While students sleep away Sunday morning in the Butterfield dorms, the members of St. Paul Lutheran Church down the street are just rising for their opening hymns. Voices of old and young are accompanied by chords from the church’s massive pipe organ. While this instrument is half-a-century old, visitors may be surprised to learn that 19 year-old Ann-Marie Illsley ’10 is the musician seated at its bench.
According to Reverend R. Maureen Hawksley, who has been pastor at St. Paul’s for the past eleven years, the church’s former organist retired in December 2005. The congregation then had to use substitutes while a task force was formed to find a new musician. They sent a job description out to various schools in the area, including Yale and University of Connecticut. Illsley was told by notified in the summer about the opening, so she applied; hers was the first e-mail the task force received. After interviewing her and listening to her play, she was approved by the church council.
“She’s been doing really well; Ann-Marie has picked up things so quickly, it’s amazing,” Hawksley said. “She even got the hymnal in the summer and started practicing… we were very impressed.”
Illsley’s exposure to music began in elementary school, when she began regular piano lessons. She began studying the pipe organ around sixth grade, when approached by the organist of her own congregation at Christ Congregational Church in Brockton, Mass.
“He asked if I wanted to start organ lessons. It sounded cool,” Illsley said.
She continued studying the pipe organ throughout high school, serving as the organist for a few different churches, including the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Bridgewater, Mass. She has now studied the pipe organ for almost seven years. According to Illsley, playing at St. Paul’s has been a huge difference from her past ecclesiastical work.
“It’s a more intensive service than I’ve done before,” Illsley said. “They’re still teaching me how to do the liturgy. It took a while to get used to it.”
The liturgy is the basic pattern followed during the service. According to Hawksley, the Lutheran version in particular is very rigorous. This is reinforced by the mirror propped up for Illsley to follow along with the pastor. As she explained, the music itself is essential in the service.
“Congregational singing is a hallmark of the Lutheran church; we’re actually known for singing all the verses of the hymn,” Hawksley mused.
In addition to playing during service and leading choir practice on Wednesday evenings, Illsley is helping the congregation shift to a new hymnal.
“Her enthusiasm is going to be really, really good,” Hawksley said. “It has been really evident, how much she’s helped getting people excited.”
Other adjustments Illsley has had to make include playing with a new instrument. While the Church has had an organ since it was founded in 1897, the current organ was installed in 1961 in a rebuilding following a fire.
“There’s a huge difference between most…when someone has an organ built, it’s a very custom practice,” Illsley explaned. “The organ here is from around the 1950s, the one I played at home was hundreds of years old.”
“There’s a lot of emotional attachment to it from older members,” Hawksley said.
Illsley has received help in tackling the new instrument and service from several people, including musician and longtime member Leslie Coutsouridis and a family member of Illsley, who has been a Lutheran organist for several years. University Organist Ronald Ebrecht, who teaches “Pipe Organ: Theory and Practice” has additionally helped her with much of the music.
Ebrecht was also one of the reasons she chose Wesleyan.
“They have a great organ class; that was definitely something I was looking for.”
Although for many it may hearken back to the school’s far-removed religious origins, the University is quite unique in its long-standing organ program, led by Ebrecht. Illsley is currently one of eight student organists on campus.
This general decline in organ studies, however, has made it harder for churches like St. Paul’s to find musicians.
“In a lot of churches organists are dying out…you find pianos, keyboards, it’s very hard now to find organ players,” Hawksley said.
Illsley herself does not plan to major in Music. While only a freshman, she is considering an MB&B major. Nonetheless, she hopes that, as with the congregation, music can continue to be a part of her life.
“I would like to be with the church for a while…I want to keep up my skills; I definitely want to keep doing music.”
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