Maine’s premier Celtic folk duo Castlebay will perform a concert of traditional Irish Music at Broad Bay Congregational Church on St. Patrick’s Day. Julie Lane and Fred Gosbee will sing ballads and blarney gleaned from Maine’s rich Irish tradition, with a 12-string guitar, Celtic harp, fiddle, and tin whistle.

For decades, the two musicians have been exploring the archives of music collected in Maine, gathering hundreds of traditional songs, many of which came from the Irish who immigrated and made their homes here.

In between songs, Castlebay will share the lore and history of Maine’s musical legacy of ballads of romance and rogues, shipwreck and survival, and humor and blarney.

Many of the songs, transcribed and “mended” by Castlebay, are in their first book, “Songs of Ships and Sailors,” 2021, Loomis House Press, and part of their series, “Bygone Ballads of Maine.” Castlebay has toured the eastern U.S., Scotland, England, and Ireland and released over two dozen recordings. For more information, see: www.castlebay.net

This concert is one of three free St. Patrick’s Day events in the village which are:

• The film “Riverdance 25” at the Waldo, at 2PM

• Live local music at Odd Alewives Farm Brewery, from 3-5 PM

• Castlebay at Broad Bay Congregational Church, at 4:15, where donations are gratefully accepted.

Sunday, November 26 at 4 pm: Christmas Concert with Joe Cough

Saturday, Nov. 4 at 4 pm: Matt Mainster, piano and April Reed-Cox, cello

An Evening of Music for Violin & Organ

E. & G. G. Hook & Hastings Organ - 1875

Broad Bay Congregational Church

Waldoboro, Maine

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.  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. 

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.

Broad Bay Congregational Church in Waldoboro opens its fall season of concerts on Saturday, Sept. 23, with vocalist and guitarist Erasmus More, otherwise known as Joe Cough, performing Renaissance-inspired music at 7:00 PM, with a program that includes Spanish ballads, English sea shanties, French drinking songs, and music written for monarchs.

Erasmus More (Joe Cough) is a Maine-based vocalist, composer, and educator who revels in crossing many types of musical genres. He has a master’s degree in vocal performance and has taught voice, guitar, piano and music composition at Mid-Coast Music Academy.

Erasmus will ‘live loop,’ playing his beat-box and flute to lay down the rhythmic and melodic tracks first, then building the song and sound with guitar and voice to make a mélange of new and old sounds. Every performance is unique.

For a couple of songs, violinist Hawthorne Smith will accompany him on violin and the Norwegian hardanger fiddle, including a song Erasmus wrote in Norsk.

The concert is free so that all may be welcome. Donations are accepted to compensate the musicians and support the ongoing ministry of the church.

August 20th, 3pm - 5pm, in the Fellowship Hall


Come and enjoy all things blueberry at this summer fundraiser!
Blueberry pies, muffins, ice cream, desserts, and other tasty treats.
Open to the whole community.

Afterwards, check out the double feature at The Waldo Theatre, starting at 5pm https://www.thewaldotheatre.org/calendar

Halycon's July 30 concert in memory of Deborah McKean is focused on our collective ability to imagine, reimagine, and ultimately build the future we want to live in. In addition to playing music, Halcyon is going to interweave audio of community voices responding to a prompt. 

Imagination lies at the heart of social change. What parts of today's world do you want to carry with you into the future? What do you want to leave behind as we look towards a more sustainable future on this planet? When you think about the future, what is the first word that comes to mind?

Waldoboro Pride Day, Sunday June 25th

4:00 pm: Free Community Meal at the Broad Bay Church

6:00 pm: Free Film "Paris is Burning" at The Waldo Theatre

Broad Bay is hosting a Baked Bean Supper on Friday, June 16, as one of the kickoff events for the 250th Anniversary Celebration of Waldoboro.

We will serve ham and hot dogs, baked beans, cole slaw, pickles, rolls/brown bread/cornbread, as well as beverages and dessert 

The supper hours are 5 to 7 p.m. Come for good food and to spread some Broad Bay hospitality during the celebratory weekend. Admission is by donation.

