Celebrating the Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the E. & G.G. Hook & Hastings Organ, Opus 793 (1875)
Program 1: An Evening of Music for Violin, Viola d'Amore, Organ and Virginal
Anatole Wieck, violin/viola d'amore and Kevin Birch, organ/virginal
Saturday, August 30, 2025 - 7:00 PM
About the musicians:
ANATOLE WIECK - VIOLIN, VIOLA d’AMORE
Born in Latvia, Anatole Wieck received his first musical education in Riga and Moscow. In the United States since 1973, he studied violin and viola at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, where he completed his Doctorate in Musical Arts working closely with Ivan Galamian, Lillian Fuchs, and Paul Doktor. He also studied baroque interpretation with Carol Lieberman at Boston University. He plays baroque viola, viola d’amore and baroque violin. Since 1986 Dr. Wieck has taught upper strings at the University of Maine and conducted the University of Maine Orchestra. He has performed and conducted in Europe, North and South America, and has participated in chamber music festivals such as Chamber Music/West (San Francisco), White Nights (St. Petersburg, Russia) and festivals in Montepulciano, Italy and Newport, Rhode Island. He was a Fulbright Senior Specialist in 2006 in Guatemala.
KEVIN BIRCH - ORGAN, VIRGINAL
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. Kevin is also devoted to the art of the clavichord - an instrument long associated with the organ, especially in Germany and Scandinavia - and is a member of the Dutch Clavichord Society, the German Clavichord Society and the Boston Clavichord Society. Recent projects include solo clavichord recitals for the German Clavichord Society in Cologne, Germany, the Boston Clavichord Society, lecture recitals on “The Clavichord and the Organ - Companions for Centuries” at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, and at Oberlin Conservatory in Oberlin, OH.