Music

I have always loved music. It started with rhythm band before kindergarten. I took piano lessons and learned quite a bit of music theory, but I’m not coordinated well enough to play. However, I have sung in choirs ever since — with the exception of my time in the Nigeria bush. My first chorus was in 7th grade, as a boy soprano.

In high school I sang in chorus every year, the last few under Dr Ralph Kent, who introduced me to stereophonic sound by inviting Paul Klipsch, developer of the Klipschorn, which he demonstrated at Watsonville High School, along with a home-built stereo tape recorder. Two years later I, too, built a stereo tape recorder. As a sophomore in college, my good friend L Robin Martin and I moved our Hi Fi systems into the same dorm room to listen to early stereo broadcasts by two Los Angeles FM radio stations, one on each channel.

In high school I performed my only solo parts — Major-General in Pirates of Penzance and the Watchman in The Mighty Casey (start at 5:28) by William Schuman, but I also sang in the chorus all four years and played cornet in band for two years.

At Pomona College I sang in the college choir all four years under William F Russell and sang in the men’s glee club for three years. My girlfriend was a pianist, so I learned Robert Schuman A Minor Piano Concerto and a few other piano pieces by turning pages while she practiced.

When I went to University of Washington for graduate studies, the first person I met was David P Dahl, an organist at a large Lutheran church, where I sang in the choir. He moved to Trinity Methodist church, and I followed to sing in the choir there. The second year at U of W Dave and I moved to a house across the street from this church in the Ballard neighborhood, and I helped Dave move pipes in the organ and generally re-voice it. The organ was re-dedicated in concert by E Power Biggs. I also took a graduate-level class in madrigals at U of W and sang with the madrigal group there.

After two years of graduate school, I joined the Peace Corps, and was unable to sing in the bush, but did refurbish and tune a pipe organ in Calabar, Nigeria. After my two-year service in Nigeria, I went to Germany to study pipe organ building after three-months studying German in the Goethe Institute and sang in the Blaubeuren StadtKircke. While working in Bielefeld I sang in a church choir.

After returning to Seattle I opened a shop to build tracker-action pipe organs in Seattle and sang in the St Mark’s Cathedral choir under Peter Hallock, and occasionally with the Compline choir on Sunday evenings. I designed and built around 20 pipe organs at Olympic Organ Builders. My masterpiece was at University Unitarian Church. I also designed and built a portable pipe organ, which I offered (but never sold) as a kit.

During this time I sang with Seattle Chamber Singers, a group of about 15 singers which evolved into Harmonia.

With a financial crash in Seattle, we moved to the Hanover, NH, area and I sang in church choirs there, then moved to Boston, where I sang with Church of the Advent choir. I was accepted in Harvard Chapel choir, but could not schedule the rehearsals.

Moving back to Seattle for another stint at University of Washington, this time in Forestry, I sang with the Cathedral choir again, as well as local church choirs as my wife Carol sought parish support to enter the priesthood. This resulted in a stint in New York singing through the 1982 Hymn Book under David Hurd at General Seminary.

Returning to Seattle, we started a church in the Pike Place Public Market, where we had a piano to accompany congregational singing on Sunday evenings. Then this group moved to locations without a piano, and I led the congregation singing hymns without accompaniment, but in full harmony.

Jim sang in several choirs. Each of these directors has a particular greatness:

Watsonville High School Chorus, under Ralph Kent, 1953-57
Yosemite Valley Singers, 1958
Pomona College Pomona College Choir and Men's Glee Club under William F. Russell, 1957-61
Trinity Methodist Church Choir under Wallace Golecke, 1961-63
University of Washington Madrigal Singers under Gerald Kechley, 1962
Several church and basilica choirs in Germany, 1965-66
St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral Choir under Peter Hallock, 1966-70
Seattle Chamber Singers under George Shangrow, 1969-70
St Thomas Church choir, Hanover, NH, 1970-73
Church of the Advent, Boston, 1973-75
St Mark's Cathedral Choir, 1975-78
St Paul's Episcopal Church, Seattle 1979
General Seminary, New York, 1980-83
St. Ignatius Chapel, Seattle University, under Bill McNamara, 2011-12
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Seattle, under Les Martin
St. James Episcopal Church, Taos, under Erick Brunner, 2015-
Taos Community Chorus under Ryan Allais, 2015-16, Erick Brunner 2016-2020, Brian Uerling 2022-

And in some musicals:

Watchman (Baritone lead), The Mighty Casey, by William Schumann, 1956
Major General, Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert and Sullivan, 1957
- Opera Chorus, The Dybbuk, Michael White and David Tamkin, January 1963 (Seattle Post Intelligencer, Jan 8, 1963, page 7)