I began studying organ my freshman year in high school at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.  Shortly after my first lesson I began playing at the First Presbyterian Church, Jerseyville, IL where my father was pastor.  Once a month, my father also preached at a small country church, where the hymns leaned towards gospel, and where the accompanist’s fingers danced over the keyboard.  My mother also played hymns in this fashion.  These two women impressed upon me how hymns give life to worship.  Hymns move us ever forward to the Eucharist; hymns help us contemplate a reading or a prayer; indeed hymns deepen the personality of worship.   Thus, as I have heard hymns all of my life, I have always felt they should be played with a certain sensitivity and be an added dimension of the service.

I love to play all sorts of music for preludes and postludes but I have a special affinity for early American hymn tunes especially from the Southern Harmony.  That is why you hear Simple Gifts an inordinate amount of times throughout the year.  Of course I throw in some Bach from time to time – but you just cannot go for “baroque.”  (Pardon the pun – but it was inevitable.)

I have been one of the organists at St. Bartholomew’s since the fall of 1982.  Sometimes I’ve played at the 10:30 service, sometimes at the 8:00, and well sometimes at both services.  Playing the organ for you is one of the great joys of my life.   I am overwhelmed at times by this gift of music and wonder how I can be reading little black notes and translating them into keystrokes, which in turn make music.  It is a gift by which I am humbled.  And you, the congregation of the Parish Church of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, humble me even more, by thanking me for this gift God has granted me to share with you.  Let us continue to praise God together in song and music.