Free Expanded Basilica Summer Concert Series Celebrating 85th Anniversary of Casavant Organ

LEWISTON---The popular summer concert series at the Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul, located on 122 Ash Street in Lewiston returns on Wednesdays with concerts being held from 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. The performances are free and open to the public, but donations to help with the preservation of the historic Casavant organ, celebrating its 85th birthday, will be gratefully accepted. Here is the schedule, including several evening concerts.

Afternoon Concerts

July 5
Mark Thallander and Scott Vaillancourt
Vaillancourt is director of music at the Basilica of Saints Peter & Paul. Thallander is a teacher, arranger, composer, author, and freelance organist. He is also the president of the president of the National Children’s Chorus. He has produced numerous recordings and many of his organ and choral arrangements have been published by the Fred Bock Music Company.

July 12
Cameron Cody
Cameron “Cam” Cody is an internationally recognized concert artist, conductor, and organist. A native of Warner Robins, Georgia, Cam began piano studies at the age of 3. Cameron currently serves as Director of Music and Principal Organist at Chapelwood United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas. Cam has a large online social media following where he frequently performs for thousands of music lovers worldwide keeping the great hymns of the church alive.

July 19
Hayden Vaughn
Hayden is currently an undergraduate student at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in music (organ primary). At Drury University, he also acts as the primary organist for Drury Stone Chapel. He is a section leader, student conductor, and student accompanist in Drury's Choral Studies program. Hayden has been providing church music since he was 12 years old and has served as a musician in Baptist, Catholic, Disciples of Christ, Episcopal, United Church of Christ, and United Methodist churches, along with several other churches of varying or no affiliation.

July 26
Harold Stover
Stover is a graduate of the Juilliard School in New York, and a charter member of the faculty of the Portland Conservatory of Music. His recital career spans more than 50 years and includes performances on most major New York recital series and at Westminster Abbey in London, the National Cathedral in Washington, Harvard and Princeton universities, and many other distinguished venues. He has been featured as performer, composer, and lecturer at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists.

August 2
Ray Cornils
Cornils was the municipal organist for the City of Portland from 1990 to 2017. He has performed throughout the U.S. and in Germany, France, Spain, Russia, New Zealand and Ecuador. He has been a featured recitalist for conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society. In addition to his solo work, he performs regularly with the Portland Symphony Orchestra.

August 9
Hentus van Rooyen
Hentus van Rooyen is Assistant Professor of Music, Sacred Music Coordinator and College Organist at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. In 2012, he was awarded the Scholarship for Overseas Study from the Southern-African Church Organists Association (SAKOV) and received a generous scholarship from the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, which enabled him to begin his studies at the University of North Texas in September of that year. He served as an organist at Christ the King Catholic Church in Dallas.

August 16
Randall Mullin
Mullin is a freelance musician who accompanies the choir of the Cathedral of St. Luke in Portland. He was also a featured performer with ChoralArt for “Grand Opera meets the Mighty Kotzschmar” in 2016 and for the Maurice Duruflé “Requiem” in 2019. He has played throughout the country with more recent recitals at Trinity Church in Boston, Methuen Memorial Music Hall in Methuen, Massachusetts, and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. 

Evening Concerts
*Begin at 7:30 p.m.*

Friday, July 21
Mary-Katherine Fletcher
Mary-Katherine Fletcher is the director of music and organist at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet, Massachusetts, and serves as treasurer for the Southeastern Massachusetts chapter of the American Guild of Organists. A recent graduate, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Bridgewater State University. She will be pursuing a master’s degree in sacred music from Boston University, where she was awarded a Dean’s Fellowship.

Wednesday, September 6
Deux Voix – organist Stephen Distad and trumpeter Justin Langham
Distad is a nationally recognized organist and church musician living in Houston, Texas, who has served as Minister of Music at First Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Director of Music at Christ United Methodist Church in Rochester, Minnesota, and Organist at First United Methodist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana. Stephen has performed in numerous notable and historical locations such as St. Thomas Episcopal in New York, St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, and Notre Dame in Paris. Justin Langham is a performer, composer, conductor, and teacher based in Houston, Texas. Langham earned a double bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance and composition from the University of Alabama, before moving to Houston in 2013 where he earned both his master's in trumpet performance and doctorate in trumpet performance and conducting from the University of Houston. Dr. Langham is also an award-winning composer, whose music has been commissioned and performed across the United States and beyond in countries such as Italy, Japan, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.

Friday, September 29
Daniel Brondel
Noted by The New York Times for playing the organ with flair, French-born musician Daniel Brondel is the Associate Director of Music at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, where he plays Masses each week that are streamed on the Internet and broadcast live on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. He is also the Associate Director of the Cathedral Choir, and he manages the organ recital series. He recently accompanied the Sistine Chapel Choir during their visit to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, and he has collaborated with famous opera stars, including Renée Fleming, Angela Gheorghiu, Michael Fabiano, Isabel Leonard, Matthew Polenzani, Susan Graham, James Valenti, Danielle de Niece, and Joyce DiDonato. Brondel won the First Prize at the 1996 Arthur Poister Competition. A native of southern France, Mr. Brondel has lived in the United States since 1988.