haven, CT)
August 3:Rosalind Mohnsen (Malden, MA)
August 10: Paul Griffin (organ) and Sophia Anastasi Griffin (soprano) (Washington, DC)
St. John’s Organ Society presents three evenings of organ and chamber music in honor of the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Belgian-born French composer, pianist, organist and teacher César Franck (1822-1890).
On Monday through Wednesday, October 10 – 12, a distinguished group of musicians will perform organ and chamber music by Franck, his teacher François Benoist, and related compositions of the period. All three recitals begin at 7:30pm* at St. John’s Catholic Church, 207 York Street in Bangor. Admission is free, and donations are appreciated.
Featured performers are organists Kevin Birch (St. John’s Organ Society), Jonathan Moyer (Oberlin Conservatory), Dana Robinson (University of Illinois), violinist Anatole Wieck (University of Maine), and pianist Carmen Peralta (Middlesex Community College).
Featured instruments include St. John’s E. & G. G. Hook Organ, Opus 288, (1860), Maine’s largest 19th-Century mechanical-action pipe organ, and a Parisian harmonium by Alexandre Père & Fils made in 1860.
Monday, October 10 – 7:30pm Music for Violin, Piano, Harmonium, Organ Featuring Anatole Wieck, violin; Carmen Peralta, piano; Kevin Birch, organ and harmonium César Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Piano(1886), Chorale No. 3 for Organ (1890), and related works E. & G. G. Hook Organ, Opus 288 (1860) and Harmonium by Alexandre Père & Fils (1860)
Tuesday, October 11 – 7:30pm Featuring Jonathan Moyer, organ César Franck’s monumental Grand Piece Symphonique and works of Franck’s teacher François Benoist (1794-1878) E. & G. G. Hook Organ, Opus 288 (1860) and Harmonium by Alexandre Père & Fils (1860)
Wednesday, October 12 – 7:30pm* Featuring Dana Robinson, organ César Franck’s Trois Pièces (1878) and related works for organ and harmonium E. & G. G. Hook Organ, Opus 288 (1860) and Harmonium by Alexandre Père & Fils (1860) *Join us for a special pre-concert demonstration of the Alexandre Père et Fils Harmonium (Paris 1860) by Kevin Birch, Executive Director – St. John’s Organ Society – on Wednesday, October 12, 6:45pm.
Performers
Kevin Birch began organ studies with Yuko Hayashi on the C. B. Fisk organ at Old West Church in 1979 and earned the Bachelor of Music Degree at New England Conservatory (with Distinction in Performance) in 1987.
Kevin Birch
He continued studies with Klaas Bolt at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and later with Delores Bruch at the University of Iowa where he earned the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. Since 1992 he has served as Director of Music at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor, Maine where he also serves as Executive Director of St. John’s Organ Society – a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and stewardship of E. & G. G. Hook’s Opus 288 built for St. John’s Church in 1860. Kevin is a member of the music faculty at the University of Maine’s School of the Performing Arts in Orono and serves on the Liturgical Commission for the Diocese of Portland. He has performed solo recitals in the US, Canada, Europe, and in South America, and for several national conventions of the Organ Historical Society. He is especially devoted to the many fine historic organs in Maine on which he enjoys frequent opportunities to study and perform.
Jonathan William Moyer is the David S. Boe chair and associate professor of organ at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and is organist of the Church of the Covenant in Cleveland, OH. He has also been a visiting-lecturer in organ at the Hochschule für Musik in Lübeck, Germany.
Jonathan Moyer
He specializes in a vast repertoire from the renaissance to the 21st century, and has performed throughout the United States, and in Europe and Japan. The Baltimore Sun has described his playing as “ever-expressive, stylish, and riveting.” Cleveland Classical.com said of Moyer’s playing, “It’s delightful to hear an organ recital where everything seems so right and the playing so much in the service of the instrument and the repertoire.”
Recent concerts include St. Jakobikirche (Lübeck), Marienkirche (Berlin), Ludgerikirche (Norden), Laurenskerk (Alkmaar), the Marktkirchethe (Hannover), Blois Cathedral (France), and J.S. Bach’s complete Clavierübung III at the German Reformed Church in Budapest, Hungary and in Loraine, Ohio. He has performed with numerous ensembles including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, the Oberlin Symphony Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland), Quire Cleveland, Concert Artists of Baltimore, and the Handel Choir of Baltimore.
