Church music group sets three concerts

WATERVILLE – The 47th annual Richner-Strong Institute of Church Music at Colby College in Waterville has announced three concerts for August. All performances are open to the public and free of charge.

The Richner-Strong Institute, in session at Colby Aug. 11-17, is designed to help church musicians improve the musical standards and programs of their institutions. Participants study piano, organ, hand bells and vocal music, take part in group lessons and discussions and perform in a festival service.

Organist Stewart Wayne Foster will perform a concert at St. John’s Church on York Street in Bangor at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 13. The program will feature works by Bach, Brahms, Vierne and Couperin. Foster won the top prize and the “Prize of the Audience” at the first Dallas International Organ Competition. Currently Foster is the artist-in-residence of First (Scots) Presbyterian Church in Charleston, S.C., and he also coordinates the annual organ performance series at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival.

Acclaimed pianist Paul Bisaccia will present “Moonlight Sonata: The Romantic Piano,” a concert in the grand romantic tradition with selections based on Bisaccia’s latest CD recording at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 15, in Colby’s Given Auditorium of the Bixler Art and Music Center. The concert will include Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” and “Fur Elise,” Rachmaninoff’s “Etude-Tableaux in C” and Manuel de Falla’s “Ritual Fire Dance,” as well as works by Gershwin, Chopin, Liszt and Gottschalk.

Participants from the Richner-Strong Institute will hold a church music festival service in Colby’s Lorimer Chapel at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 16.

Music for hand bells, organ, choir and piano will be performed in this closing ceremony.

For more information, call Colby’s Office of Special Programs at 872-3386.