St. John’s Organ Society is pleased to announce an organ concert on Thursday, August 15, at 7:30 pm, featuring Sarah Johnson (New Haven, CT) performing music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Amy Beach, and Horatio Parker.
The concert is part of the 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.
Johnson is the Associate Director of Music at Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven Connecticut, and 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, Sarah 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. Sarah holds a Master of Sacred Music from Boston University, where she studied organ with Peter Sykes. Since beginning college, Sarah has performed in New York City at Central Synagogue, in Boston at Old West, Trinity Copley, and Holy Name Parish, in Atlanta at the Cathedral of St. Philip, and recently in Naumburg, Germany at St. Wenzel. She was named an E. Power Biggs Fellow of the Organ Historical Society in 2013 and featured as a rising star and guest recitalist at the 2017 Musforum Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. She is a board member of the Saint John’s Organ Society in Bangor, dedicated to the preservation of E. & G.G. Hook Opus 288, and recently performed on their 29th annual concert series. Sarah has also performed at Methuen Memorial Music Hall in Methuen, MA on their 74th and 76th annual concert series. During her time in Boston, Sarah 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, Sarah was the Organ Assistant (VanDelinder Prize Winner) at Christ Church Episcopal from 2018-2020 and Minister of Music at Church of the Ascension from 2020-2023.
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.