Most people don't have to wait until their legs grow long enough before they can begin preparing for their dream job.
And, as Andrew Unsworth can tell you, most dream jobs don't center around church.
But his did.
So too, did a surprising number of other Utahns who have chosen to pursue playing the organ as their vocation of choice.
The new organist for the Cathedral of the Madeleine, Unsworth remembers a childhood of being "always attracted to the organ. It was just a matter of waiting until my legs were long enough to reach the pedals." With a family steeped in music — his father is a music professor, his mother has a master's degree in music and his siblings are professional musicians or aspiring to be — Unsworth said it's only natural that he loves the keyboard.
After pursuing his dream through a bachelor's degree at Brigham Young University and then on to Duke University for a master's and doctorate, Unsworth finds himself at the bench of one of Utah's premier organs, playing his heart out in a vocation he says few of his fellow Latter-day Saints initially believe is a "real job."
"I guess because this is Salt Lake and it's so heavily Mormon, I don't know how much experience most people here have had with other religions. When they ask if it's a full-time job and I get paid, they are amazed.
"I think most people here in our ward are not quite sure how to take me. Everyone is friendly, but I don't think anyone really understands what I'm doing."
Barbara Vance, a spokeswoman for The Madeleine Choir School at the cathedral, says Unsworth is "a great guy. His friends here call him a religious mercenary" knowing that his Latter-day Saint culture thinks of church organists as members of the local congregation who are asked by the bishop to volunteer their time playing the organ for Sunday services as a "calling." While his skills would certainly lend themselves to such an effort, its not something Unsworth has time for now, seeing that his Sundays are spent playing for Mass at Utah's largest Catholic cathedral.
"It does make Sundays difficult, and incredibly long," he says, performing several times a day and attending his own church meetings. Yet he finds a fulfillment that he believes few others have in their professional life, one centered around the divine.
"I feel when I play here, it's not just a job, I'm not just playing the notes like it's a concert. I feel I'm genuinely helping people worship God, and that's a good thing, to use musical talent that way."
While its a different form of worship than that of his own faith, Unsworth said the experience of working for the Cathedral, and other Christian churches before he came to Salt Lake City, "has certainly not been detrimental to my own faith . . . it really has deepened (it), and given me a perspective on how it stands in relation to others.
"Sometimes some of the texts sung here I don't always agree with theologically," but that matters little since "the end purpose of it all is to worship and praise God."
In his own way, Unsworth said, he likes to think he's helping to create yet one more bridge between his faith culture and others. The past few years have seen people of many faiths coming together for a variety of concerts at the Cathedral, one of the most recent being the community interfaith service held just before the Olympics. Speakers and musicians of many faiths and cultures gathered for what is planned as an annual event.
Different faith cultures have different ways of thinking about harmony and tonality, but he sees music as a great equalizer that "transcends the divides of theology."
He's not alone.
Several other Utah organists say they find a peace in religious music that doesn't depend on the particular brand of doctrine. The challenge is often finding enough work to pay the bills.
"Around here there are not very many full-time positions," says Rulon Christiansen, a professional organist whose latest stop in a 30-year career is at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral. He grew up watching his father work as a church organist during the 1950s.
"My dad raised us strict LDS, but I'm very open-minded because my dad was. . . . He played in the Army for the Catholics, the Episcopalians and the LDS." As the director of music at the Hill Air Force Base chapel, his father played all kinds of music for all kinds of worship. "People in his ward ostracized him because he was getting paid to do music on Sunday. But they would always ask him to do free seminars, which he did."
The cold shoulder didn't dissuade Christiansen from deciding the job was also his passion. After studying with renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir organist Alexander Schreiner, he went to BYU, where he studied with J.J. Keeler, who had studied under the organist at Westminster Abbey in London. Current Tabernacle organist Clay Christiansen was a classmate. Keeler encouraged his students to go out in the community and get jobs playing the organ.
He remembers walking in downtown Provo and seeing an A-frame church. "Something told me to go in and ask if they needed an organist and you'll be hired." It happened, providing him a place to practice and get paid to perform at the same time. "People were a lot more quiet during the prelude. . . . Sometimes they even applauded after the postlude. I thought 'they really appreciate what I'm doing' where they didn't in my own faith." And he's been playing ever since.
