St. John’s Organ Society is pleased to present German organist, composer and theologian Gunter Kennel on the historic E. & G. G. Hook organ, Opus 288 (1860) at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor on Tuesday, October 1, 2019 at 7:30pm.
Kennel’s program is inspired by Bach’s great “Organ Mass” and includes settings of related chorales by Max Reger and a group of his own newly-composed works. The program will be framed by Bach’s magisterial Prelude and Fugue in E-Flat Major.
Kennel is a leading organist in Germany and has performed and recorded on important instruments throughout Europe and in North America.
We are delighted to welcome him back to Bangor!
St. John’s Catholic Church is located at 207 York Street in Bangor.
St. John’s Organ Society is pleased to announce the 27th 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.
Choeur d’Enfants d’Ile-de-France
July 18 Choeur d’Enfants d’Ile-de-France(Levallois, France) (choral concert with organ) Music Director & Conductor: Prof. Francis Bardot
This is the 26th tour of Prof. Francis Bardot to the U.S.A. with the Choeur d’Enfants d’Ile de France, a children’s choir of boys and girls from Levallois, France. St. John’s Catholic Church is pleased to host this choir’s concert on Thursday, July 18, at 7:30 pm. The choir will perform a cappella sacred music of French and German composers along with selections with piano and organ accompaniment. Prof. Bardot has made numerous well-received recordings with his choirs.
Daniel Pyle
July 25 Daniel Pyle (Bar Harbor, Maine) with Elena Krainerva, vioal d’amore (Indianapolis, Indiana) The summer concerts continue on July 25 and feature Daniel Pyle from Bar Harbor, Maine with Elena Kraineva from Indianapolis, Indiana playing viola d’amore. Pyle is performing music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Matthias Weckmann, and Frank Martin
Daniel Pyle is Organist/Music-Director for the St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church in Bar Harbor ME, and Musical Director of the ensemble Harmonie Universelle. In 2018 he conducted Handel’s Messiah for the Blue Hill Bach Festival, and for the spring of 2019 he is Guest Director for the Acadia Choral Society. Dr. Pyle plays harpsichord for the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, and he played regularly with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra as harpsichordist and organist. His solo recording, The Maiden’s Songe: Elizabethan music on the lautenwerk, was released in 1994 on the Gasparo label. He received his training as an organist and harpsichordist at the University of Alabama from Warren Hutton and at the Eastman School of Music, from the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam where he studied with Gustav Leonhardt and Hans van Nieuwkoop, and the class of Kenneth Gilbert at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana. Dr. Pyle was one of the five founders of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, its harpsichordist from 1997 to 2014, and its Resident Director 2003-2011. And he has taught organ, harpsichord, and music history at the University of Kansas, the Louisiana State University, and Clayton State University; he has also taught masterclasses in Atlanta and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK.
Elena Kraineva
Elena Kraineva holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Indiana University, where she studied with Atar Arad and Stanley Ritchie. She actively performs internationally as a soloist on viola and viola d’amore and Baroque violist with various chamber music groups, including Harmonie Universelle, the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Musical Offering, Duo Vitruviani, Ensemble Hesperides. Ms. Kraineva studied with Michael Terian at the Moscow Conservatory and holds her Bachelor of Music degree from the Glinka Conservatory. She is a winner of several competitions including the Moscow Viola Competition, and performed solo recitals in the Grand Hall of the Gnesin Institute and the Glinka Museum. She was a concertmistress with the Moscow Ensemble of Violists.
Andrew Scanlon
August 1 Andrew Scanlon (Greenville, North Carolina) The season continues on August 1 with a concert by Andrew Scanlon from Greenville, North Carolina. Scanlon will perform music of Felix Mendelssohn, Georg Böhm, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Ludwig Krebs, Jean Langlais, Harrison Oxley, and Henry Smart.
A native of Methuen, Massachusetts, Andrew Scanlon has been a professor in the keyboard faculty at East Carolina University since 2009, where he directs the graduate and undergraduate programs in organ and sacred music. In addition, he is the organist & choirmaster at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Greenville, NC and artistic director of East Carolina Musical Arts Education Foundation. From 2005—2009 Andrew served as organ faculty at Duquesne University, and previously held positions at Christ & St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church (New York), St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral (Buffalo), First Presbyterian Church (Pittsburgh) and Marquand Chapel at Yale Divinity School. A frequent performer at the organ, Scanlon has performed at national conventions of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) and the Organ Historical Society. He is in frequent demand as a clinician and workshop presenter, having presented sessions for AGO conventions in Boston and Richmond, as well as teaching and performing at courses for the Royal School of Church Music in Charlotte and in Nigeria. Scanlon has given recitals throughout North America, Europe, and Africa, performing in some of the world’s most significant religious venues such as The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, (New York), Notre-Dame Cathedral, The American Cathedral and La Trinité Church (Paris) and other venues in England, Italy, Germany, Canada and Croatia. Actively involved in the AGO, Andrew Scanlon holds the Fellowship diploma (FAGO), has been a faculty member for three Pipe Organ Encounters, and serves on both the National Board of Examiners and the Committee on Professional Certification. He is a graduate of Duquesne University and both the Institute of Sacred Music and School of Music at Yale University. His most recent CD recording, Solemn and Celebratory, featuring the Fisk organ at St. Paul’s in Greenville, was released in 2013. The Organists’ Review (UK, June 2014) called Scanlon’s playing on this recording “stately,” “well measured,” and “exemplary”; and The Diapason (Feb. 2015) describes it as “beautifully realized,” stating that “both performer and organ seem to excel in [the] French Romantic repertoire.” Andrew’s principal teachers have been John Skelton, Ann Labounsky, David Craighead, John Walker, and Thomas Murray.
Laurent Jochum
August 8 Laurent Jochum (Paris, France) The next concert on August 8 features Laurent Jochum from Paris, France, who will perform music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, and César Franck.
Holder of the great Cavaille-Col organ of the Saint Jean Baptiste church in Belleville, Paris, where he succeeds great musicians like Pierre Vidal; and, holder of the organ of the middle and high school chapel Saint Louis-de-Gonzague, Jochum has had a particularly eclectic career for over twenty years.
A native of Thionville, as the son and grandson of liturgical organists, he discovered the organ from an early age. He began his musical studies by learning the piano before joining the organ class of Raphaëlle Garreau de Labarre. He continued his studies with André Stricker at the Conservatory of Strasbourg and Louis Robilliard in Lyon, where he won a unanimous first prize with congratulations and a first prize for improvement.
He is completing and enriching his training with renowned professors such as Vincent Warnier, Jean-Charles Ablitzer, Jean Boyer and Thierry Escaich.
He won several competitions, including the International Organ Competition of Lorraine; and, in 1999, the Angers Inter-Conservatory Grand Organ Award, recently renamed the Jean-Louis Florentz-Académie des Beaux-Arts Prize, which was awarded by a jury chaired by Thierry Escaich.
Since Jochum performs regularly, in recital or with various instrumental and vocal formations, in France and abroad. He has played at prestigious venues in Paris (Cathedrale Notre-Dame, Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, La Madeleine, Saint Clotilde) and Province.
