Maine History Online

John E. Fay, organist at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church on Stevens Avenue, became Portland's sixth municipal organist in 1952.

At the time of his appointment, Fay had already played more than one hundred concerts, both piano and organ, at Portland City Hall.

Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1903, Fay studied piano with Isidor Philipp and organ with Joseph Bonnet in France.

Fay and a colleague, Arlyn Barnard, gave delightful children's concerts each summer and so built an audience for the organ.

Fay and John Weaver produced what is thought to be the first long-play vinyl recording of the Kotzschmar Memorial Organ in the summer of 1959.

In 1968 work was undertaken at city hall to enlarge the stage, and the organ was moved back 15 feet.

At the same time, due to budget tightening, the allocation for the municipal organ department was barely more than the modest salaries for John Fay and curator Burt Witham.

The municipal organist, responsible for arranging concerts, engaging visiting organists, newspaper publicity and posters, plus radio and television stations of all musical activities, also was forced to add fundraising to his other responsibilities.

Due to ill health, John Fay resigned early in 1976.

Listen to John Fay in a recording made in the summer of 1959 perform "Trumpet Voluntary" by Henry Purcell, later attributed to Jeremiah Clarke, on the Kotzschmar Memorial Organ: