Organist felt the instrument's lure in early life

By Jerry Hames, October 10, 2008 [Episcopal Life] For Gordon Turk, the organ is a musical instrument that transcends everyday realities. "I think that you must have a sense of eternity in order to play the organ," he says. "It transcends ordinary time."

Even young people not reared in the tradition of great organ concerts, or familiar with its music that accompanies hymn singing and songs of praise, recognize the power of this instrument and the ethereal nature of its music, he says. "There is something in the soul of being when one recognizes there are great things around them."

On a balmy September morning in Ocean Grove, in this now quiet, summer New Jersey historic resort town rooted in its Methodist heritage and called "God's Square Mile at the Jersey Shore," Turk sits and plays at one the largest organs in the world. He has entertained and inspired thousands in the Great Auditorium since he first began playing here 34 years ago.

There was a cause for great celebration here on July 3 when aficionados filled the 6,000-seat auditorium to hear the music of this massive, but fragile instrument as part of the summer long celebration of the organ's 100th birthday. The organ was recently enhanced by the addition of a new "Echo" division of 950 pipes in the gallery, bringing its total to 10,823 pipes.

Throughout the summer months, as he has since he was 25, this critically acclaimed organist has played at Sunday services, choir practice and given free community recitals twice-weekly. Off season, he is organist and choirmaster at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

Enthralled by organ playing since he was a youngster, the 59-year-old native of Pennsylvania and son of a Methodist minister began organ lessons as a young teenager and hasn't stopped playing since.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he was winner of the John Cerevalo Prize for "Excellence in the performance of the music of J. S. Bach," and has been a prizewinner in the national improvisation competition of the American Guild of Organists.

He travels nationally and internationally for concert performances, and has played in New York's Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia's Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and other landmark concert halls. He has performed at the legendary Bolshoi Philharmonic in St. Petersburg and in other Russian cities, done two concert tours of Japan and most recently a second concert tour in the Ukraine, playing solo performances and concertos with orchestra.

And what does he have planned for Oct. 19 to mark the beginning of the International Year of the Organ? "First, I'll be playing and choir-directing as usual, at St. Mary's in Wayne," he said. "Then I'll be playing at a concert sponsored by the Delaware chapter of the American Guild of Organists at Richardson Park United Methodist Church in Wilmington, Delaware.

"And while I'm doing that, WRTI, Philadelphia's classical music station, will be airing a two-hour broadcast of the centennial concert we performed at Ocean Grove in July."

For more on the concert organist, coming performances, or to view his CDs, go to www.gordonturk.com

-- Jerry Hames is editor emeritus of Episcopal Life.

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