Meet the new organist

I am honored to have been hired as Music Director, Organist and Choir Director at St. Mark's. I have worked there as the Praise Director for almost nine years, but this new position greatly expands my duties there.

The organ might be the first instrument I really wanted to play. It's hard to remember some of these things clearly because I was so young at the time, but I have a strong memory of sitting in the choir loft at my family's old church and being fascinated with the organ. In fact, I used to pretend to be playing the pedals to the point that I remember a choir member turning around and asking me to stop kicking the pew in front of me.

Anyway I now have an good excuse to spend a great deal of time with this wonderful instrument. St. Mark's has a fine organ and I love playing it. Here you can see that, as always, Elmer is helping me practice. (Usually he sits in his little chair that sits behind the bench. At this moment, however, he needed to be held.)

Finally, let me make it known that I was deeply saddened by the departure of John McIlray who served as organist of St. Mark's for more than fourteen years. I have a great deal of fondness and respect for him, and I wish him well in his future endeavors.