Even when James was quite young, he manifested a turn to the artistic. His temperament, while not described as difficult, was always, shall we say, discriminating.
One day while attending services without a pacifier, James expressed his feelings in a very vocal fashion. In order to quiet this trumpeting protest, the organ master picked up >
All of those pedals, keys and pistons might look like so much hardware to some people, but to James it was love at first sight. It was Great.
He wasn’t overwhelmed by the prospect of a lifetime of manual labor; he was totally excited by the possibilities.
Unlike sports, James knew that when he was on the >
I was three years out of grad school when the 1986 Ninth Organ-Playing Competition of the Ruth and Clarence Mader Foundation was announced. The required repertoire was intriguing — all music from the 20th century. All competitors were to learn the new Sonata en trio by Jean Guillou, one of the most technically-demanding works I have every learned. And then there were three other groupings of pieces, from which the competitors could choose the rest of their repertoire. I remember learning the pieces for a May 1986 faculty recital at Occidental College. With pieces from that recording, I entered the preliminary round of the competition. That fall, as the final competition drew near, Cherry Rhodes and I talked and came to the prudent conclusion that it would be advantageous for me to have a few coaching sessions with her. The final competition had three finalists perform the repertoire as a formal evening concert at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. It was thrilling to be named First Place Winner.
It was the summer of 1982, and I was 25 years old — fresh out of grad school and content with my work as Organist at Westwood Presbyterian Church and College Organist at Occidental College — when I received a phone call from the Director of Music at All Saints. He told me about an >
