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.