At the Church of the Covenant, Dr. Moyer oversees two remarkable pipe organs (E.M. Skinner/Aeolian Skinner/Holtkamp and Richards Fowkes, Op. 19). His lauded CD “Voices of the Hanse,” recorded on the 1637 Stellwagen organ Lübeck, Germany, was released on Gothic Records and features music from 17th-century North German sources.
Dr. Moyers holds degrees in organ and piano from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the Peabody Institute of Music, and Bob Jones University. His teachers include Donald Sutherland, Gillian Weir, Olivier Latry, James David Christie, and Ann Schein. In 2008, he received the second prize in the Sixth International Musashino Organ Competition in Tokyo, Japan, and in 2005 he was a finalist in the St. Albans International Organ Competition. He is represented by WindWerk Artists.
Dr. Moyer resides in Shaker Heights, Ohio, along with his wife, organist, Dr. Kaori Hongo, and sons, Christopher Sho and Samuel Kazu.
For decades, organist Dana Robinson has created programs of the finest repertoire carefully chosen to capture the essence of each unique instrument he performs on. Described in The Diapason as “an “organists’ organist” with “faultless accuracy, rhythmic drive, and astounding musical sensitivity,” Dana has also been lauded in The Tracker for offering “the pièce de resistance of the evening . . . put[ting] heart and soul into the four movements of Widor’s monumental Symphonie Gothique.”
Dana Robinson
His credits include performances for the national conventions of the Organ Historical Society and the Westfield Center for Early Keyboard Studies, as well as for regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists. In duo concerts with Paul Tegels, Professor of Organ at Pacific Lutheran University, Dana explores repertoire by J. C. Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Saint-Saëns, among others. His recording of J. S. Bach’s Orgelbüchlein is available on the Arsis label, and his recent video recordings on a rare antique pedal piano of works by Robert Schumann can be viewed on the YouTube channel, “Dana Robinson Organist.”
As Associate Professor of Organ and Chairman of the Keyboard Area at the School of Music at the University of Illinois, Dana has taught students who have gone on to earn top honors at The National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance of the American Guild of Organists, the Shanghai Conservatory International Organ Competition, the Albert Schweitzer Competition, the Arthur Poister competition, and the Franz Schmidt International Competition (Austria.) Dana previously taught at Central College (Iowa) and Luther College. He has served as Organist and Choirmaster at Trinity Cathedral in Davenport, Iowa, and is currently Organist at Grace Lutheran Church in Champaign, Illinois.
Born in Latvia, Anatole Wieck received his first musical education in Riga and Moscow. In the United States since 1973, he studied violin and viola at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, where he completed his Doctorate in Musical Arts working closely with Ivan Galamian, Lillian Fuchs, and Paul Doktor. He also studied baroque interpretation with Carol Lieberman at Boston University. He plays baroque viola, viola d’amore and baroque violin.
Anatole Weick
Since 1986 Dr. Wieck has taught upper strings at the University of Maine and conducted the University of Maine Orchestra. He has performed and conducted in Europe, North and South America, and has participated in chamber music festivals such as Chamber Music/West (San Francisco), White Nights (St. Petersburg, Russia) and festivals in Montepulciano, Italy and Newport, Rhode Island. He was a Fulbright Senior Specialist in 2006 in Guatemala.
Carmen Rodríguez-Peralta, pianist, has appeared as piano soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Peru, and Mexico. As a winner of Artists International Young Musicians Auditions, she was presented in two solo recitals at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York. Of her debut, The New York Times review called her “a thoughtful musician; her playing was full of intelligence and poetry…a pianist well worth hearing.”
Carmen Peralta
Ms. Rodríguez-Peralta has performed at Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, Seiji Ozawa Hall in Tanglewood, and in the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago and Los Angeles. She has also given recitals throughout Peru, her father’s native country, under the auspices of the American Embassy. As a chamber musician, she frequently performs with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Her recordings include Teresa Carreño: Solo Piano and Chamber Works, her collaboration with cellist Luis Leguía in Music for Cello and Piano from South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean, and A Peruvian Sojourn: Music Inspired by Andean Indigenous Melodies, Rhythms, and Traditions, which was released by Albany Records in April 2022. Her upcoming album, featuring preludes and fugues for piano by Larry Bell, will be released in December.
