The Kotzschmar Memorial Organ, usually referred to as the Kotzschmar Organ, is a pipe organ located inside the city-owned Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine, United States. Built in 1911 by the Austin Organ Co. as Opus 323, it was the second-largest organ in the world at the time, and it remains the largest organ in Maine today.[1]
The organ was given to the city by Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis, a publisher from Pennsylvania who grew up in Portland. Curtis named the organ in honor of Hermann Kotzschmar, a German-born musician who came to Portland in 1849 and lived there until his death in 1908.[1]
The Kotzschmar Organ is a prime example of the U.S. style of municipal (city-owned) organs which were once a prevalent part of American culture throughout the first half of the 20th century.[2] It was the first municipal organ built in the U.S.,[3] and is one of only two U.S. municipal organs still owned by a municipality — the other being the Spreckels Organ in San Diego, California.[1]
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The City of Portland created the position of municipal organist in 1912. The position remained until 1981, when it was eliminated due to budget constraints. That same year, a non-profit organization called Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ was formed in order to provide continued funding for a municipal organist (who would become a FOKO employee), as well as to fund upkeep and restoration of the organ, which the city could no longer afford.[1]
To date, there have been ten municipal organists in Portland:[1]
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A partial list of notable organists who have played the Kotzschmar Memorial Organ:[1] [4]
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