Kennebunkport Suite (2016)

1. Foundation (“How Firm a Foundation”)
2. Bethany (“Nearer, My God, To Thee”)
3. Land of Rest (“Jerusalem, My Happy Home”)

Kennebunkport Suite (2016) was written for and is dedicated to Joyce Painter Rice, First Congregational Church, Kennebunkport, Maine, and the church’s 1854 E. & G. G. Hook pipe organ (Opus 177).

The Hook organ is, in the manner of many small American organs of its era, a single manual organ with a 13 note pedal board. This particular instrument is an especially beautiful example of an unaltered organ by the greatest American builders of the 19th century. It is especially well suited to its home in the small church sanctuary.

First Congregational Church is a congregation that particularly enjoys singing the classic hymns, and this organ suite thus consists of preludes on three well-known old American hymns.