To many Latter-day Saints, being an organist is simply another "church calling," Christiansen said. Not so in his profession.
Because most Christian churches devote some of their budget to music and are used to paying musicians, "none of the other religions care what religion you are if you play the organ."
In fact, it's ironic that a few Latter-day Saints seem to be "suspicious" of professional organists, Unsworth said, because BYU has "one of the largest if not the largest organ program in the country in terms of sheer number of students. There are lots of people taking organ lessons there, maybe 180 to 200."
Christiansen remembers that most of his fellow students at BYU "got these jobs at big churches out of state" since the full-time job market locally is very limited.
But the size of the market didn't dissuade Shane Fellows, organist for the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Ogden and an active Latter-day Saint. His training came at Utah State University. He said he "fell madly in love with the pipe organ at age 13 or 14.
"I think I was born in love with the pipe organ," Fellows said. One of the first people I remember was Alexander Schreiner."
Anticipating from the time he was a teen that he would become a professional organist, Fellows began attended all kinds of Christian worship services to get a feel for their music. As he began talking about his aspirations and "started to get my feet wet, some people didn't know quite what to do with it. But my family has never experienced the slightest intonation of concern. They have been totally very matter of fact about it."
After serving a mission in Vienna for his church, Fellows picked up his studies at USU and now works 20 hours a week at the Church of the Good Shepherd, where he's found people he loves and a theology that has helped strengthen his own faith.
He sees the paycheck as "a necessary evil in the sense of earning money. When you're pursing music with your whole soul you snatch every second you can get your hands on to improve. Musicians do what work they have to do to be able to pursue their art, and they snatch everything they can get to do it. That doesn't mean you can't make money at it or that you shouldn't. But my primary concern right now is in developing as an artist."
Myron Patterson may be a one-of-his-kind in Utah — a professional organist who didn't grow up here or study at a local school. A part-time organist at the Bountiful Community Church, his primary responsibilities are at the University of Utah as head of the fine arts library and an adjunct associate professor of organ.
He's been playing for more than 30 years, and has degrees and diplomas from Northwestern, the University of British Columbia, Trinity College in London and the Royal Canadian College of Organists.
His current position at the U. brought him to Utah more than 16 years ago, and he's had involvement in numerous church music programs. "Being involved as organist generally means being involved with other aspects of church music as well. It's not only the playing that brings satisfaction but the ability to be able to use music, and specifically through the organ, as a means of glorifying God."
He's worked locally with a group called the Canterbury Singers, which has completed three recording projects, one of them a CD called "Make Me Joy" and a second with Douglas Spotted Eagle on his CD called "Pray."
A Catholic by faith, he sees religion through a somewhat different set of lenses than many of his colleagues.
"Here in the rather unique religious mix in Utah and the Salt Lake City area, I think there is a greater understanding amongst denominations, or at least a greater degree of respect for denominations and a closer working relationship than perhaps there are in other places."
While he loves what he does, Patterson said the number of students in organ programs across the country is dwindling, and most are choosing it as a secondary career. "I think a lot of it is that many young people are not exposed to good organ or church music in the traditions they come from. Very few hear good organ playing, therefore its not much of an attraction."
But to those considering such a career, Patterson offers some advice.
"First, find out what a church organist does. Visit lots of churches to get a sense of what goes on. Then realize you probably won't be able to do everything you want to at the level you've been trained at. You have to understand the mission of being a church organist is not just performing but working with people. You may not be able to make a full-time living and you need to keep other options open as means of providing a mixed career."
What does he foresee for the future of his profession?
"Certainly I think we're on the endangered species list." With technology playing a larger part in music and many churches using a blended approach of various musical styles to attract a variety of age groups, fewer full-time organists are needed. The diffusion may be a reflection of what is happening to faith as a whole, he said.
For Patterson, the trend is worrisome because much of what he is sees is "not really focused at all. Sometimes it becomes more an entertainment approach than a religious approach.
"It raises the question of what is church worship about — is it an entertainment with a game show host approach or for worshipping God? Or is it for worshipping man? I think it's for God and that needs to be measured carefully."
E-mail: carrie@desnews.com