Carmen Rodríguez-Peralta holds a Bachelor of Music from Temple University, a Master of Music from The Catholic University of America and a Post-Graduate Diploma from The Juilliard School. Her teachers include Maryan Filar, Ney Salgado, and Beveridge Webster. While at Juilliard she was the teaching assistant of American composer Vincent Persichetti. She is currently the Chair of the Music Department of Middlesex Community College in Bedford, MA and Director of A World of Music Concert Series.
Maine native Scott Burditt has been a public and private school music teacher for more than 35 years, working with students from grade 3 through college. Principal Horn and Personnel Manager for the Bangor Symphony, he is also Co-Principal Horn, Assistant Conductor and Librarian for the Bangor Band, and the Horn instructor at the University of Maine. He holds a Masters Degree in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Maine.
Scott Burditt
As a professional horn player, he has played with many of the performing groups in Maine, including the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Bangor Symphony, Maine State Music Theater, PORTopera Orchestra, the Maine State Ballet Orchestra, the Bowdoin International Music Festival Orchestra, college orchestras, brass quintets, woodwind quintets and community bands.
Dr. Gregory Crowell (Grand Rapids, MI) will perform a spring international concert on the historic E. & G. G. Hook organ, Opus 288 (1860) at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 at 7:30 pm. Crowell will perform music of J.S. Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, and Arthur Foote.
Dr. Gregory Crowell
Gregory Crowell is a Senior Affiliate Professor of Music at Grand Valley State University and the Director of Music at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has performed widely in Europe, Japan, and the United States as organist, harpsichordist, clavichordist, and conductor. He has been heard in live performance on WCRB in Boston, WGUC in Cincinnati, WFMT Chicago, Northwest German Radio, Belgian Public Radio, and NPM’s Pipedreams, and has recorded for the OHS and OgeeOgress labels. Crowell has lectured and published extensively on matters concerning organology and performance practice, and is the editor of Clavichord International. Dr. Crowell performs under the aegis of Independent Concert Artists.
St. John’s Catholic Church is located at 207 York Street in Bangor.
St. John’s Organ Society is pleased to announce our 29th 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.
Bridgette Wargovich
Bridgette Wargovich
Our opening concert (Thursday, July 28) features Bridgette Wargovich (Portland, ME) performing works of J. S. Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, and César Franck. Wargovich is Director of Sacred Music and Organist at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, Maine. A native of Massachusetts, she earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Organ Performance in 2018 and a Master of Sacred Music degree summa cum laude in 2014, both from Boston University. Her doctoral dissertation was entitled, “The King of Musical Instruments and the Spirit of the Liturgy: The Pipe Organ and Its Liturgical Repertoire Analyzed in Light of Ratzinger’s Theology of Liturgical Music.” The dissertation explored the theology of Pope Benedict XVI, linking his main themes to the pipe organ and its repertoire. Her principal organ teacher was Peter Sykes. Bridgette has a special love for sacred and liturgical music; she is dedicated to preserving and promoting this musical treasure.
Dr. Juan A. Mesa
Dr. Juan A. Mesa
On August 4, Dr. Juan A. Mesa (Norton, MA) performs music of J.S. Bach, Marcel Dupré, and Josef Rheinberger. A native of Puerto Montt in Chile, Mesaholds a Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance and composition from Western Connecticut State University, and both a Master of Music degree in organ performance and a PhD in Music Theory from Indiana University. His teachers include Stephen Roberts and Christopher Young in organ, Elisabeth Wright, harpsichord, and Todd Wilson and Jeffrey Smith, organ improvisation. Dr. Mesa has performed solo recitals across the US, Canada, Chile, and Argentina, and has collaborated with the Indiana-based Exordium Baroque Ensemble, the Choirs of Trinity Episcopal Church in Indianapolis, MYRIAM ensemble of Boston, and the University of Notre Dame’s Children’s Choir, among others. He is co-founder of Le Note Diverse, a Boston-based early music ensemble which specializes in under-represented music for plucked instruments and early keyboards. Dr. Mesa is an AGO Regional Competition for Young Organists’ first prize winner, and has performed organ concerts at regional and national AGO conventions and competitions. As a conductor, he specializes in historically-informed performances of baroque and early classical repertoire for voices and instruments, and has led projects including all-Bach and all-Buxtehude marathons. He is currently College Organist and Assistant Professor of Music Performance (organ) at Wheaton College in Norton, MA, as well as Music Minister at the Roslindale Congregational Church in Boston.