He is regularly the guest of great festivals such as Bordeaux, Guîtres, Saint Rémy-de-Provence, Roquevaire, Saint-Malo, Thionville, Saint Betrand of Commingres and others. Abroad, he has been invited to the Czech Republic, Poland, England, Switzerland, Greece, Italy, Azerbaijan, Oman, as well as to Luxembourg, Canada, and the United States. He is also invited to participate in inaugural concerts and performs with renowned artists; including, the organist Vincent Warnier, the violinist Marina Chiche, the soprano Fabrice di Falco, the baritone Philippe Brocard, and choir soloist of the French army.
His dual training in piano and organ led him to be accompany the singers of Saint-Marc under the direction of Nicolas Porte; and then, the choir of the French army in 2000. Currently, he accompanies the master Saint Louis de Gonzague de Sophie Chiu and the choirs of Francis Bardot (choir of children, young choir and vocal ensemble of Ile-de-France), which leads him to perform in very beautiful orchestras (Orchestra Colonne, Orchestra Bel’Arte).
Holder of a CAPES of Musicology, he is keen to devote a part of his musical life to a Parisian middle school, where he implements projects and initiatives for the youngest music learners.
Served by an excellent technique, his repertoire extends from baroque music to contemporary masterpieces, through the romantic and symphonic music of the 19th century, whose recordings have been critically acclaimed.
Sarah Johnson
August 15 Sarah Johnson (Rochester, New York) The 27th summer season continues on August 15 with Sarah Johnson of Rochester, New York. Johnson will perform music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, and Josef Gabriel Rheinberger.
Sarah Johnson is a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts 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, where she was featured as a recitalist on the 26th annual Summer Organ Concert Series. In her undergraduate degree at Vassar College she studied organ with Gail Archer, and piano with Todd Crow. Sarah 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 recently took part in a master class at Aspen Music Festival in Colorado.
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. She currently serves as the Organ Assistant (VanDelinder Prize Winner) at Christ Church in Rochester, and is Festival Coordinator for the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative.
Abraham Ross
August 22 Abraham Ross (Durham, North Carolina) The August 22 concert features Abraham Ross of Durham, North Carolina. His recital comprises works of Eugene Thayer, Dudley Buck, and John Knowles Paine, as well as the first chorale in E major of César Franck.
Abraham Ross draws inspiration both from the rich organ repertory and the range of instruments required to perform it, seeking out intersections between artists, philosophies, and societies of the past and those of today. His formative organ studies took place in his hometown of Bangor, Maine on the historic 1860 organ by E. & G.G. Hook, an experience that inspired him to take up the instrument as a career. As he transitions from a year-long appointment at Duke University Chapel to Montreal for doctoral studies in organ at McGill, Ross will present a program on the organ where he first studied with Kevin Birch.
Kevin Birch
August 29 Kevin Birch (Bangor, Maine) The final concert of the 27th summer season features Kevin Birch of Bangor, Maine performing music of Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann and Dudley Buck.
Kevin Birch holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Iowa with previous studies at New England Conservatory in Boston and the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. 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. He 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, South America and for several national conventions of the Organ Historical Society.
NOTED ORGANIST FROM
THE NETHERLANDS TO PLAY CONCERT IN BANGOR, MAY 7, 2019 AT 7:30 PM
St. John’s Organ Society is pleased to announce that Tjeerd van der Ploeg, church musician, recitalist, improviser, and recording artist, will play a concert on the historic organ at St. John’s Catholic Church (207 York St.) on Tuesday, May 7, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. Van der Ploeg is the organist at St. Christoforuskerk in Schagen, Netherlands. He will perform music of Josef Rheinberger, Max Reger and Herbert Howells.
Tjeerd van der Ploeg
Tjeerd van der Ploeg
studied organ under Piet Post (1919-1979), Jan Jongepier (1941-2011) and
Jacques van Oortmerssen (1950-2015). He completed his organ studies in 1985 by obtaining
the soloist diploma at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, Netherlands. He is organist of St. Christoforuskerk in
Schagen, Netherlands, and a frequent recitalist and improvisor. His many CD recordings have been widely
acclaimed. They include music by Herbert Howells (1892-1983), recorded at St Christoforuskerk,
Schagen (Nicholson organ, 1882) and Selby Abbey (Great Britain); and Charles
Tournemire (1870-1939), recorded at St. Pierre, Douai (France), Notre Dame de
Grâce, Cambrai (France) and Notre Dame d’Auteuil, Paris (France). Lately he
recorded ‘Dritter Teil der Clavier Übung’ from J.S. Bach at the historic
Garrels organ at Purmerend (Netherlands).
Van der Ploeg has published articles on Herbert Howells, Charles Tournemire, the Spanish composers Francisco Correa de Arauxo (1584-1654) and Pablo Bruna (1611-1679) and Gregorian Chant. He was awarded the silver medal by the Société Académique ‘Arts, Sciences et Lettres’ for his services to French organ music.
The
May 7th program continues the tradition of an annual concert by an
internationally recognized recitalist on the historic E. & G. G. Hook
organ, Opus 288, at St. John’s Catholic Church. Hook’s Opus 288, the largest 19th-Century
pipe organ in northern New England, has been described by Alan Laufman (past
president of the Organ Historical Society) as “…a national treasure.”
St. John’s Catholic Church is located at 207 York Street in Bangor. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.
Jacques Boucher, organist, and Anne Robert, violinist
Many thanks to Jacques Boucher (organ) and Anne Robert (violin) for sharing such a brilliant concert on May 8! Thanks also to our dedicated Board of Directors, to our fine team of volunteers, to our wonderful audience, and to all who support the work of St. John’s Organ Society.
St. John’s Organ Society is pleased to welcome Canadian duo Jacques Boucher and Anne Robert on Tuesday, May 8, 2018 at 7:30 p.m at St. John’s Catholic Church, 207 York Street in Bangor. Boucher will play the historic E. & G. G. Hook organ, Opus 288, and Robert will play her 1738 Carlo Antonio Testore violin. They will perform music of Albinoni, Gounod, Rheinberger, and Bèdard.
Boucher, an organist and a music broadcaster, has recorded extensively and has concertized in Canada, Europe, the United States, Bermuda, Mexico, and South America. He is principal organist of the Sanctuaire du Saint-Sacrement and the titular organist of the Saint-Jean- Baptiste church in Montreal.
Robert is an active chamber musician who regularly plays in Canada, Europe, Asia, and the United States. She has recorded extensively with a particular affinity for French music. She teaches at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal and at the summer academy of the Orford Arts Center.
The May 8th program continues the tradition of an annual concert by an internationally recognized recitalist on the historic E. & G. G. Hook organ, Opus 288, at St. John’s Catholic Church. Hook’s Opus 288, the largest 19th -Century pipe organ in northern New England, has been described by Alan Laufman (past president of the Organ Historical Society) as “…a national treasure.”
St. John’s Catholic Church is located at 207 York Street in Bangor. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated and will benefit outreach and education projects of St. John’s Organ Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and stewardship of the historic E. & G. G. Hook Organ built in 1860.
