November 19, 2024 - Ramblin' with Roger

Though I joined the choir at First Presbyterian Church in 2000, I had forgotten that I had met the organist there, Nancy Frank, well before that year. First Pres is one of the FOCUS churches. Periodically, members of the then-five churches would sing at one of the other churches. When I was singing at Trinity UMC in the 1980s and 1990s, I knew, even from the brief time I spent with her every two years or so, she was an amazingly kind, gracious, patient, and extraordinarily talented musician.

One of the choir members, who joined the FPC choir a couple of decades before I did, noted that the organ had been recessed behind a wall. When a renovation was needed, Nancy successfully lobbied to make the instrument visible to the congregation. Indeed, while unnecessary, she became a longtime church member, serving on the Worship Committee and helping shape the evolving service.

She was really good at what she did. At her funeral on November 16, one of her sons noted that she could dissect recorded music, identifying the various instrumentation as though she were at the recording. He also noted she started taking . She started taking “Gentle Ballet” classes in her eighties!

There was a February 21, 2015, article about her in the Times Union, which you should be able to read (if I did it right). Faces of Faith: Organist sits in pew, after 42 years. She said, “I went back to school when our children were all in college. I graduated summa cum laude the same year that our older son, Ken, graduated. My organ composition, ‘Postlude on Lauda Anima,” received a UAlbany Presidential Award.”

As her obituary noted, Nancy began piano lessons at the age of seven and then added organ lessons at the age of 12. In the Capital Region since 1958, she has offered countless organ recitals, performing with various groups. Nancy was active in the American Guild of Organists, twice serving as Dean of the Eastern New York Chapter.

Personal touch

But this is not how I best remember her. It wasn’t her tremendous playing of the service musicianship, especially on the weekly postludes.

She was a sweetheart of a human being. “Nancy loved to laugh and entertain, and she was known for her annual summer picnics. “She often had the choir over for parties at the home she and her husband of 66 years, Wes, owned. Nancy kept track of the choir birthdays.

So when she died, I cried, even though she had been fighting leukemia for a couple of years. The very small consolation is that Wes made a series of CDs of the choir’s Advent and Good Friday performances that I can remember her by. Also, I stumbled upon a 2001 CD of hers on eBay that I just ordered.

From the TU piece: “The choir will be singing one of my favorite anthems, ‘Greater Love Hath No Man,’ by John Ireland, as well as an anthem that I wrote, ‘O Be Joyful in the Lord,’ based on Psalm 100. For the postlude, I will be playing one of my favorite pieces, “Toccata from Symphony V” by Charles-Marie Widor.”

She played a great Widor. The choir would still be in the loft as the sound surrounded us like a blanket. Here’s a recording by Frederick Hohman (2008) and another by Jonathan Scott. Nancy’s, I think, was better.

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