Sarah Johnson
Sarah Johnson
The August 11 concert features Sarah Johnson (Rochester, NY) performing music of John Knowles Paine, Jacques van Oortmerssen, and J. S. Bach. Johnson is a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music, where she studies with David Higgs. A native of Garland, Maine, Johnson began her organ lessons with Kevin Birch, organist and music director at Saint John’s Catholic Church in Bangor. In her undergraduate degree at Vassar College she studied organ with Gail Archer, and piano with Todd Crow. Johnson holds a Master of Sacred Music from Boston University, where she studied organ with Peter Sykes. Since beginning college, Johnson has performed in New York City at Central Synagogue, and in Boston at Old West, Trinity Copley, and Holy Name Parish. She was named an E. Power Biggs Fellow of the Organ Historical Society in 2013. Johnson was featured as a rising star and guest recitalist at the 2017 Musforum Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, and took part in a master class at Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. She recently performed at Methuen Memorial Music Hall in Methuen, MA on their 74th annual series. During her time in Boston, Johnson was Organ Scholar at Holy Name Parish in West Roxbury and Assistant Librarian at the Organ Library of the American Guild of Organists. In Rochester, Johnson was the Organ Assistant (VanDelinder Prize Winner) at Christ Church for the years 2018-2020. Johnson currently serves as Minister of Music at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Rochester.
Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson (Oberlin, OH) performs music of Felix Mendelssohn, Florence Price, and Ethel Smyth on August 18. Johnson is a senior in the organ department at Oberlin Conservatory, where she studies with Christa Rakich. She is enrolled in Oberlin’s double degree program, studying Organ Performance and English. Katherine currently serves as Organist and Music Director at Church of the Redeemer in Lorain, OH. Prior to taking this position, Katherine worked as Organ Scholar at Plymouth Church UCC in Shaker Heights, and before beginning at Oberlin, as the Cathee Jean Huber Organ Scholar at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Greenville, NC. In 2016, Katherine was awarded the first prize in the high school division of the Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition, and subsequently performed on the Winner’s Recital at the 2017 Schweitzer Festival. She has participated in a number of other competitions in the southeastern U.S., including the Quimby Regional Competition for Young Organists, the Greater Columbia AGO Competition, and the 2014 ECMAEF competition in Greenville, N.C. Katherine spent the summer of 2019 working as Organ Teaching Assistant at Interlochen Arts Camp, with Thomas Bara. Her former teachers are Phil Valera, Samantha Koch, and Andrew Scanlon.
Daniel Pyle and Catherine Bull
Daniel Pyle and Catherine Bull
The August 25 concert features Daniel Pyle (organ) and Catherine Bull (flute) (Bar Harbor, ME) performing music of Gabriel Fauré, Jehan Alain, César Franck, and J. S. Bach. Daniel Pyle is organist/music-director at St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church in Bar Harbor, artistic-director of the Acadia Choral Society, and harpsichordist and leader of the Baroque ensemble Harmonie Universelle. He has also conducted the annual performance of Handel’s Messiah for Blue Hill Bach in 2018 and 2019, and for the Congress of the the International Viola d’amore Society in 2016, 2018, and 2022. He was a student of Warren Hutton at the University of Alabama, of Gustav Leonhardt and Hans van Nieuwkoop at the Sweelinck Conservatorium of Amsterdam, and holds a doctoral degree from the Eastman School of Music.
Catherine Bull maintains an active career in both modern and historical flutes. She is the flutist in the ensemble Harmonie Universelle, and for 20 years was the principal flutist of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, as well as principal for the Southern Crescent Symphony Orchestra in Atlanta. For the National Flute Association she has presented workshops and recitals, and chaired and adjuicated national competitions. Her performances have been heard in Europe, England, the United States, on NPR’s Performance Today, at the Early Music Festivals of Utrecht, Boston, and Berkeley, and at the International Low Flutes Festival (including her own composition). A degree-holder from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the New England Conservatory, she was a Rotary Fellow for study in Belgium, where her primary teacher was Wilbert Hazelzet of Musica Antiqua Köln, and was awarded a fellowship by the King Baudouin Foundation to study with Frank Theuns.
