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The Kotzschmar Memorial Organ

Municipal organist Ray Cornils, Portland, 1999

Municipal organist Ray Cornils, Portland, 1999

Item 7265 info
Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ

Ray Cornils assumed the post of Portland's Municipal Organist in 1990, and continued to hold the position in 2012. His term could be called the "golden age" of the Kotzschmar Memorial Organ.

FOKO and Cornils expanded the city's musical offerings to include a yearly youth concert entitled "Kids, Kartoons and Kotzschmar" each February, a "Bach Birthday Bash," organ music for school children called "Meet the King of Instruments" each May, an annual Halloween party with a costume parade, scary silent films and organ accompaniment, and the popular "Christmas with Cornils."

Cornils regularly features guests at his concerts, including local choral groups, vocal and instrumental soloists, and the Kotzschmar Festival Brass Ensemble.

Cornil's musical talents, as well as his administrative skills and vision for the city music program have brought Portland's Kotzschmar Memorial Organ to a new and respected height in the music world.

Listen to Ray Cornils in a recording made in the summer of 1998 play the final section of Charles-Marie Widor's "Toccata from the Fifth Symphonie" on the Kotzschmar Memorial Organ: