The Second Congregational Church, UCC has announced that Ray Cornils will serve as interim organist/choir director in November and December. Mr. Cornils was the municipal organist for the City of Portland from 1990 to 2017. For 30 years he served First Parish Church, UCC, in Brunswick, Maine as minister of music where he led an extensive music program of five vocal and two handbell choirs. 

Ray has been a member of the music faculties of Bowdoin College, the University of Southern Maine, the Young Organists Collaborative, and the Portland Conservatory of Music, where he taught organ, harpsichord, and related classes. He performs regularly with the Portland Symphony Orchestra.

In 2021 he served as interim organist and choir director at the First Congregational Church in Wiscasset, and in the summer of 2022, he served as Interim cathedral musician at St. Luke’s Episcopal Cathedral in Portland.

He has held many leadership roles in the American Guild of Organists, including Convention Coordinator for the 2014 National Convention in Boston. Mr. Cornils studied at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He currently divides his time between the Maine coast and Ecuador’s Andes mountains.

The Second Congregational Church is located at 51 Main Street in Newcastle. Regular Sunday services begin at 10 AM. The Bell and Chancel Choirs are looking forward to rehearsing, ringing, and singing with him over the next two months. The search for a permanent part-time musician is underway.