Kevin Birch
Kevin Birch
Our season finale (September 1) features Kevin Birch (Bangor, ME) playing music of Dudley Buck, Arthur Foote, and Robert Schumann. Birch began organ studies with Yuko Hayashi on the C. B. Fisk organ at Old West Church in 1979 and earned the Bachelor of Music Degree at New England Conservatory (with Distinction in Performance) in 1987. He continued studies with Klaas Bolt at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and later with Delores Bruch at the University of Iowa where he earned the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. Since 1992 he has served as Director of Music at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor, Maine where he also serves as Executive Director of St. John’s Organ Society – a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and stewardship of E. & G. G. Hook’s Opus 288 built for St. John’s Church in 1860. Kevin is a member of the music faculty at the University of Maine’s School of the Performing Arts in Orono and serves on the Liturgical Commission for the Diocese of Portland. He has performed solo recitals in the US, Canada, Europe, and in South America, and for several national conventions of the Organ Historical Society. He is especially devoted to the many fine historic organs in Maine on which he enjoys frequent opportunities to study and perform.
We are grateful to our partner hotel, the Charles Inn.
St. John’s Organ Society is pleased to present concert and recording artist, Christa Rakich (Bloomfield, Connecticut), on the historic E. & G. G. Hook organ, Opus 288 (1860) at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor on Tuesday, November 9, 2021 at 7:30pm.
Christa Rakich
Rakich has performed widely throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. She currently serves as Visiting Professor of Organ at Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. Near her home in Connecticut, she maintains two Artist-in-Residencies: St. John’s Episcopal Church in West Hartford and the Congregational Church of Somers. Past Artist-in-Residencies have included the University of Pennsylvania and First Lutheran Church in Boston. As a Fulbright Scholar, Christa Rakich studied with renowned Bach interpreter Anton Heiller at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, Austria. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Organ and German from Oberlin College (Phi Beta Kappa). After receipt of her Master’s degree with honors from New England Conservatory, she joined the faculty there, where she taught for many years, serving ultimately as department co-chair. She has also served on the faculties at Westminster Choir College, Brandeis University, and the University of Connecticut, and as Assistant University Organist at Harvard.
An eager collaborator, Christa Rakich, with her colleague Susan Ferré, is a frequent performer at the Big Moose Bach Festival in New Hampshire. With flutist Wendy Rolfe and gambist Alice Robbins, she is a founding member of the Marion Baroque Ensemble, based in Massachusetts, and was for many years keyboardist for the Fanfare Consort, a Connecticut-based ensemble that included baroque trumpet, strings, lute, organ, and harpsichord.
Rakich also serves as Vice-President of the Boston Clavichord Society. One of her recent concerts for that organization included a performance of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony on 2 clavichords, with clavichordist Erica Johnson. With cellist Kathleen Schiano, Rakich commissioned and premiered Sonatas for Organ and Cello by Dutch composer Margaretha Christina de Jong and American James Woodman.
A prizewinner at international organ competitions, Rakich has received particular acclaim for her interpretations of the music of J.S. Bach. She has recorded his Clavierübung III, Leipzig Chorales, and Trio Sonatas. Other organ recordings include Deferred Voices: Organ Music by Women Composers, Transcriptions from St. Justin’s, Live from St. Mark’s Cathedral, From the Ashes: Richards-Fowkes Opus 21 in Somers, and A Tribute to Yuko Hayashi: Richards-Fowkes Opus 14 at Duke University.
For more information, and for free downloads of her compositions, please visit www.christarakich.com.
St. John’s Catholic Church is located at 207 York Street in Bangor.
St. John’s Organ Society is pleased to announce the 28th 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.
Jennifer McPherson
Our opening summer concert (Thursday, August 5) features Jennifer McPherson (Portsmouth, NH) performing works of J.S. Bach, Alexandre Guilmant, and Charles Tournemire. McPherson serves as Director of Music and Liturgy at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Portsmouth, NH, and holds degrees from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, and Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, OH. She has performed throughout the United States and Canada and has been awarded prizes in multiple competitions, including the International Organ Competition Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck in Amsterdam. A committed teacher of young musicians, Ms. McPherson is co-director of The Choir School at St. John’s, an after-school tuition-free music program for children grades 3-8. She also serves on the faculty and the board of the Young Organist Collaborative, an outreach program of St. John’s Portsmouth.
