PORTLAND – On Tuesday, March 13 the Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ will present its annual Bach Birthday Bash in two performances, at noon and at 7:30p.m. at Merrill Auditorium.

Portland municipal organist Ray Cornils will lead this all-Bach tribute on the Kotzschmar organ. This year’s Bach Birthday Bash features special guest oboist Stefani Burk, who will accompany the Kotzschmar during the concerto in A major as well as in two other pieces.

Admission is a suggested $10 per adult.

Cornils will open the program with Bach’s “Fantasy and Fugue” in g minor. Other works include “Toccata, Adagio and Fugue” in C major and “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme and Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”

Cornils has been municipal organist since 1990. He also serves as music director at First Parish Church, UCC, in Brunswick, where he has lead a music program of five vocal and two handbell choirs since 1987. He has given concerts throughout the United States and in Germany, Russia, New Zealand and France. He has been a featured recitalist for conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society and has been a guest artist on Midnight Pipes, a TV program hosted by Frederick Hohman.

Burk has been a member of the PSO since 1982, and has also performed with most of the orchestras of northern New England. Recent concerto performances include Bach’s Oboe D’Amore Concerto and his Concerto for Oboe and Violin. Besides an active performance schedule, Burk is the wind department chair at the Concord Community Music School, where she also teaches oboe and coaches ensembles, including the Scholarship Woodwind Quintet.