Posted on Sun, Jan. 13, 2008

The pipes are his calling

Organist was drawn by instrument's 'sheer power'

By Rich Copley

RCOPLEY@HERALD- LEADER.COM

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Schuyler Robinson is at the pinnacle of a career that began with a little clandestine organ playing.

Growing up in Lake Forest, Ill., Robinson started studying piano at age 5, playing by ear the first three years. As a teenager, he became interested in "the sheer power and mechanics of the organ.

"My brother was a musician, and he taught me how to get into the church and turn on the organ," Robinson says.

Robinson seated himself at that console of keyboards, buttons, levers and pedals and acted on some wisdom he now imparts to his students at the University of Kentucky: "Trust the intuitive element. Let yourself be free with this instrument that can seem rather daunting."

He flipped open a hymnal and started to play. If anyone at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Lake Forest was annoyed at the surreptitious organ playing, the payoff was a new church organist.

Since those days, Robinson's studies led to a doctorate in musical arts from the University of Illinois and two long-term collegiate posts: professor and college organist at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C., and, since 1982, professor of organ and harpsichord at UK. He also is chair of UK's master of music in sacred music program.

Robinson, 65, also the assistant organist at Christ Church Cathedral, is a mainstay of Lexington's active organ community. On Friday night he will have one of the highest-profile gigs an organist can ask for: featured soloist for the January Lexington Philharmonic MasterClassics concert, for which he'll perform Francis Poulenc's Concerto for Organ.

"Not many organists get to play with a symphony orchestra, so this is a real privilege," Robinson says.

A home stage advantage

It's a privilege he's had twice before: In 1990, he performed the concerto with the philharmonic and conductor George Zack, then he took it to Florida to play with Ars Flores Orchestra in Fort Lauderdale in 2004.

That first performance caught Robinson right after a sabbatical, during which he was able to play some real French organs and soak up a little French atmosphere to inform the early 20th-century work.

"It's an inventive, ingenious piece," Robinson says. "In some senses, it recalls the essence of Bach and Buxtehude," referring to Johann Sebastian Bach and Dieterich Buxtehude, influential Baroque organ composers.

But Poulenc also was a member of Le Six, a group of composers who gathered after World War I and reacted strongly against the traditional classical music of the day by composers Richard Wagner and Claude Debussy. Along with the Baroque influences, listeners also hear jazzy chords and whiffs of popular song in the organ concerto.

Robinson still treasures the premiere recording of the work by organ legend Maurice DuruflŽ, who worked with Poulenc on the concerto.

Robinson is bringing his knowledge of the work to his collaboration with guest conductor Darryl One, a candidate to replace Zack, who is retiring next year as music director for the Philharmonic. One is conducting the piece for the first time, and during an interview last week, Robinson said the conductor already had initiated a conversation in which they consulted on tempos and some interpretive aspects of the piece.

In addition to knowing the work, Robinson has the advantage of knowing the organ.

Organ soloists have to get used to new instruments fairly regularly, a process that can be disorienting, like someone getting a new computer and taking a while to get used to the keyboard.

But the organ in the UK Singletary Center for the Arts, where the concert will be presented, is essentially Robinson's home organ, which he has had a hand in developing, including the incorporation of digital technology for transmitting commands from the console to the pipe chamber.

Organists are often hidden behind the instrument's console, particularly in churches. Robinson will be center stage Friday, though he says the audience shouldn't expect the theatrics of, say, a piano soloist flailing away at the keyboard.

"The key will sound at the same volume no matter how hard you strike it," he says, "So there's no need to go pounding away. That puts the focus on the music, where it should be."

A new recording career

This Poulenc performance again finds Robinson coming off a sabbatical, though this time his big project kept him close to home.

In his career, Robinson had played some of the greatest organs in the world, including at Westminster Abbey in London. He hopes to continue exploring the world, playing in Pacific Rim nations such as Japan.

But with his sabbatical last spring, Robinson chose to focus on Central Kentucky, recording an album on nine organs in the area, including UK's three campus organs, the recently renovated 1897 Kimball organ at First Presbyterian Church in Lexington and the 2005 Jaeckel Organ at Cynthiana's Episcopal Church of the Advent.

The album, A Kentucky Organ Tour, is due out this spring.

"I'm looking forward to further recording," Robinson says. "After an extensive performing career, it was fascinating to get into the recording process."

He considers this his career peak, but Robinson clearly doesn't intend to slow down. The disc and concert also reinforce his appreciation of living and working where he does.

"Kentucky," he says, "has offered me all sorts of opportunities I never could have anticipated."