On Sunday, August 7 at 7 PM, Halcyon String Quartet will present their annual chamber music concert at Broad Bay Church in Waldoboro.

Violinists Josie and Sophie Davis, violist Colin Wheatley and cellist Nora Willauer will be joined by pianist Margarita Rovenskaya. The program will feature Schumann’s beloved Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Danzón No. 5 by Arturo Márquez and more.

Halcyon is a Maine-based string quartet that strives to share their love of music in ways that foster connection, community, vibrancy, joy, warmth and accessibility. Admission is by donation at the door and guests are encouraged to wear masks.

For more information, visit halcyonstringquartet.org.

Saturday, June 18 from 9am to 1pm

Chairs, artwork, an almost-new massage table and a vintage 12-channel sound board are among the dozens of items that will be featured at Broad Bay Church's June 18 used furniture sale. Starting at 9 a.m. and continuing to 1 p.m., the sale will be held on the lawn of the church at 941 Main St. or, if rainy, in the downstairs fellowship hall.

Among other items for sale: a dark wood dresser; beautiful, large stained glass Christmas tree panel; an on-the-go Lentek refrigerator for road trips and a classic rocking chair. Electronics include two Yamaha speakers with 15-inch sub woofers and a Harmon Kardon stereo receiver.

There are several children's-size items -- a wooden table with two matching chairs; two small school desk chairs and a wood-finish baby changing table.

Celebrate 147 years of organ music in Waldoboro. Dr. Kevin Birch and Dr. Dana Robinson will present a program of music. to celebrate Waldoboro’s historic Hook and Hastings Organ.

E. & G. G. Hook & Hasting Pipe Organ Opus 793 was built in Boston for Waldoboro’s Congregational Church during a period when this town was one of Maine’s leading builders of cargo schooners.  Unfortunately, relatively few of the many Hook & Hastings organs that once graced sanctuaries, auditoriums and other halls across Maine have survived.

Dr. Kevin Birch has performed throughout the United States, Europe and in South America. Heb 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 Birch 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.

Dr. Dana Robinson of the University of Illinois has earned his B.M. (with Distinction in Performance) and M.M., New England Conservatory of Music; D.M.A. (organ performance), University of Iowa. Additional study at the University of Salamanca (Spain), the Municipal Conservatory in San Sebastian (Spain), Boston University, and Westminster Choir College. 

Because of this organ’s long history in Waldoboro, the quality of music it can produce and the amazing 19th century craftsmanship Opus 793 represents, the Broad Bay Church is thrilled to announce that a major gift will fund the final phase of restoration and renovations to the organ in the near future.

This concert is dedicated to the memory of Chet and Elise Merrifield and is offered as a gift to our community.  Donations will be accepted to help maintain the historic church that shelters the organ.

For the safety of our community, please wear a mask to the concert. FMI:  broadbayucc@gmail.com or 207 832-6898. 

The Call: Annual Meeting February 3, 2019

From Alethe Donaldson, Church Clerk and Co-Moderators Raymond Anderson and Blake Donaldson.

To the Congregation of the Broad Bay Congregational, United Church of Christ, of Waldoboro, Maine

Pursuant to the By-Laws of the Broad Bay Congregational, United Church of Christ, today, January 20, 2019, we give the first of two notices, that our 35th Annual Meeting as a recognized church in the Midcoast Association will be held following the worship service in the sanctuary on February 3, 2019 followed by a soup and bread lunch downstairs.  If the weather be such that we cannot realize a quorum, the meeting will be held on February 10, 2019 following the worship service.

The Annual Meeting is to review and act on the Annual Report, elect officers, board members, and delegates; vote on the budget for 2019;  to accept the recommendation of the Broad Bay Building Committee and the Council to secure a construction loan of not more than $500,000 to accomplish Phase 1plan of the church renovations;  and to act on any other business that comes before said meeting.

This concert is a fundraiser for New Hope for Women, which offers support to women, men, and children in Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Knox and Waldo counties affected by domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. New Hope for Women provides a hotline, emergency shelter, transition housing, support groups, education, and other resources to assist our communities in creating a safer and healthier future.

