Playing the Nave

St. Mary’s Church hosts music for all folds

Music fills the cavernous sanctuary throughout the year at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Cold Spring — and it’s not always what one might expect.

In addition to Prince Nyatanga playing Sunday morning sacred songs on the organ, jazz pianist Daniel Kelly has a gig at 7 p.m. tonight (Sept. 6), the Doansburg Chamber Ensemble and the Taghkanick Chorale perform regularly and the Hudson Highlands Pipe Band practices in the Parish Hall.

Last year, a group created an independent nonprofit, Music at St. Mary’s, to present an eclectic mix of free concerts in the nave. Part of its mission is to pay the musicians a fair wage with funding provided by donations and grants. Another goal is to entice people into the space.

“We hear it all the time: ‘I’ve lived here my entire life and have never been inside,’” says Bruce Croushore, who chairs the new entity. “The sound is spectacular.”

The Musical Heart of St. Mary’s

The digital organ at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church resembles the traditional instruments profiled in the Aug. 30 issue of The Current, with two important exceptions: the computer inside and the sound emanating from speakers in the rafters.

After a fire destroyed the church’s organ in 1961 and its successor fell into disrepair, John Drew came to the rescue in the mid-1990s, installing a $250,000 electronic organ and designing its circuits and sound.

Drew left in 2000 and about 15 years later, the circuitry blew. Tim Lusk, known around the church as Mr. Fixit, kept it going with an 18-month overhaul.

The manufacturer, Copeman Hart in the U.K., had been purchased in 2011 by a Dutch firm, Global Organ Group, which showed little interest in providing service, recalls Rob Lusk, who helped his father rebuild the organ in 2016. 

Rob Lusk, who took over maintenance after his father died in 2019, says the pipe organ probably needed $600,000 in repairs. He estimates the Lusk family’s overhaul cost $75,000. 

Beyond a computer, the guts include an old transformer and electrolytic capacitors, which “serve as the power supply for the stop-control solenoids,” Lusk explains. Wires sprout everywhere. 

The digital wizardry can mimic the sound of any pipe organ and a pedal swells the volume. A portrait of Bach sits by the organist’s left hand.

“Music is the heart and soul of St. Mary’s, and Tim brought it back,” says his widow, Barbara Lusk. “But without John Drew’s generous gift, the church could have become a hollow shell.”

After Kelly, Music at St. Mary’s will host monthly shows on Saturday afternoons: It has booked the Oxalis Trio (Sept. 21, with Carl Gutowski on flute, Zachary Pulse on oboe and Alexandra Beliakovich on piano), the Elm Chamber Ensemble (Oct. 19), the West Point Glee Club (Nov. 16) and jazz pianist Art Labriola plus the trio Mother Lode (Dec. 14). Each performance begins at 2 p.m.

“This is what churches do all over Europe, turn themselves into concert venues for all kinds of music,” says Croushore.

Past performers have included the Garrison School’s Jazz-Rock Ensemble, Peekskill saxophonist Joe Natale and the New Muse 4tet, featuring violinist Gwen Laster, who lives in Beacon.

Kelly, who lives in Cold Spring, will play with the band he’s taking to the Jazz at the Lake festival in Lake George later this month. The group performs with a piano, bass and drums, plus guitar and spoken word.

“I’m learning that the Hudson Valley is filled with many talented musicians,” says Croushore. “They’re quite happy to live in a beautiful space a short ride from Manhattan and perform near their homes, even if the pay isn’t at New York scale.”

St. Mary’s is located at 1 Chestnut St. in Cold Spring. For more information, see musicatstmarys.com.