Jeremy Thompson
On August 12 Jeremy Thompson (Charlottesville, VA) performs music of J.S. Bach, Eugène Gigout, and Franz Liszt. Thompson was born in Dipper Harbour, a small fishing village in New Brunswick, Canada, and studied piano with Marina Mdivani (a student of Emil Gilels) and organ with Dr. John Grew. He earned a Doctorate of Music in performance from McGill University holding two of Canada’s most prestigious doctoral fellowships. He has performed extensively throughout North America appearing with orchestras and in solo and chamber music settings, and has completed three tours to the former Soviet Union. Thompson enjoys performing music from all eras, and specializes in highly virtuosic repertoire. He has recorded a 2 CD set of the organ music of Karl Höller on the Raven CD label and several CDs of piano music.
Erica Johnson
The August 19 concert features Erica Johnson (Walpole, MA) celebrating music of female composers for the organ, including Cécile Chaminade, Florence Price and Ethel Smyth. Johnson is the College Organist and Instructor of Organ and Harpsichord at Wellesley College and Director of Liturgy and Music at Sacred Heart Parish in Newton Center, MA. Erica is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, Oberlin College, New England Conservatory, and the Eastman School of Music (DMA), studying with Haskell Thomson, William Porter and Hans Davidsson. As a grant recipient of the Beebe Fund for Musicians she studied an additional two years at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, Germany, with Harald Vogel. Her years in Germany yielded two honors: the 2004 International Arp Schnitger Prize awarded by the Arp Schnitger Gesellschaft, and the 2002 NDR Musikpreis. More recently she has presented programs for the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies and the Göteborg International Organ Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden.
George Bozeman
George Bozeman (Deerfield, NH) performs music of J.S. Bach on August 26. A native of Texas, Bozeman studied with Dr. Helen Hewitt at the University of North Texas. He apprenticed as an organbuilder with Otto Hofmann in Austin, Texas, and later worked with Robert L. Sipe in Dallas. In 1967 he received a Fulbright Grant to Austria where he studied with Anton Heiller and Isolde Ahlgrimm. He worked with Fritz Noack in Andover, Massachusetts before starting his own firm in Lowell. With partner David Gibson and later as sole owner his firm completed projects in some 20 states across the nation – including the 1981 restoration of E. & G. G. Hook’s Opus 288 at St. John’s in Bangor. He has maintained a church music career throughout and is director of music at the First Congregational Church in Pembroke, New Hampshire. He has played recitals across the United States and in Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, Germany, and France.
Anatole Wieck and Kevin Birch
Our Season Finale (September 2) features Kevin Birch with Anatole Wieck, violin (Bangor, ME) performing works of J.S. Bach, Heinrich Biber and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. Birch began organ studies with Yuko Hayashi on the C. B. Fisk organ at Old West Church in 1979 and earned the Bachelor of Music Degree at New England Conservatory (with Distinction in Performance) in 1987. He continued studies with Klaas Bolt at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and later with Delores Bruch at the University of Iowa where he earned the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. Since 1992 he has served as Director of Music at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor, Maine where he also serves as Executive Director of St. John’s Organ Society – a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and stewardship of E. & G. G. Hook’s Opus 288 built for St. John’s Church in 1860. Kevin is a member of the music faculty at the University of Maine’s School of the Performing Arts in Orono and serves on the Liturgical Commission for the Diocese of Portland. He has performed solo recitals in the US, Canada, Europe, and in South America, and for several national conventions of the Organ Historical Society. He is especially devoted to the many fine historic organs in Maine on which he enjoys frequent opportunities to study and perform.
Born in Latvia, Anatole Wieck received his first musical education in Riga and Moscow. In the United States since 1973, he studied violin and viola at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, where he completed his Doctorate in Musical Arts working closely with Ivan Galamian, Lillian Fuchs, and Paul Doktor. He also studied baroque interpretation with Carol Lieberman at Boston University. He plays baroque viola, viola d’amore and baroque violin. Since 1986 Dr. Wieck has taught upper strings at the University of Maine and conducted the University of Maine Orchestra. He has performed and conducted in Europe, North and South America, and has participated in chamber music festivals such as Chamber Music/West (San Francisco), White Nights (St. Petersburg, Russia) and festivals in Montepulciano, Italy and Newport, Rhode Island. He was a Fulbright Senior Specialist in 2006 in Guatemala.
We are grateful to our partner hotel, the Charles Inn.
