LEWISTON — The Maine Music Society board of directors has announced its new officers who will lead the nonprofit organization through its 32nd and 33rd seasons.

Reelected for another two-year term at its June meeting: Chair Richard O’Brien, Treasurer Gilbert J. LaPointe and Secretary Susan Trask. Board member Sheryl Whitmore was elected vice chair, succeeding David Blocher, who is retiring.

O’Brien is a local lawyer who has practiced with the firm of Linnell Choate & Webber of Auburn for the past 40 years. Over the years, O’Brien has served in various capacities for several municipal and nongovernmental organizations. He joined the Maine Music Society board of directors in 2017.

Artistically, O’Brien has been singing in the tenor section of the chorale for the past seven years, and in the society’s chamber singers. He also sings in his church choir, has been a cast member for many years for the fall musical with The Theater at Monmouth, and is a devoted bluegrass mandolinist.

O’Brien has lived for many years in Winthrop with his wife, Ellen, with whom he celebrates 45 years of marriage this summer. His children are grown and have careers that vary from woodworking craftsman to lawyer to craft brewer.

Whitmore is a retired librarian who served as the library director for Lisbon for seven years and as reference librarian for the Lewiston Public Library for 12 years. She has also worked as a substitute teacher, a manufacturing assistant at Thos. Moser and is a former organist and choir director for the Minot Methodist Church.

She is now a member of the Maine Music Society chorale and the chamber singers, an Androscoggin Home Healthcare + Hospice volunteer visitor and hospice choir member and belongs to the Women Giving Back organization.

Her hobbies include singing, creating beautiful art quilts, kayaking, hiking, biking and reading. Now living in Auburn, Sheryl was born in Blue Hill and has been a Mainer all her life. She and her husband, Jonathan, have two sons and five grandchildren.

LaPointe is a native of Lewiston, graduating from Saint Dominic High School in 1968. He earned his bachelor of science in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 1972 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, where his specialty was communications and computer systems. He has both a master of science in systems management and an MBA from the Air Force Institute of Technology.

Shortly after his retirement as lieutenant colonel in January 1995, LaPointe converted a longtime woodworking hobby into a business from 1996 to 2002. He has also been active in the community, serving as chairman of the Basilica Restoration Committee from 2002 to 2007, and as business manager for the various Catholic churches in Lewiston, retiring from that in 2014.

Having attended Maine Music Society concerts since his Air Force retirement, LaPointe did not hesitate to accept the invitation to join the board in 2015, and has been its treasurer since 2016. He lives with his wife, Connie, in Auburn.

Trask has been singing alto with the Maine Music Society chorale since its inception. She is also a member of the chamber singers and is president of the chorale. In addition, she is known for writing the music notes that are shared with audiences as part of our spring pop concerts.

Trask lives in Auburn with her husband, Woody, who also sings with the chorale. She is retired from a career as a teacher and literary coach in the Auburn schools. In her retirement, she volunteered with Androscoggin Home Healthcare + Hospice, serving in patient support in homes and at Hospice House. She cofounded and directed Androscoggin Harmony, the hospice choir, from which she retired recently.

When not involved with her various singing activities, Trask enjoys sewing, reading, word puzzles, sailing and kayaking.

The Maine Music Society is a music-performing nonprofit group in central Maine, organized to support the artistic and educational activities of the auditioned, volunteer singers of the chorale and the chamber singers.

The society offers quality performances to the public through imaginative programming under the directorship of Richard Nickerson.

Comments are not available on this story.

« Previous

Recreational marijuana prices dropping as product floods the market

Next »

Drought persists as Maine has another month of well below average rainfall