The beginnings of my organ study

Roswell Presbyterian Church-Historic Sanctuary (1840), Roswell, Georgia, USA

At Roswell Presbyterian Church, in the Historic Sanctuary, the choir sang from the rear gallery (formerly the slave gallery). The back row of the choir (four people) sat between the pipe chambers. The rope that rang the old ship's bell in the tower hung down above that back row. Oh how I worked to be asked to go ring the bell signaling that Sunday School was over. If I did I got to see the organ console and peek into the pipe chambers!

Historic Sanctuary interior.
Note the silver on the communion table (center in front of the pews). This silver had to be hidden during the American Civil War. The city of Roswell was occupied by Union troops and our church was used as a Yankee hospital.

In 1978 I was in the 9th grade and finally allowed to study the organ. My first organ teacher was the late Jacquie Hollingsworth. Lessons and practice were on the Moeller Artiste in the gallery of Roswell Presbyterian. I was given a key to the church and rode the MARTA bus (15 cents) from the end of our driveway on Alpharetta Highway to the intersection of Alpharetta Highway and Oak Street in downtown Roswell. Then I walked up the hill to the church and practiced, nearly every day. I had a key to the church before I had a key to the family home!

Console of a typical Moeller Artiste.

Each week Sandra Crawford (lead soprano in the church choir, family friend and musical guru) had to come hear me play the organ to pass judgement on my progress. She usually approved.

Bulloch Hall, Roswell, Georgia, USA (1839)
Home of Mittie Bulloch the mother of President Theodore Roosevelt

Very soon I was asked to play the organ for a wedding on the front porch of Bulloch Hall, a historic home in Roswell. The "instrument" was a rented spinet organ with two half keyboards and only 13 short pedals. The wedding was on a hot Georgia summer day. One of the groomsmen fainted, not from my amazing rendition of Here Comes the Bride but probably from a mixture of too much shine and the heat.

Coming next - my first two church jobs, my second organ teacher, and my first contact with tracker organs and a Steinway grand piano.

The Organists of Roswell Presbyterian Church

I heard many Atlanta area organists while growing up at Roswell Presbyterian Church. Many were organist at RPC when they were young and just starting out.

Herbert Buffington, now organist at Peachtree Christian Church (Atlanta), was organist at RPC while he was in high school and before attending Duke University and Peabody Conservatory (Johns Hopkins).

David Fishburn, the long-time associate organist/choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. Philip (Atlanta), was previously at RPC, following Herb Buffington.

Walter Huff served at RPC just after completing his degrees at Oberlin Conservatory and Peabody Conservatory. After RPC Walter had a long tenure as organist-choirmaster at Morningside Presbyterian Church (Atlanta) and chorus master of the Atlanta Opera. He is now on the choral faculty at Indiana University, Jacobs School of Music.

Current Sanctuary of Roswell Presbyterian Church, viewed from the church's historic cemetery

There were several other memorable organists at RPC while I was growing up (often they didn't stay very long). The names I remember include Ronald Rice, Patricia Manderson, Margaret Pavlovsky, Carolyn Chestnut and Brenda Brown. 

Each of these men and women had an influence on me...

• The ones I heard as a young child from the pew 
• The one who accompanied us in children's choir
• The ones who asked me to turn pages (supreme honor)
• The ones who accompanied me as I played the oboe or saxophone for church
• The one who got me through competitive college scholarship auditions (accompanying and coaching)
• The ones who took a risk and asked me to play the organ for church services

....I learned a lot. 

Several of the names and places in today's blog come up again years later!

Fasten your seat belts...

Today I'm beginning a blog about the many churches and institutions that I have been a part of or visited to play their organs. The venues reach half-way across the United States and jump the pond to England and parts of continental Europe. The blog will begin before my days as a student at Indiana University, or the study trips to Europe, or recitals, master classes, church jobs and teaching. It's incredible to look back and remember.

I'm not the best record keeper so acquiring details will put me back in touch with people with whom I've lost contact. There are itineraries, photographs, videos and stories to recover which will provide dates, locations and memories of people, visits, instruments, services, and performances.

Fasten your seat belts... (No, I'm not going to quote Margo Channing here)
... for a great ride!!!

FIRST...the beginning of my vocation

Roswell Presbyterian Church, Historic Sanctuary (1840)
Roswell, GA, USA

This is where it all began. There are no pictures that I know of, with me standing on a pew and Daddy holding the hymnal, running his finger under the words so I could follow the hymns. That was in the early 1970's at Roswell Presbyterian Church. It's the first place I heard a pipe organ in person. The organ was a Moeller Artiste in twin chambers, in the former slave gallery, installed in the 1960's. This organ has been discarded and replaced. The remains of it are alive across the street in the organ of Roswell United Methodist Church, thanks to their organist, Tom Alderman. I wonder what instrument the Moeller Artiste had replaced.