The Concert Organist

In keeping with my Walter Mitty theme of last week—I might have been a great concert organist like Virgil Fox performing all over the world or I might have played weekly in some grand Cathedral Church. Reviewing my musical life I see I got everything backward.

I started in the right direction. I went to Peabody College (now Vanderbilt) on a music scholarship. Peabody is an outstanding school in music education but having no counselor to direct me I majored in Concert Organ. Like most all my friends in Murfreesboro I had studied piano for 10 years with Miss Irene Morton and it was exciting for me to feel the power present in a pipe organ—much better than its sissy sister, the piano.

I had an inkling early in my study that I did not have the “stuff” and dedication of other Music majors. Three hours a day practicing in a solitary practice room often bored me and I think I was the only one in the whole school studying to be a Concert organist.

The highlight of my concert plans came my Junior year in College when my teacher entered me in a “Young Nashville Talent Show” (A forerunner of the present American Idol). There was a panel of judges but no live audience. You might think it was all country music but Nashville, at that time, was known as the “Athens of the South,” and was a center for classical music of all kinds. I played a soulful Bach Chorale and then the flashy Widor “Tocatta” and I won the $1,000 contest. But I knew in my heart that I was a better showman than musician.

You might think marrying a minister was perfect for an organist but I soon found out the opposite was true. All the churches we served already had organists and without daily practise I soon lost my touch. The fact that this didn’t bother me at all confirmed my feeling that as a serious musican I was an imposter. I love music but it was not my talent.

In an ironic twist in my life, after 10 years of marriage David received a scholarship to Union Seminary in New York City and I entered Julliard to finally study Music education. Here my fellow students were all Concert Majors, preparing for worldwide tours and making recordings. I met Byron Janis and Nicholas Zumbro while I studied “How to Teach Piano.”

I found I loved teaching piano and did this for several years after leaving Julliard. While I didn’t develop many serious musicians we had great fun giving recitals with themes and costumes.

My magnificent career as a world famous concert organist was only another Walter Mitty daydream.