St. John’s Organ Society is pleased to announce the 26th 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 19 Wolfgang Reisinger (Vienna, Austria) The season opens on July 19th featuring Wolfgang Reisinger of Vienna, Austria performing music of Georg Muffat, Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schmidt, and his own improvisations.
Wolfgang Reisinger
Organist Wolfgang Reisinger (b. 1964 in Vienna) studied Church Music and Organ Performance at the Universities of Vienna and Kansas. He has also received doctorates in Organ Performance and Musicology. Wolfgang has led numerous Sacred Music Conferences in Austria and abroad and teaches organ and improvisation at the Vienna Church Music Conservatory. Between 2001 and 2003 he served as Director of Music at the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas. He has played concerts in most European countries, recently also at Notre-Dame de Paris, in the US, China, Russia, and Korea. He is also active as composer of church music and has received many commissions, especially for choral compositions. More information about him can be found at www.wolfgang-reisinger.org.
July 26 Francien Janse-Balzer (Weener, Germany) The 26thseason of summer concerts continues on July 26 with Francien Janse-Balzer of Weener, Germany, who will perform a program of Dutch composers like Klaas Bolt and Jacques van Oortmerssen. She and Kevin Birch will also play music of Bach and Mozart for four hands, arranged by Dutch musicians.
Francien Janse-Balzer
Francien Janse-Balzer, born 1959 in Zutphen/Netherlands, studied church organ in Amsterdam with Klaas Bolt from 1977 to 1981. She continued her studies with Jacques van Oortmerssen and got her concert diploma in 1984. Furthermore she studied chamber music at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris.
From 1982 to 1993 she worked as a teacher for organ, piano and music theory at the Emsland Music school in Papenburg, Germany. Besides her teaching she continued her various activities as a concert and chamber musician.
In Weener, Germany she holds since the 1980’s a position as church musician and leader of the church choir at the local Lutheran church, and a position as an organist at the Arp- Schnittger-Organ of the local reformed church. She is also chairman of the promotion circle for the Organeum in Weener, an international acclaimed museum for organs and historic keyboard instruments.
Francien Janse-Balzer has in recent years given numerous recitals and made CD recordings as an organist, her musical repertoire reaches from early music to contemporary and jazz.
August 2 Abraham Ross (Oberlin, Ohio) The season continues on August 2 with Abraham Ross of Oberlin, Ohio, who will perform music of Amy Beach, Rolande Falcinelli, and Joan Tower.
Abraham Ross
Abraham Ross performs regularly as a soloist and an ensemble player with special interests in early music and twentieth-century repertoire. In May 2018, he graduated with a Master of Music in Historical Performance at Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied organ with Jonathan Moyer and harpsichord with Mark Edwards. During his time in Oberlin, he served as Music Intern at Church of the Covenant in Cleveland, where he assisted in accompanying liturgies, conducting the Children’s and Chancel choirs, and engaging the local community with diverse musical offerings.
Abe commenced his study of organ with Kevin Birch at St John’s RCC in Bangor, Maine, playing the church’s 1860 E. G. & G. Hook organ. During this time, he developed an appreciation and a passion for historical instruments and early music. He went on to study as Organ at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. During this time, he studied under James David Christie, conducted research in early keyboard repertory, and performed throughout the Northeast.
Abe has been fortunate to encounter abundant opportunities for musical study and performance. In 2014, he was awarded a Mellon Grant to study seventeenth-century music with Francesco Cera in Rieti, Italy. A summer of study and research culminated in a presentation of Frescobaldi’s Messa della Madonna and the corresponding plainchantwithin a liturgy at Holy Cross. He went on to win first place in the Boston Chapter of the AGO’s Quimby Competition in 2015. Abe’s recent performance highlights include appearances at Universidad del Salvador (Buenos Aires, Argentina), First Church of Christ Scientist (Concord, NH), and Mechanics Hall (Worcester, MA). Abe looks forward to joining David Harris and the staff at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles this summer, where he will fill in as summer interim organist. Next fall, he will join the Chapel Music Program at Duke University, serving as an organ scholar for the 2018-19 academic year.
August 9 Susan Ferré (Gorham, New Hampshire) The season continues on August 9 with Susan Ferré of Gorham, New Hampshire, who will perform music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Ludwig Krebs, Josef Rheinberger, Charles Tournemire and Fanny Mendelssohn.
Susan Ferré
Susan Ferré has spent the last ten years directing a non-profit organization, Music in the Great North Woods, which sponsors, free of charge, classical concerts and organ scholarships in New Hampshire’s North Country. She serves St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Berlin, NH, as Organist and Director of Music, and has recently been elected Dean of the NH Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. She has performed widely in Europe, Scandinavia, Brazil, Canada, and throughout the United States. She has served the faculties of Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA, Southern Methodist University, Perkins School of Theology, University of North Texas and the University of Paris at Vincennes. For more than twenty years Ferré directed the Texas Baroque Ensemble, an original instrument ensemble with 16 singers. She holds degrees from Texas Christian University, the Eastman School of Music, University of North Texas, and was a Fulbright Scholar to Paris, where she received the Diplome d’Orgue et Improvisation from the Schola Cantorum in 1969. She has received honors for her contributions to early music from the University of North Texas and recently from Perkins School of Theology in Dallas. Her numerous recordings have received glowing critical reviews as well as a Gold GrIndie Award for creativity and accessibility.
August 16 Sarah Johnson (Boston, Massachusetts) The season continues on August 16 with Sarah Johnson of Boston, Massachusetts, who will perform music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Nicolaus Bruhns and Pamela Decker.
Sarah Johnson
Sarah Johnson holds a Master of Sacred Music from Boston University, where she studied organ with Peter Sykes. She currently serves as Organ Scholar at Holy Name Parish in West Roxbury, and as Assistant Librarian at the Organ Library of the American Guild of Organists.
A native of Garland, Maine, Sarah began her organ lessons with Kevin Birch, organist and music director at Saint John’s Catholic Church in Bangor, where she was featured as a recitalist on the 23rdSummer Organ Concert Series. In her undergraduate degree at Vassar College she studied organ with Gail Archer, and piano with Todd Crow. Since beginning college she has performed in New York City at Central Synagogue, and in Boston at Old West, Trinity Copley, and Holy Name Parish. She placed second in the 2015 Eastern NY region of the AGO’s Regional Competition for Young Organists and in the 2017 Boston chapter of the RCYO. Sarah was featured as a rising star and guest recitalist at the 2017 Musforum Conference in Omaha, Nebraska.
Past positions Sarah has held include Choral Conducting Intern at First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Poughkeepsie, NY, and Resident Organ Intern on Squirrel Island, ME. She has attended the Summer Organ Institute at Westminster Choir College in New Jersey and was named an E. Power Biggs Fellow of the Organ Historical Society in 2013. Sarah is a member of both the Organ Historical Society and the American Guild of Organists.
Sarah will attend the Eastman School of Music in the fall to pursue a Doctor of Musical Arts in Organ Performance under the direction of David Higgs.
August 23 William Porter (Rochester, New York) The season continues on August 23 with William Porter of Rochester, New York, who will present an evening of improvisations on this spectacular organ.
