What led me to the organ? Well, I studied piano and dance intensively in Philadelphia while I was growing up. And one day I just put my hands and feet together on the organ. The first two organs I played around on were a reed organ in a Granny’s very old house in the Berkshires, and an electronic organ in a church in Philly. I was fascinated with how you could make a gradual crescendo on an organ with the swell pedal, something impossible to do while holding notes on a piano. I love the piano, of course, but the two literatures for these mediums are very different.
I decided I wanted to do something for the church, so I headed off to Juilliard to become an organ major. I never dreamt I would end up studying at three schools, plowing through a Doctorate. I am in my 56th year now of working for 12 different kinds of churches. Currently, I play a beautiful Ott two manual organ in live acoustics, at The New Church, on Park Drive in Glenview, as well as occasionally subbing elsewhere. In my spare time, I teach and entertain. It’s a great life!
I joined AGO in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1963. I have been a member of every chapter, everywhere that I have lived after that: Syracuse,N.Y.,–Lincoln, Nebraska,–Cedar Rapids, Iowa,– and the Chicago North Shore Chapter, sometimes serving on the Boards. AGO is so valuable because it provides contiuing education for us, .good professional contacts, exciting Conventions, and life-long wonderful friends.