St Thomas Jamaica Plain
Recital programs by organists Lois Regestein, Boston MA, and Dr. Jens Korndoerfer, Atlanta GA
First Church Unitarian houses Opus 171 (3-32), the organ made famous by Thomas Murray’s recording of Mendelssohn sonatas some years ago. First Church was the home church of one of the Hook brothers.
St Thomas Aquinas houses Opus 160 (3-37), built originally for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (now Cathedral) downtown and moved to Jamaica Plain in the 1890s. This instrument is the largest extant pre-Civil War American organ in the United States.
Both programs are free and open to the public. The programs will show the capabilities and versatility of the instruments. Each organ has seven reed stops, outstanding flutes and remarkable choruses that ‘skillfully balance cohesion with energy’ (Scot Huntington, Organ Historical Society convention handbook for Boston 2000).
9:30 – First Church, Jamaica Plain. Brief introduction to both instruments followed by a recital by Lois Regestein.
10:15 – Walk three blocks to St Thomas Aquinas Church.
10:30 – Recital by Dr. Jens Korndoerfer
11:15 – Open console time at St Thomas and First Church.
Directions
Jamaica Plain is a section of Boston that is easily accessible from Copley Square via City Bus #39 from Back Bay Station, near the hotel. At conclusion of the JP tour, visitors may return to the hotel on Bus 39 or transfer near a stop on the bus line to the Green Line T at Brookline Village, to join the afternoon Hook tour in Brookline.
First Church Unitarian Jamaica Plain
E. & G.G. Hook, Opus 171, 1854/60
St Thomas Aquinas Church Jamaica Plain
E. & G.G. Hook, Opus 160, 1854
George S. Hutchings, Opus 551, c. 1898