William Porter
Widely known as a performer in the United States and in Europe, William Porterhas also achieved international recognition for his skill in improvisation in a wide variety of styles, ancient and modern.
Recently retired as Professor of Organ, Harpsichord, and Improvisation (2002-2013) at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, he has also been a member of the faculty of music at McGill University in Montreal, where he lived from 2004 until fall of 2015. He has also taught at Yale University, New England Conservatory, and Oberlin College.
He has performed at major international festivals and academies, and has recorded on historic instruments, old and new, for the Gasparo, Proprius, BMG, and Loft labels. Now residing in Rochester, New York, he has returned to the Eastman School of Music as part-time Professor of Organ.
August 30 Season Finale – Opus 288 & Friends Anna Maria Baeza – clarinet Kevin Birch – organ Anatole Wieck – violin Joachim Woitun – violoncello
The season finale is August 30 and features Opus 288 & Friends: Anna Maria Baeza – clarinet (Brooklyn, NY), Kevin Birch – organ (Bangor, ME), Anatole Wieck – violin (Bangor, ME), and Joachim Woitun – violoncello (Brooklyn, NY) performing the Suite for Organ, Violin, and Cello by Josef Rheinberger, Opus 149.
Anna Maria Baeza (photo by Frank Von Ripe), Kevin Birch, Anatole Wieck, & Joachim Woitun (photo by Frank Von Ripe)
Anna Maria Baeza, Clarinetist, is an active solo and chamber musician who has performed in recital throughout North America and Europe. Baeza has been a member of multiple orchestras and has participated in many music festivals. Baeza holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in clarinet from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Master and Bachelor of Music degrees from the University of Southern California.
Baeza teaches clarinet and chamber music, and conducts the Chamber Orchestra at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, NY. She also teaches clarinet at the Third Street Music School Settlement in Manhattan. In the summer, she teaches adult amateurs at SummerKeys in Lubec, Maine, and will be heard at the Winter Harbor Music Festival this August, 2018.
Kevin Birch holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Iowa with previous studies at New England Conservatory in Boston and the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. 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. He 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, South America and for several national conventions of the Organ Historical Society.
Anatole Wiecis a professor of music and conducts the orchestra at the University of Maine. He earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Julliard School where he studied violin and viola. Wieck has taught, performed and conducted in Europe, Asia, and North, Central, and South America and has participated in chamber music festivals throughout the world.
Joachim Woitun studied cello at the Richard Strauss Konservatorium and the Hochschule fuer Musik in Munich, Germany. Woitun earned his MA degree from Queens College, The City University of New York, studying cello, baroque performance practice, chamber music, and contemporary music.
Woitun has been a soloist with multiple orchestras. He can be heard regularly as a recitalist in New York City and in Downeast Maine, where he has performed at Bay Chamber Concerts in Machias, at SummerKeys in Lubec and at Fog Fest as part of the Roosevelt Estate on Campobello Island.
Woitun teaches at the Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, as well as at the United Nations International School in Manhattan. In addition to maintaining an active private studio in Brooklyn, New York, he has been on the faculty of SummerKeys in Lubec, Maine since 2006.
We are grateful to our partner hotel, the Charles Inn.
The Maine Historic Organ Institute – A Note of Thanks
On behalf of the Board of Directors of St. John’s Organ Society, my deep thanks to all who contributed to the success of the Maine Historic Organ Institute — concerts, master classes, lectures, and a tour of notable organs by E. & G.G. Hook, Hook & Hastings and George Stevens — which took place October 24-28, 2017.
We are deeply grateful to the congregations and other interested persons for their stewardship of these historic organs. Special thanks to Fr. Frank J. Murray, pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Parish, for his support and encouragement. Thanks also to our visiting faculty and contributors for sharing their teaching, performances and presentations. Thanks to the Organ Historical Society and to the Bangor Chapter of the American Guild of Organists for their cooperation and support, and to Len Levasseur and Monique Bouchard for their beautiful photography and design work. Particular thanks to Barbara Owen, Stephen Pinel and David Wallace for sharing their recent researches on organs of E. & G. G. Hook, Hook & Hastings and George Stevens in the State of Maine. We are especially grateful to organ builders George Bozeman, Robert Newton and Andover Organ Co., David Wallace and Nicholas Wallace, and to all who have worked with them, for their many years of dedication to these beautiful pipe organs and their expertise in caring for them.
Special thanks to the fine student performers who shared a wonderful concert during the Institute!
May this week of study and exploration continue to inform, inspire and energize our efforts to better understand, preserve and promote these cultural treasures.
Kevin Birch Executive Director St. John’s Organ Society
A benefit for St. John’s Organ Society in Celebration of our 25th Anniversary
October 24-28, 2017
St. John’s Organ Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and appreciation of E. & G. G. Hook’s magnificent Opus 288 (1860) at St. John’s Roman Catholic Church, Bangor
Concerts, lectures, master classes, and a guided tour of extraordinary 19th-century pipe organs by E. & G. G. Hook and George Stevens in beautiful Maine
Experience the essence of New England, fall foliage, Maine history and culture, and charming accommodations in Historic Downtown Bangor
Faculty: Kevin Birch – University of Maine Margaret Harper – University of Southern Maine School of Music Christian Lane – Boston Organ Studio Jonathan Moyer – Oberlin College Conservatory of Music Dana Robinson – University of Illinois
Contributors: George Bozeman – Deerfield, New Hampshire A. David Moore – North Pomfret, Vermont Bob Newton – Methuen, Massachusetts Barbara Owen – Newburyport, Massachusetts Stephen Pinel – East Windsor, New Jersey Carlton & Lorna Russell – Stockton Springs, Maine David Wallace – Gorham, Maine Nick Wallace – Gorham, Maine James Woodman – Cambridge, Massachusetts
Maine Historic Organ Institute Faculty and Contributors
FACULTY
Kevin Birch holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Iowa with previous studies at New England Conservatory in Boston and the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam.
Kevin Birch
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. He 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, South America and for several national conventions of the Organ Historical Society.
Organist Margaret Harper has performed across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Croatian newspaper Glas Slavonije writes, “The freezing cold of a January evening dominated the cathedral in Djakovo, but it could not diminish the richness and warmth of sound brought out of the cathedral organ by Margaret Harper.” Margaret is the Director of Music and Liturgy at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Portsmouth, NH, as well as the Director of the Choir School at St. John’s.
Margaret Harper
This Fall, she joins the faculty of the University of Southern Maine School of Music as Artist Faculty in Organ and Harpsichord. She is also on the faculty and the board of the Young Organist Collaborative and is Artistic Director of the chamber music series Concerts on the Hill. She has presented academic papers at national and regional conferences of the American Bach Society and the American Guild of Organists, and in 2016 was the keynote speaker at the Around the Mountain Organ and Choral Festival. Margaret holds a DMA and a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. Her primary teachers include William Porter, David Higgs, Michel Bouvard, Edoardo Bellotti, and Edward Zimmerman. She was a stipendiate at the 2012 Arp Schnitger International Organ Competition. In the same year, she was the inaugural recipient of the James B. Cochran Prize, which is awarded annually for the best organ degree recital at the Eastman School of Music. In 2014, she was a semifinalist in the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance.
