 Portland's Kochmar Organ is a hidden gem in the city. The instrument celebrates its 100th birthday next month with the friends of the Kochmar Organ of planning a week-long celebration to mark the event. Tom talked with municipal organist Ray Cornels about what's in store. Ray, thanks for joining us. You're welcome. It's a pleasure to be here. We're here to talk about the Centennial Celebration for the Kochmar Organ, but before we get into that, just briefly for people who might not know, what's the history behind the Kochmar Organ? Well, in 1912, the Kochmar Organ was given to the city by Cyrus H.K. Curtis, the publisher of the Saturday Evening Post and latest home journal. He was a Portland resident and loved music, and it was Herman Kochmar who had died just a few years before that sparked his interest in music, and so as a testimony to the great musician that Herman Kochmar was, Mr. Curtis gave to the city the fabulous Kochmar Memorial Organ, dedicated August 22, 1912. 1912, so this is the 100th year. 100 years. And next month in August, or we're going to be celebrating, a big celebration is coming up, right? A whole festival week from silent films to pop, to classics, to organ and brass workshops. You name it, you will just have a great time hearing, exploring, and seeing the many sides of the Kochmar Organ. I'm kind of curious what the silent film night's about. What's actually going to happen? You'll see, it's a wonderful silent film with Harold Lloyd, and it's actually a cameo appearance of Babe Ruth in there, we'll have to come and find the plot. I don't want to give it away, but it's a fun night. Tom Trinny, who's coming, will be improvising on the spot, music to accompany and to highlight the emotions and the fun of a silent film. It's a great thing for families. That's probably one of the most interesting things to me, because years ago when it was first installed, that's what it was used for, right? A number of pipe organs were used to accompany silent films, but this instrument does more than just silent films. It plays a symphonic and organ literature like none other in Maine. So we've got people like John Weaver, who for over 50 years came every summer to the Kochmar De Play, and Fred Swan, the organist at Riverside Church, and then the Crystal Cathedral. They will become celebrating. We've also got some young artist, Felix Hell, who's just in his 20s, Tom Haywood from Australia, and rounding out the whole program is Peter Conte from the Wanamaker Organ. He and I will be sharing a program. So now there's workshops throughout the period. Yes. What are some of the subjects of those workshops? Well, if you want to find out what an organist thinks when they're sitting at the console, what decisions do you have to be made? You can go to a master class and hear the great masters. Talk about the creative process. If you want to find out about how to register or how to bring out the characters of a silent film, come here. Tom Trenney talked about that. If you just want to hear about the history of Portland architecture in 1912, we've got a workshop on that, all sorts of things. If you're an organist, how to improve your hymn playing. But it's for not just the professional, but the interested amateur will have tours of the Winchester on Saturday at noon, so you can see the insights, how this great machine works. And I can vouch for how much fun that is when you gave us a tour not too long ago. And there's also a Casco Bay cruise, isn't there? Yes. We'll have a lobster bake out on the islands, a Casco Bay cruise with a number of the artists that are here, so it will be a time to come and enjoy all that Maine and Portland has to offer. And what period of time is that? What are the days? We begin Friday night, August 17th with a 7.30, that's our silent film. On Saturday we have a Pops program, that's the 18th. And during the day we have a marathon from 9.30 to 3.30, organists from throughout southern Maine will be playing. Sundays are crews of Casco Bay and the Lobster Bake, Felix Hell and Fred Holman and Tom Haywood Monday night. Tuesday night Fred Swan and John Weaver and then Wednesday night, August 22nd, the 100th anniversary. Peter Conte, myself and the Kachmar Festival brass, they'll be sing-alongs, it'll be a great deal. And then we'll be saying goodbye to the organ for a while, is that right? Two years. We will be packing the instrument up, taking it to Toland, Connecticut for renovation to bring it back to its full glory. There are a number of wind leaks, a lot of air problems in the instrument that put the instrument in jeopardy and so we're bringing that back and I'm delighted about that. I'll miss it of course. We'll be doing Kachmar on the Road and we'll be doing some educational series in schools during those two years. Well after 100 years of service, two year break isn't, is it much? It isn't. So now if people want more information about the whole festival and the Friends of the Kachmar Organ have a website, that's www.foko.org. It has all the information, tune in for that and just come on Friday night and get the whole schedule yourself. Yeah, sounds like a great event for anybody, whether the musician or not. Thanks a lot for joining us in Toland. Pleasure. You'll be thrilled.