Event Archive

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.

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. 

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 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.

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. 

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.

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.