Winner of the 2011 Canadian International Organ Competition and director of Boston Organ Studio, Christian Lane is one of America’s most accomplished, respected and dynamic concert organists and pedagogues. He is a frequent recitalist throughout North America and Great Britain.
Christian Lane
As founding director of Boston Organ Studio, Christian Lane cultivates the largest private organ studio in the United States. Committed to supporting his profession, Mr. Lane has served in several leadership roles within the American Guild of Organists, most notably as national vice-president from 2014–16; he currently serves on the board of the Old West Organ Society and as programming chair for the 2017 Montréal Organ Festival. An avid proponent of new music, he has commissioned and premiered works of Nico Muhly and Carson Cooman, among others. Christian Lane holds degrees from Yale University and the Eastman School of Music, and has served in many notable positions, including at Harvard University and Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue (New York). Critical acclaim welcomed his two solo recordings, and he is featured on many further discs as choral accompanist. Mr. Lane currently serves as Director of Music at All Saints Episcopal Parish, Brookline, Mass. and in similar capacity for the chapel of Tufts University. He is represented by Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc.
Jonathan William Moyer is an assistant professor of organ at Oberlin College and is music director and organist of the Church of the Covenant in Cleveland, OH. He specializes in a vast repertoire from the renaissance to modern era, and his playing has been described as “ever-expressive, stylish, and riveting” (The Baltimore Sun).
Jonathan Moyer
He has performed throughout the United States, and in Europe and Japan, along with numerous ensembles including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, and the Oberlin College Orchestra. Dr. Moyer holds an Artist Diploma in organ from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts and Graduate Performance Diploma in organ from the Peabody Conservatory of Music (Baltimore), where he also completed a Master’s degree in piano. He received a bachelor of music degree in piano from Bob Jones University. In 2008, he won the second prize in the Sixth International Musashino Organ Competition in Tokyo, Japan.
Dana Robinson
Organist, teacher, and church musician Dana Robinson is on the faculty of the School of Music at the University of Illinois, and organist at Grace Lutheran Church in Champaign., Illinois. A recipient of the Frank Huntington Beebe Grant for study abroad, he spent two years in Germany and the Netherlands, studying early German and Dutch repertoire with Harald Vogel. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Iowa, where he studied with Delbert Disselhorst, and the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Yuko Hayashi. Prior to coming to the University of Illinois, he held teaching appointments at Central College (Iowa) and Luther College, and was Organist and Choirmaster at Trinity Cathedral in Davenport, Iowa. He performs regularly for chapters of the American Guild of Organists, and for national conventions of the Organ Historical Society and the Westfield Center for Early Keyboard Studies. In addition to solo performances, he appears regularly in organ duet recitals with Paul Tegels, professor of organ at Pacific Lutheran University. His performance of J. S. Bach’s Orgelbüchlein can be heard on the ARSIS label.
CONTRIBUTORS
George Bozeman
George Bozeman, a native of Texas, studied organ at the University of North Texas, and apprenticed as an organbuilder with Otto Hofmann of Austin, Texas. On a Fulbright grant he studied organ with Anton Heiller and harpsichord with Isolde Ahlgrimm at the Academy of Music in Vienna. After work with organbuilder Fritz Noack he founded his own firm in Lowell, Massachusets, later moving to Deerfield, New Hampshire. He has continued as an active church musician and is director of music at the Pembroke Congregational Church. He has played recitals across the United States and in Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, and Europe.
David Moore
David Moore established his firm, A. David Moore Pipe Organs, in 1973 after a three year apprenticeship with the distinguished American organ builder, C. B. Fisk. He lives and has his workshop on the large rural Vermont farm where he grew up. Here, with his associates, he designs and builds historically informed mechanical action organs. This unique builder has traveled extensively and studied some of the finest old (and some new) organs of Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy and England. He has a working knowledge of the treatises of Cliquot and Dom Bédos. Living and working in New England, he has acquired a knowledge, both intimate and scholarly, of the 18th and 19th century New England builders. His association with the likes of John Fesperman, Barbara Owen, Fenner Douglass, John and Mark Brombaugh, Kevin Birch and many organ-building firms, has contributed to his understanding of the organ and its music. (Indeed, David himself is a quite respectable organist.)
Bob Newton
Bob (Robert C.) Newton is widely regarded as an authority on 19th century Boston organs, especially those built by the brothers Elias and George Greenleaf Hook. During his 53 years (1963-2016) at the Andover Organ Company, he worked on hundreds of old organs and oversaw Andover’s restorations of many significant E. & G. G. Hook instruments. These include First Parish Church (UU) in Bridgewater (Opus 132, 1852), Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in North Easton (Opus 254, 1859), South Parish Congregational in Augusta, Maine (Opus 389, 1866), First Presbyterian (Old South) Church in Newburyport (Opus 396, 1866), and Andover’s historically sympathetic rebuilds of Hook organs at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Providence (Opus 123, 1851) and St. Joseph’s RC Cathedral in Buffalo (Opus 828, 1876.) Bob has also bought and stored several historic organs to save them from destruction until new homes could be found. The surviving pipes and windchests of Hook Opus 472 (1869), which he acquired in the 1990s, are now in their fifth home at Christ Episcopal Church in Charlottesville, Virginia, where they form the core of Andover Opus R-345. He currently owns Hook Opus 383 (1866) and Opus 69 (1842), one of the earliest surviving two manual Hook organs. Bob attended his first Organ Historical Society convention in 1963 in Maine, where he renovated the 1863 E.& G. G. Hook organ (Opus 328) in the Elm St. Congregational Church in Bucksport for a convention recital. Since then, he has repaired and tuned numerous organs for OHS conventions in the Northeast, often volunteering his time. Bob served on the OHS Council, and on three OHS convention committees: 1972 (Central Vermont, which he chaired), 1974 (Lowell, Massachusetts) and 2013 (Northern Vermont.) In June 2016, by unanimous vote at the Society’s annual meeting, he was made an OHS Honorary Member in recognition of his many years of work in preserving and documenting numerous historic American organs.
Barbara Owen
Barbara Owen holds degrees in organ and musicology from Westminster Choir College and Boston University. She is the author of periodical and anthology articles, entries in The New Grove Dictionary of Music, and several books, including The Organ in New England, E. Power Biggs: Concert Organist,The Registration of Baroque Organ Music, The Organ Music of Johannes Brahms, and The Great Organ at Methuen. She is a Past President of the Organ Historical Society, has served the American Guild of Organists as Regional Councilor and chapter Dean, and is a Trustee of Methuen Memorial Music Hall. Now retired as Music Director of the First Religious Society of Newburyport and Librarian of the AGO Organ Library in Boston, she is currently active as a substitute organist, lecturer and organ consultant.
Stephen L. Pinel
Stephen L. Pinel holds two degrees from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., and did further graduate study in historical musicology at New York University. He served as Archivist of the Organ Historical Society’s research collection, The American Organ Archives, for 26 years between 1984 and 2010. He has written several books on various aspects of American organ history, and frequently contributes articles to the trade journals, both here and abroad. He currently serves as the Music Director of St. Ann’s R.C. Church in Hampton, N.J.
