Upcoming Events

“Mostly for Fun” Trombone Concert:
The 26th annual “Mostly for Fun” Trombone Concert will be held on Saturday, August 6 at 7:00 p.m. This is a concert of trombonists from Maine, Massachusetts, the Washington D.C. area and Canada, and is New England’s longest running trombone festival.  Proceeds from this concert go to a fund to help maintain the historic E. & G.G. Hook Organ which was installed in 1863.  The hook organ was brought up from Boston by ship.  In the 1960’s the church raised money for extensive renovation of the organ.  Several different organists have been playing the hook organ on and off since 1956.

Trombonists are encouraged to participate in this event and the afternoon practice session is at 1:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon at the Elm Street Congregational Church at 31 Elm Street in Bucksport.  The cost of the concert is $8.00 for adults and $3.00 for students.  The church is handicapped accessible and there is plenty of free public parking in the rear of the church.

Early pipe organs were built in the days before mass production and if given occasional maintenance will last a century of more without complete overhauling.  Their mechanism is of the “tracker” type:  the connection between the keys and pipes is of moving wooden parts.  They are pleasing to play and easy to keep in repair.  Most modern organs are built with less reliable electro-pneumatic action that results in many gadgets for ease of playing, but also in the need for complete rebuilding before a lapse of fifty years.  The electrification of tracker mechanism is a bad mistake.  The organs of the early New England builders, as well as others in the United States and Canada, have a silvery and cohesive tone- quality that is particularly fine for congregational singing.  This does not come from age, but is the result of careful adherence to time-honored concepts of design that were forgotten in the first three decades of this century.  Some of these organs are strong and brilliant in tone. The Elm Street Congregational Church’s organ is an example of this type.  The fine nineteenth century organs have been needlessly destroyed and some of the former owners now realize that they “sold their birthright for a mess of potage.”  Old pipe organs are generally replaced with inferior modern electronic substitutes, cheap in price and also in tone.  Usually the cost of one of these instruments would restore or modernize the pipe organ.  New England has a fine tradition of worthy organ building.  Let us preserve in our churches these speaking monuments of a pioneer industry.

Public Supper:
A public supper will be held on Saturday, August 13 at 5-6 p.m. in Brown Hall.  The supper will have casseroles, salads, baked beans, barbecue franks, rolls and pies.  Admission is $7.00 for adults, $3.00 for children ages 5-10 and there is no cost for children under 5.  Brown Hall is handicapped accessible and there is plenty of free public parking in the rear of the church.