Triumphant Return Tickets

Triumphant Return is an upcoming event at the Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine. It features the Kotzschmar Organ Opening Night and its principal organist, Ray Cornils. He will be joined by guest musicians, the Kotzschmar Festival Brass with Peter Richard Conte. The concert is presented by FOKO, the Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ, and you can catch it live with Triumphant Return tickets.

The Kotzschmar Memorial Organ, which will be played at the Triumphant Return concert, is a pipe organ built in 1911 by the Austin Organ Company. Named Opus 323 when it was built, it was the second largest organ in the world, and is now the largest organ in the state of Maine today. The organ was donated to the city of Portland by Cyrus Curtis, a Pennsylvanian publisher who grew up in Portland. It was named after a fabled German musician, Hermann Kotzschmar, who moved to Portland in 1849 until his death in 1908.

The Kotzschmar Organ was the first municipal organ of its kind built in the US and is today, one of only two municipally owned organs in America. The other municipal organ is in San Diego. In 1912, the position of municipal organist was also created, which would remain active until 1981, when it was cut due to budget constraints. This led to the formation of the Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ, who were formed to fund a municipal organist, as well as look after the organ. Since then, FOKO has funded the municipal organist as well as paid for restoration of the organ and its upkeep.

There have been ten municipal organists so far. The current municipal organist is Ray Cornils, who took over from Earl Miller in 1990. The first municipal organist of the Kotzschmar Organ was Will C. Macfarlane and he was followed by Irvin John Morgan, Edwin H Lemare, Charles Raymond Cronham, Alfred Brinkler, John E Fray, Douglas Rafter and Gerald McGee. A number of famous, visiting organists have also played the Kotzshmar. These include E. Power Biggs, Dennis James, Felix Hell, Cameron Carpenter, Virgil Fox and Ben van Oosten.

The Triumphant Return will take place at the Merrill Auditorium. Located at 20 Myrtle Street in Portland, Maine, the auditorium is owned by the City of Portland and has a seating capacity of nineteen hundred. It was built in 1911 and was rebuilt in 1997. It has also been known as the Portland City Hall Auditorium and is located in the eastern part of what is today the Portland City Hall. The Portland Symphony Orchestra and Portland Ovations are located at the auditorium, where they perform their main concerts.

Ray Cornils is the tenth municipal organist of the Kotzschmar. He performs a number of concerts during the Centennial Season of the Kotzschmar Organ, which also includes educational programs and tours. He is the Minister of Music at the Parish Church in Brunswick, Maine and has led the church's extensive music program for some time.

Cornils has led choirs at the Parish Church for more than twenty five years and is also a member of the faculty at the University of Southern Maine and at Bowdoin College. At both these institutions, he teaches the harpsichord, organ and other musical classes. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.

Cornils studied the organ under Dame Gillian Weir, Fenner Douglas, Robert Reeves, William Porter and Yuko Hayashi. He has performed in many parts of the world, including Ecuador, France, England, Germany, Ireland, Wales, Russia, Spain and New Zealand. At this concert, he can be seen playing the gigantic Kotzschmar Organ live, once you get Triumphant Return tickets.