Lorna and Carlton Russell
Carlton and Lorna Russell have been involved with the Hook organ in Stockton Springs for over 40 years. In 1977 their gift, matched by the church, funded repair, restoration, and installation of a blower for this previously hand-pumped instrument; and they have given several recitals on it, most recently for the Hook Holiday in 2010.
A church organist since 1965, Lorna is a graduate of Wheaton College and Harvard University, and taught high school French for 34 years. Carlton is Professor of Music and College Organist, Emeritus at Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts, and a graduate of Amherst College, Princeton University, and Episcopal Divinity School. A director of the St. John’s Organ Society, Dr. Russell has played many recitals on historic organs in the Penobscot region. Since 2006, the Russells have shared the ministry of music at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Blue Hill. They are members of a Baroque ensemble, The Somerset Consort, in which Carlton plays the harpsichord and Lorna the viola da gamba.
David Wallace is the senior partner of David E. Wallace & Company Pipe Organ Builders of Gorham, Maine. He received his early appreciation for the pipe organ and musical training in piano and organ from Eleanor Wallace, John Fay and Stewart Shuster. During his college years, Wallace apprenticed in pipe organ restoration with the Andover Organ Company of Lawrence, MA.
David Wallace
After completing college, a graduate degree and a career as a foreign language translator in two languages for the U. S. Air Force, Wallace returned home to Maine and founded David E. Wallace & Company Pipe Organ Builders as a pipe organ service company in southern Maine. The company has grown and specializes in the restoration and renovation of historic mechanical action instruments as well as the construction of new mechanical action pipe organs. Wallace & Co. instruments are located across the U.S. and also in Europe. Wallace has authored numerous articles for organ journals and magazines on pipe organ history, restoration and, in particular, the historic pipe organs of Maine. David Wallace is a member of the American Guild of Organists, The American Institute of Organbuilders, the International Society of Organ Builders and a life-long member of the Organ Historical Society.
Nicholas Wallace holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Classical Guitar Performance graduating with honors from the University of Southern Maine School of Music where he studied with Keith Crook. Nick has studied organ with Ray Cornils and recently with Harold Stover. While in college, Nick worked for C.B. Fisk, an organ company in Gloucester, MA. He worked in the shop and on the road for the installation of their opus 130 in Costa Mesa, CA.
Nicholas Wallace
After graduating from college, Nick joined his father’s pipe organ building and restoration company, David E. Wallace & Co. LLC, full time. Nick assumed more responsibilities during the restoration and installation of the three-manual 1854 E&GG Hook organ at the Church of Our Lady and St Rochus in Boom, Belgium. Nick completed the major work on the three-manual 1893 Hook & Hastings organ for the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. Nick’s work also includes the construction of historically inspired new mechanical action pipe organs for St. Paul’s Anglican Parish in Brockton, MA and for Holy Innocents Episcopal Church in Atlanta, GA. Nick recently designed and built a three and a half rank traditional-style portable organ that was first displayed at the 2014 AGO convention in Boston, MA and has since been used in a number of concerts by the Maine Music Society. Nick is a member of the Organ Historical Society, the American Institute of Organbuilders and the International Society of Organbuilders. Nick enjoys traveling and recently spent time in Australia hiking through some of the national parks of Tasmania.
James Woodman
James Woodman was born in Portland, Maine, in 1957, and educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, Princeton University, and New England Conservatory. He was appointed the first Composer-in-Residence at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, and currently serves as Monastery Organist for the Society of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge. James Woodman’s organ and choral works are published by E. C. Schirmer, Theodore Presser, Boosey & Hawkes, and Thorpe. His compositions have been widely programmed, including performances at Magdalen College (Oxford), La Trinité (Paris), Festival Internationale de l’Orgue Ancien (Sion, Switzerland), Minato Mirae Concert Hall (Yokohama), Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche (Berlin), St. Thomas Episcopal Church (New York), as well as on the nationally syndicated radio broadcast “Pipe Dreams,” and on recordings by Peter Sykes, Nancy Granert, Christa Rakich, Erik Simmons, Mark Brombaugh, and the Boston Boy Choir.
Maine Historic Organ Institute Faculty Concerts
Faculty from top left counter-clockwise: Dana Robinson, Kevin Birch, Jonathan Moyer, Margaret Harper, and Christian Lane
St. John’s Organ Society is pleased to announce evening organ concerts as part of the Maine Historic Organ Institute, October 24-27, 2017, on Maine’s largest 19th-Century tracker-action pipe organ, E. & G. G. Hook’s magnificent Opus 288, at St. John’s Roman Catholic Church in Bangor. These concerts are open to the public. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.
The Maine Historic Organ Institute, a benefit for St. John’s Organ Society in celebration of our Silver Anniversary, features concerts, lectures, master classes, and a guided tour of extraordinary 19th-century pipe organs by E. & G. G. Hook and George Stevens in beautiful Maine.
St. John’s Organ Society is pleased to announce the 25th Summer Recital Series on Maine’s largest 19th-Century tracker-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.
St. John’s Organ Society Summer Series 2017 presents a special pre-season opportunity…
Choeur d’Enfants d’Ile-de-France
July 20 Choeur d’Enfants d’Ile-de-France (choral concert with organ) (Levallois, France) Music Director & Conductor: Prof. Francis Bardot Guest organist: Mike Logtenberg (Luxembourg)
This is the 25th tour of Prof. Francis Bardot to the U.S.A. with the Choeur d’Enfants d’Ile de France, a children’s choir of boys and girls from Levallois, France. St. John’s Catholic Church is pleased to host this choir’s concert on Thursday, July 20, at 7:30 pm. The choir will perform choral music of French and German composers including: Berlioz, Faure, Franck, Poulenc, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Schumann. Prof. Bardot has made numerous well-received recordings with his choirs.
July 27 Mike Logtenberg (Dahl, Luxembourg)
The first organ concert is July 27 and features Mike Logtenberg from Dahl, Luxembourg. He is performing music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, and Christoph Wolfgang Druckenmüller.
Mike Logtenberg
Organist Mike Logtenberg was born in Wiltz (Luxembourg) on 25th March 1998. From 2007 to 2013, he studied piano with Isabelle Puissant. Since 2011 he has studied organ with Maurice Clement at the Conservatoire de Musique du Nord in Luxembourg. Mike serves as organist in the parish churches of Dahl, Nocher, and Esch/Sauer.
August 3 Permelia Sears (Dunstable, Massachusetts)
The August 3 program features Permelia Sears of Dunstable, Massachusetts performing music of Johann Pachelbel, Dieterich Buxtehude, John Knowles Paine, and Dudley Buck.
Pamela Sears Sears at the console of the 1892 Johnson and Son organ in Monson, MA
Sears is a graduate of Smith College and the Yale University School of Music with a Master of Music in Pipe Organ Performance. She was Co-Chairman of the Extant Organs Committee of the Organ Historical Society for many years and specializes in playing historical 19thcentury American tracker organs. She has performed on instruments across the Northeast, played on several Organ Historical Society Conventions, as well as in concerts with her husband and daughter. She is currently Director of Music at the First Congregational Church of Monson, MA, home of an 1892 three-manual Johnson and Son organ.
