Organ series concludes with Aug. 30 recital

BANGOR – St. John’s Catholic Church will present the final recital in its summer organ series at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 30.

Carlton T. Russell will play music by Rheinberger, Robert Bitgood and women organists Margaret Vardell Sandresky, Ethel Smyth and Florence B. Price.

Sponsored by the St. John’s Organ Society and featuring the church’s historic E&GG Hook pipe organ, the concert is open to the public without charge.

Russell, professor of music and college organist emeritus at Wheaton College, Norton, Mass., is making his 16th appearance on the large 1860 St. John’s organ, having first played a recital in 1979 to help initiate the parish’s campaign to renovate its important instrument.

Over the last 40 years, Russell has played many recitals on historic organs in the Penobscot region, focusing increasingly on less well-known repertory and the music of women composers.

His playing can be heard on the 1997 St. John’s series recording and on a solo CD, “With Grateful Gladness.” He and his wife, Lorna S. Russell, an organist and retired French teacher, became permanent residents of Sandy Point in June 2005. Russell, recently appointed to the board of directors of the St. John’s Organ Society, serves with his wife as minister of music at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Blue Hill.