Judy Kuhn has been involved in Rumford’s music programs for more than 30 years.
By Eileen M. Adams
Staff Writer

RUMFORD – Judy Kuhn has a love of music that spans decades. Not only did she begin piano lessons at age 4 and teach middle and high school choral and general music for 37 years, but she has also been involved in the area’s community choral music association for more than 30 years.

“Music has been my life. I’m good at it. I’m successful,” she said. “Music does something to the soul.”

Kuhn, originally from Lansing, Mich., came to the Rumford area 35 years ago to teach in the Rumford school department. The next year, in 1969, she became involved in what has evolved into the Rumford Association for the Advancement of the Performing Arts. For 25 of those years, she has directed the annual Christmas/winter musical. This is the last year for that, with the show celebrating the 35th anniversary of RAAPA. It is called “The Way We Were,” to be performed next month.

She’ll continue her involvement with the group’s June dinner theater and other RAAPA performances. But now, she goes to Florida for the winter.

Over the years, she has been involved with or led the group in more than 135 performances, for everything from full-fledged musicals to concerts for special occasions and Christmas carol singing in area nursing homes.

She’s not sure why the annual Christmas/winter musical started. “We were sitting around one night and said we ought to to do something for Christmas,” she said. She had gone to the annual “Magic of Christmas” performance in Portland when she got the idea.

“That was my inspiration,” she said.

For 25 years, area people have had a chance to attend an annual Christmas season musical at the local high school. Kuhn designed each program with four scenes – an indoor scene, an outdoor scene, a children’s segment, and the Nativity.

During the 1970s and 1980s, she led RAAPA members through a series of musical plays. Her favorite, and the one presenting the greatest challenge, was “Fiddler on the Roof,” performed in 1973.

She read the book, attended two live productions and watched the movie as her homework before adapting the play for RAAPA.

“It was a giant undertaking for me,” she said.

She was concerned that the Hebrew traditions were faithfully followed, and that the costumes were accurate. She enlisted the help of a person of Jewish descent who was in the chorus. The efforts proved worthwhile.

“The two shows were sold out. The show went over very well,” she said.

She said she will miss involvement with RAAPA members and the program during the Christmas season. But some of that gap will be filled by her participation in a large church choir in Florida.

Next year’s Christmas/winter program is planned to go on as usual in December. The new director will be Bob Bohren, the choir director at the Mexico Congregational Church.

“I feel very fortunate to have landed in Rumford, Maine. I love to direct and these are people who love to sing. Sounds like a marriage to me,” she said of her RAAPA experience.

eadams@sunjournal.com

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