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Church services are filled with music, whether that be a choir singing hymns or a bellowing organ or dulcet piano that accompanies it.
Music is a crucial part of church services to most people. But for three Winchester families, the sanctuary pipe organ in the gallery of the Parish of the Epiphany has become a major part of their lives.
In the 1990s, it was easy to find organists. At the time, the American Guild of Organists had 20,000 members, but the number of organists slowly declined. In 2023, the organization had 11,516 organists. Now, the Boston chapter has 280 members.
Middle school students Katherine Cumming, Illario Faienza and Bennett Myers are all studying the organ through the Winchester church. Jeremy Bruns, the music director at Parish of the Epiphany, encouraged them to apply for the Young Organists Initiative scholarship.
The scholarship, which Bruns coordinates, is run by the Boston chapter of the American Guild of Organists. It hopes to promote an understanding and enthusiasm for the pipe organ among young musicians and tackle the declining number of organists.
The initiative pairs each student with an organ instructor and provides $1,000 for lessons, a yearlong membership to the guild and a yearlong subscription to the guild’s magazine. Scholars are featured in an end-of-the-year recital in Boston as well as concerts and events around the state.
Faienza was part of the scholarship program in the past, but this year he’s focusing on playing more contemporary pieces. Cumming and Myers, two of this year’s scholars, will perform at the church on May 17 at 4 p.m. for their first of two recitals this year.
While they all started their organ studies as part of Young Organists Initiative, they all had backgrounds in the church’s music scene. Faienza had been part of Bruns’ Choristers, a choir of children from grades 3 to 8. Cumming and Myers had taken piano lessons with Bruns.
The three students had been working with Bruns for three years. They each started the organ when they were in fifth grade.
Bruns fostered their interest in the instrument the same way his childhood piano teacher had with him.
When he was younger, he too had gravitated toward the organ when his piano teacher suggested he try it out in eighth grade. Once he started playing, Bruns was drawn to the different sounds he could make with the pipes.
The students enjoy the organ for a similar reason. Faienza likes the way the organ’s pipes hold and alter sounds, and for him playing the organ can feel like a “trance.” Myers and Cumming like the challenge that operating multiple keyboards and pedals gives them.
Playing the organ has opened up a new world for these families and their children.
The Young Organists Initiative provides masterclasses and workshops where students and families can watch an organ be built.
Bethany Myers, Bennett’s mother, has seen both her son and her family’s interest in music and the organ grow since Bennett started playing. The family has been traveling into Boston frequently to see concerts.
“Music is bigger than you’d think,” Bennett Myers said. “More people watch and listen to it than you’d think.”
While the organist community might be small, Nick Myers, Bennett’s father and a priest at the church said there’s a lot of support within it.
For Bennett Myers, ingraining himself into the community has been great for his learning.
“It’s nice to see people of all different skill levels, so I can learn new things from them and make my music even better,” Bennett Myers said.
The church community is also supportive of the students. Each of them occasionally takes over the postlude or prelude pieces and the church will erupt into “riotous applause,” said Jared Cumming, Katherine’s father.
“It’s really nice because whenever I talk to them after I’ve played a piece, they always compliment me,” Illari Faienza o said. “It makes me feel more confident in playing pieces and overall just more happy whenever I play anything.”
Tavishi Chattopadhyay is a journalism student at Boston University. This story is part of a partnership between the Winchester News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
