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.