August 10 Abraham Ross (Holden, Maine)
The August 10 program features Abraham Ross of Holden, Maine performing music of Cėsar Franck, Horatio Parker, Charles-Marie Widor, and George Whitefield Chadwick.
Abraham Ross
Abe performs regularly as a soloist and an ensemble player with special interests in early music and twentieth-century repertoire. He is currently completing the Masters of Music in Historical Performance at Oberlin Conservatory, where he studies organ with Jonathan Moyer and harpsichord with Mark Edwards. He also serves as Music Intern at Church of the Covenant in Cleveland, where he assists with rehearsals, accompanies services, and engages the community with musical offerings of varying genres.
Abe commenced his study of organ with Kevin Birch at St John’s Roman Catholic Church in Bangor, Maine, playing the church’s 1860 E. & G. G. Hook organ. During this time, he developed an appreciation and a passion for historical instruments and early music. He went on to attain the position of Organ Scholar for the Class of 2016 at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. During this time, he studied under James David Christie, conducted research in early and twentieth-century keyboard repertory, and performed throughout the Northeast.
Abe has been fortunate to encounter abundant opportunities for musical study and performance. In 2014, he was awarded a Mellon Grant to study seventeenth-century music with Francesco Cera in Rieti, Italy. A summer of study and research culminated in a presentation of Frescobaldi’s Messa della Madonna and the corresponding plainchantwithin a liturgy at Holy Cross. He went on to win first place in the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists’ Quimby Competition in 2015. Abe’s recent performance highlights include appearances at Universidad del Salvador (Buenos Aires, Argentina), First Church of Christ Scientist (Concord, NH), and Mechanics Hall (Worcester, MA). This summer Abe returned to his home state, playing as a solo recitalist, as well as with a period instrument ensemble of Boston-area musicians at Blue Hill Bach’s annual festival in mid-coast Maine.
August 17 George Bozeman (Deerfield, New Hampshire)
The August 17 program features George Bozemanof Deerfield, New Hampshire presenting a music program titled “Pictures at an Exhibition as found in the chorale preludes of Johann Sebastian Bach” demonstrating how Bach painted pictures suggested by the words of the chorales.
George Bozeman
George Bozeman, a native of Texas, studied organ at the University of North Texas, and apprenticed as an organbuilder with Otto Hofmann of Austin, Texas. On a Fulbright grant he studied organ with Anton Heiller and harpsichord with Isolde Ahlgrimm at the Academy of Music in Vienna. After work with organbuilder Fritz Noack he founded his own firm in Lowell, Massachusetts, later moving to Deerfield, New Hampshire. He has continued as an active church musician and is director of music at the Pembroke Congregational Church. He has played recitals across the United States and in Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, and Europe.
August 24 Kevin Birch (Bangor, Maine)
The August 24 program features Kevin Birch of Bangor, Maine performing music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Böhm, and James Woodman.
Kevin Birch
Kevin Birch holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Iowa with previous studies at New England Conservatory in Boston and the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. 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. He 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, South America and for several national conventions of the Organ Historical Society.
August 31 Margaret Harper (Portsmouth, New Hampshire)
The August 31 program features Margaret Harper of Portsmouth, New Hampshire performing music of Johann Sebastian Bach, César Franck, Nathan Stang, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Maurice Duruflé.
Margaret Harper
Organist Margaret Harper has performed across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Croatian newspaper Glas Slavonije writes, “The freezing cold of a January evening dominated the cathedral in Djakovo, but it could not diminish the richness and warmth of sound brought out of the cathedral organ by Margaret Harper.” Margaret is the Director of Music and Liturgy at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Portsmouth, NH, as well as the Director of the Choir School at St. John’s. This Fall, she joins the faculty of the University of Southern Maine School of Music as Artist Faculty in Organ and Harpsichord. She is also on the faculty and the board of the Young Organist Collaborative and is Artistic Director of the chamber music series Concerts on the Hill. She has presented academic papers at national and regional conferences of the American Bach Society and the American Guild of Organists, and in 2016 was the keynote speaker at the Around the Mountain Organ and Choral Festival. Margaret holds a DMA and a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. Her primary teachers include William Porter, David Higgs, Michel Bouvard, Edoardo Bellotti, and Edward Zimmerman. She was a stipendiate at the 2012 Arp Schnitger International Organ Competition. In the same year, she was the inaugural recipient of the James B. Cochran Prize, which is awarded annually for the best organ degree recital at the Eastman School of Music. In 2014, she was a semifinalist in the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance.
We are grateful to our partner hotel, the Charles Inn.
The St. John’s Organ Society Celebrates our 25th Anniversary in 2017. We begin our celebration of this anniversary with our International Concert on Tuesday, June 6, 2017, at 7:30 pm. Organist, teacher, and church musician, Dana Robinson, will perform music of César Franck and Felix Mendelssohn on the historic organ at St. John’s Catholic Church (207 York St., Bangor). Robinson is on the faculty of the School of Music at the University of Illinois, and is organist at Grace Lutheran Church in Champaign, Illinois.
A recipient of the Frank Huntington Beebe Grant for study abroad, Robinson spent two years in Germany and the Netherlands, studying early German and Dutch repertoire with Harald Vogel. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Iowa, where he studied with Delbert Disselhorst, and the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Yuko Hayashi. Prior to coming to the University of Illinois, he held teaching appointments at Central College (Iowa) and Luther College, and was Organist and Choirmaster at Trinity Cathedral in Davenport, Iowa.
Robinson performs regularly for chapters of the American Guild of Organists, and for national conventions of the Organ Historical Society and the Westfield Center for Early Keyboard Studies. In addition to solo performances, he appears regularly in organ duet recitals with Paul Tegels, professor of organ at Pacific Lutheran University. His performance of J. S. Bach’s Orgelbüchlein can be heard on the ARSIS label.
The June 6th program continues the tradition of an annual concert by an internationally recognized recitalist on the historic E. and G. G. Hook organ, Opus 288, at St. John’s Catholic Church. Hook’s Opus 288, the largest 19th-Century pipe organ in northern New England, has been described by Alan Laufman (past president of the Organ Historical Society) as “…a national treasure.”
St. John’s Catholic Church is located at 207 York Street in Bangor. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.
We thank our sponsors: Brett and Gail Baber.
We are grateful to our partner hotel, the Charles Inn.
St. John’s Organ Society is pleased to announce the 24th Summer Recital Series on Maine’s largest 19th-Century tracker-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.
St. John’s Organ Society Summer Series 2016 presents a special pre-season opportunity…
Magnificat! Tuesday, July 26—7:30 pm Weckmann: Dialogue— The Angel Gabriel Appears to Mary Bach: Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172 Bach/Ernst: Concerto for Organ in G Major, BWV 592 Bach: Magnificat in Eb, BWV 243a Presented by Blue Hill Bach and St. John’s Organ Society
John Finney
The audience is invited to take part in creating Blue Hill Bach’s debut video recording, to be produced live at St. John’s under the direction of conductor, John Finney, and Blue Hill Bach Artistic Director, Stephen Hammer.
