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Item Description

Four Tickets to Bach Birthday Bash

Featuring Ray Cornils & Choral Art Society

Saturday, May 3, 2014  7:30 p.m.

South Congregational Church, Kennebunkport, ME

Join us for the Bach Birthday Bash Concert at the South Congregational Church in Kennebunkport, Maine! This annual classic concert will feature Ray Cornils on the organ, and the Choral Art Society Singers with Robert Russell, Director.

http://www.foko.org/concert_detail.php?schedule_id=166

Item Special Note

History of the Kotzschmar Organ: http://www.foko.org/history.htm

Founded in 1981, the Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ (FOKO), a non-profit organization, supports the Kotzschmar Organ. Each year the organization presents 16-18 concerts, engaging renowned organists and guest artists from around the world. FOKO is responsible for the care and maintenance of the organ and provides funds to produce and promote concerts, maintain, repair and enhance the organ, sponsor lectures and organ demonstrations and tours and supports a growing education program to bring awareness and understanding of this musical gem of Portland. 

Ray Cornils is the Municipal Organist for the City of Portland , a post which he has held since 1990. He is also the Minister of Music at First Parish Church , UCC in Brunswick , where for the past 20 years he has led an extensive music program of five vocal and two handbell choirs. In addition, he is a member of the music faculties of Bowdoin College, the University of Southern Maine , and the Portland Conservatory of Music, where he teaches organ, harpsichord and related classes.

Born in Sterling, Illinois , Mr. Cornils received the B. Mus. degree from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and the M. Mus. degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. He has studied organ with Robert Reeves, Fenner Douglas, William Porter, Yuko Hayashi and Dame Gillian Weir, and harpsichord with William Porter, Lenora McCroskey, Rhona Freeman and Lisa Goode Crawford.

Ray has concertized throughout the United States and in Germany, Russia, New Zealand and France . Past concerts have included the Spreckles Organ in San Diego , the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City , the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. and the Wanamaker Organ at Macy’s in Philadelphia. He has been a featured recitalist for conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society. This summer he will perform a number of concerts in Germany . In addition to his solo work, he performs regularly with the Portland Symphony Orchestra and Musica Tricinia, a group of two trumpets and organ.

Web site: http://www.foko.org/municipal_organist.htm