Music of Maine - Music Venues and Institutions

Music Venues and Institutions

Major music venues in Maine include Portland's Merrill Auditorium and The State Theatre.

The state is home to several prominent country music organizations, including Maine Country Music Association Hall of Fame, Down East Country Musica Association and the Maine Academy of Country Music (www.macmhome.org). Musical institutions include the Maine State Music Theater in Brunswick, which has been in operation since 1959 and is one of Three professional music theaters in the state; the others are Northport Music Theater in Northport which opened in 2007 and Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunguit which opened in 1933.

The oldest continually operated symphony orchestra in the country is the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. The only other professional orchestra is the Portland Symphony Orchestra; Portland is also home to the Portland Choral Arts Society and the Portland String Quartet. The DaPonte String Quartet is the only other professional string quartet in Maine. The Portland Opera Repertory Theatre and OperaMaine are the main outlets for opera in the state.

Portland is also home to One Longfellow Square, which promotes music and other aspects of expression, utilizing a small downtown space to present a wide variety of artists in an intimate setting.

Outside of Portland, there are pockets of people who keep the traditional musical styles of their ancestors, including the Swedish music of Stockholm and New Sweden, the French-Maine community across the state, especially in Upper St. John Valley, home to the Acadian Festival, and the ethnic Russian music of the Kennebec River community in Richmond, Maine.

Maine's musical heritage also include the long-standing men's a cappella group, the Meddiebempsters, at Bowdoin College, and Bates College's all-male Manic Optimists. Bowdoin is also home to the Bowdoin International Music Festival and the Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music. Other Maine festivals which focus on Western classical music are the Atlantic Music Festival, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Salt Bay Chamberfest in Damariscotta, www.saltbaychamberfest.org, and the Sebago-Long Lake Festival Players.

Original compositions about Maine and by Maine composers are stored in the Maine Collection at the Bagaduce Music Lending Library in Blue Hill. With over 225,000 separate titles, this library houses the largest publicly available sheet music collection in North America.