Keith Scott Reas will be the featured performer at Broad Bay Congregational UCC’s organ concert on Sept. 30. The concert, with works from Bach to the contemporary Ethan McGrath, begins at 3 p.m. in the church at 941 Main St. Admission is free, with donations greatly appreciated to the church’s A Place For All Capital Campaign.

The community concert, an annual event, also stars the church’s 1875 Hook & Hastings organ. The congregation funded restoration of the organ by David E. Wallace & Co. of Gorham over a period of years, finishing in 2010.

Reas holds degrees in organ performance from Oberlin College, the University of Oregon and the Eastman School of Music. In June, Reas retired as director of music at St. Paul’s Episcoal Church, Chattanooga, Tenn., where he had served since 2009. He also had tenures in Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Ariz., Rochester, N.Y. and Richland, Wash. Choral conducting positions include the Alexandria Choral Society (Va.), the Women’s Chorus at the Catholic University of America, and Choral Arts of Chattanooga, where recent concerts included the Brahms “Requiem” and Paul Winter’s “Missa Gaia.” Hailed as “an organists’ organist” (Tucson Daily Star), he took first prize in the 1985 International Organ Playing Competition in Ann Arbor, Mich., and has performed across the United States and in England, Germany and Italy.

Recently moved to Rochester, N.Y., Reas continues to be active as an organist, accompanist and conductor. A former member of the church choir he directed in Washington, D.C. lives in Waldoboro, and that connection led him to play at a morning service last summer and to get to know the Hook & Hastings organ.

“I try really hard to develop a program that is particularly suited to the specific instrument that I'm playing, and that I hope will be engaging for the local audience,” Reas said. “For this concert, I'm playing a wide variety of pieces, from the late Renaissance, Sweelinck, to a brand new composition, McGrath, that I think will showcase the beautiful individual and ensemble sounds of this lovely instrument.

“I'm opening the program with a short piece by Jacques Lemmens, which was published in 1862 and very well could have been played on this organ when it was new. I'm closing the program with two compositions by the Romantic French composer Louis Vierne. Written in 1913-14, these pieces are also particularly well suited to the style and period of the Hook and Hastings. The centerpiece of the concert is one of my favorite Bach works, the ‘Prelude and Fugue in C Major,’ BWV 547, often referred to as ‘the 9/8’ because of its meter.”

Recent solo concerts include the XXXI International Organ Festival at the Church of Santa Rita, Turin, Italy; the Eastman at St. Michael’s Series, with clarinetist Margaret Quackenbush; the premiere of a new work for organ and brass ensemble by composer/conductor Douglas Hedwig with the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet; the Artist Series at Somers (Conn.) Congregational UCC and at First Parish Church UCC, Brunswick.

All are welcome to a short presentation, followed by a question and answer period, about Alzheimer’s Disease on Sept. 9 at Broad Bay Congregational UCC.  A free, optional  light lunch will be offered at 11:45 a.m., and the approximately hour-long program will start at 12:15 p.m.

Rev. Phillip McKean of Cushing and Claremont, Calif., will speak on “Remembering and Forgetting: Changing Times and Sacred Times in Experiencing Alzheimer’s.” McKean says he will talk about how “our memories are quite a gift, and also perhaps an overrated gift.”

McKean’s wife, Deborah, a deacon in the Episcopal Church, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2015.  With her memory increasingly failing, the McKeans checked into many medical possibilities and, says McKean, he may have been in a state of denial, as he continued to hope for a different medical reason. Since being accepting of the diagnosis, McKean said, he and his wife have found wonderful support in both Maine and California.  He will share about his experiences in creating a life as “a care companion” with his mission of helping his wife “live as full a life as she can in the present.” Deborah McKean is participating in clinical trials, and her husband also will speak briefly about those. 

The presentation will be followed by a time to ask questions and share information. Printed material from the Alzheimer’s Association and the Maine chapter will be available.  Broad Bay Congregational UCC is located at 941 Main St.