July 28 Zhen Piao (Champaign, Illinois and Shenyang, China)
The first concert is July 28 and features Zhen Piao from Champaign, Illinois and Shenyang, China. He is performing music of J. S. Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, and Robert Schumann.
Zhen Piao
Piao studied at the University of Illinois where he earned a Master of Music in Piano Performance and Literature studying with William Heiles, and an Artist Diploma in Organ studying with Dana Robinson. He received the Brownson Fellowship. Recently, he played recitals in the Chapel of Saint John the Divine and Grace Lutheran church (Champaign, Illinois). He plays the organ for weekly services at Bethany Park Christian Church and plans to pursue a DMA in Organ Performance and Literature.
August 4 Gayle h. Martin with Linda Pearse, bass trombone & sackbut (Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada)
The August 4 concert features Gayle h. Martin with Linda Pearse, bass trombone and sackbut from Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada. They will perform music of Giovanni Cesare, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Vincent Lubeck, J.S. Bach, and Alexandre Guilmant.
Gayle MartinLinda Pearse
Gayle h. Martin is University Organist and Associate Professor of Music at Mount Allison University, in New Brunswick Canada where she teaches organ performance, choral conducting, music history, musicianship and directs the choral ensembles. Martin’s passion for music, animals and nature began in the pastoral countryside of Vermont and continue in New Brunswick.
She holds degrees from the Crane School of Music (B.Mus), McGill University (M.Mus) and the University of Alberta (DMus). Martin was organist at the American Cathedral in Paris. While in Paris, she received a premier prix à unanimité from the Conservatoire de Rueil Malmaison, studying under the tutelage of renowned organists Jean Langlais and Susan Landale. She can be heard on numerous recordings, including her solo CD’s Prism (1998), Celtic Impressions (2005), and Partners in Time (2015). Martin has been accompanist for several choral groups and plays continuo with the reknowned early music ensemble, ¡Sacabuche!.
Linda Pearse is Associate Professor of Music at Mount Allison University and Lecturer on Baroque trombone at Indiana University Bloomington.
Pearse is the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Early Music Summer Baroque Workshop, the Sackville Festival of Early Music and of the early music ensemble ¡Sacabuche! With ¡Sacabuche!, she has recently released an album of 17th-century Italian Motets on the ATMA Classique label. In addition to music-only programs, Pearse’s interdisciplinary projects engage new music, early music, texts, soundscapes, and images in conversations that explore cultural contacts and collisions in the early modern period. Her critical edition of Seventeenth-Century Italian Motets with Trombone is published with A-R Editions (April 2014).
August 11 Jacques Boucher with Sophie Poulin de Courval, saxophone (Montreal, Canada)
The August 11 concert features Jacques Boucher with Sophie Poulin de Courval, saxophone, from Montreal, Canada. They will perform music of Jean-Baptiste Singelée, Denis Bédard, and Olivier Messian.
Sophie Poulin de Courval and Jacques Boucher
Jacques Boucher is an organist, a broadcaster, a church musician, and a music professor. He is featured in many recordings and has given concerts in Canada, Europe, the United States, Bermuda, Mexico, and South America. In Montréal, Boucher is principal organist of the Sanctuaire du Saint-Sacrement and the titular organist of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste church, which contains Casavant Frères’ Opus 615.
Sophie Poulin de Courval is an active chamber musician who has played concerts in Canada, the United-States, Romania, Italy, and France. She is the titular saxophone teacher at the music school in Rivière-du-Loup.
Boucher and Poulin de Courval have been working together since 2003. Wishing to share all the potential of the unusual sound mix created by the colors of the saxophone and organ, they have performed in Québec, New Brunswick and France at a growing number of concert venues. They recorded two CDs, released in 2012, on five different organs in the Kamouraska region of Québec.
August 18 Douglas Beck (Bangor, Maine)
The August 18 program features Douglas Beck from Bangor, Maine performing music of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, William Byrd and Josef Rheinberger.
Douglas Beck
Beck enjoys creating and inspiring the creative and spiritual work of others in Maine’s close-knit local and regional communities while linking that work to daily living. He enjoys his work with music students in his Bangor studio and as a faculty member of the Ellsworth Community Music Institute. He enjoys his working relationships with musicians and visual artists as well as spiritual seekers of all ages. Beck serves as Accompanist with the Bagaduce Chorale and Artistic Director of the Bangor Community Chorus. He has served the Bangor Chapter of the American Guild of Organists as a member of the Executive Committee and recently completed a term as Chapter Dean. Beck holds degrees in Organ Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University. Before moving to Maine, Beck lived in the Washington D.C. area for seventeen years, where he was the Assistant Organist-Choirmaster at Historic Christ Church and then the Organist-Choirmaster at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, both in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia. He also served on the Adjunct Faculty at Virginia Theological Seminary. Additionally, Beck is an Oblate in the Order of Julian of Norwich (a recognized monastic order of the Episcopal Church, US). He is also a Master of Divinity student at Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
August 25 Kevin Birch with Scott Burditt, horn (Bangor, Maine)
The August 25 concert features Kevin Birch with Scott Burditt, horn, from Bangor, Maine. They will perform music of J. S. Bach, Franz Joseph Haydn, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Kevin BirchScott Burditt
Kevin Birch holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Iowa with previous studies at New England Conservatory in Boston and the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. Since 1992 he has served as Director of Music at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor, Maine He 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.
Maine native Scott Burditt, the Band Director at Bangor High School, has been a public and private school music teacher for more than 35 years, working with students from grade 3 through college. He is the Principal Horn and Personnel Manager for the Bangor Symphony, and is the Associate Conductor of the Bangor Band. As a professional horn player, he has played with most of the performing groups in Maine, including the Portland and Bangor Symphonies, college orchestras, brass and woodwind quintets and community bands.
We are grateful to our partner hotel, the Charles Inn.
POSTPONED to Monday, March 28, 2016, 7:30 p.m. due to weather
In support of St. Paul’s House, a project with Habitat for Humanity, St. Paul the Apostle Parish will celebrate J. S. Bach’s 331st birthday in an all-Bach concert featuring organist Dr. Kevin Birch. He will perform on the church’s historic pipe organ, E. & G. G. Hook’s magnificent Opus 288 built for St. John’s in 1860, Birch will be joined by mezzo-soprano Marcia Gronewold Sly, French hornist Scott Burditt and cellist John Frankland. Admission is free. Donations are appreciated and will support St. Paul’s House.
The program includes the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565; Fantasy and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537; the Chorale Prelude Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot’, BWV 678; the Toccata, Adagio and Fuga in C major, BWV 564; Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen from BWV 82; Wachet auf, rust und die Stimme, BWV 645; and Schafe können sicher wider from BWV 208.
From Kevin Birch: THANK YOU to all who contributed to the success of our Bach by Candlelight concert in support of St. Paul’s House – a Project of Habitat for Humanity and St. Paul the Apostle Parish. Together we raised $2,114. I am particularly grateful to our guest performers, Marcia Gronewold Sly, Scott Burditt and John Frankland for their superb musicianship and generosity and to our wonderful (and large) audience!
