Organist plays with chutzpah

Sandy Davis-Lerner spends her Sunday mornings ensconced in a loft at Chapel Hills United Church of Christ.

She's not visible to the congregation, but they know that she's there. When the service begins and the members rise to greet one another, many of them turn to wave to Davis-Lerner, who stands by her organ, smiling broadly as she waves back.

Only a newcomer might consider her presence there unusual. After all, she been playing the organ at the Edina church for 45 years.

And oh, by the way, she's Jewish.

"It's never been a problem," she said of her theological differences with the congregation at 6512 Vernon Av. S. A former choir director once told her, "You might not know anything about church, but you sure can play the hell out of that organ."

No one makes jokes about her heritage — except Davis-Lerner herself. "The first time they told me that I had to play the doxology, I thought it had something to do with medicine," she deadpanned.

And while she brushes off her longevity on the job ("It's not unusual to hear of organists who have been playing for 50 years," she said), she admits that being a Jewish church organists makes her a rarity. "I'm the only one I've heard of," she said.

"Everybody loves her," he said.

The feeling appears to be mutual. "I'll never quit," vowed Davis-Lerner, who signs her communications to the members "YFO" — Your Friendly Organist. "If they want me out of here, they'll have to shoot me."

When McNamara was called to the church 30 years ago, he remembers being told that the organist was Jewish. Would that be an issue with him?

"I thought it was fine as long as she was a good musician — and she's a great musician," he said. "She really loves music. One reason people like to be here is that she loves to play."

One of the people who expressed surprise at her passion for playing a church organ turned out to be among her biggest supporters. The late Ed Berryman, longtime organist at Westminister Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis, gave her lessons "but he couldn't get over that I'm Jewish," she said. "Whenever I played at a recital, he'd introduce me by saying 'Sandy is Jewish.' Finally I had to tell him, 'People don't need to know I'm Jewish to listen to me play.' "

"Playing the organ is not something a lot of Jews do," she said, noting that few synagogues have organs and fewer still have choirs. "Unless you get into it some crazy way the way I did, it just doesn't happen."

Davis-Lerner grew up in Duluth, where she started taking piano lessons when she was 6.

"It wasn't long before I was taking two lessons a week," she said. "I learned to sight-read music, and I've always loved doing that. I couldn't have gotten a job in a church if I couldn't sight-read."

During the Vietnam War, she accompanied her first husband, an orthopedic surgeon, to Germany. The Army base chaplain heard about her musical background and asked if she'd be open to playing the organ at Sunday services.

"My husband said that I had never played the organ, but they said that was OK, that I could play it like a piano," she recalled. "And then my husband said, 'There's just one other thing: She's never been to church. She's Jewish.'

Much to her surprise, she discovered that she enjoyed both the organ and the church setting. "Everything except turning on the organ," she said. "Because electricity is different in the U.S. and Europe, it was powered by a big generator in a closet that I had to turn on. I'd stand back when I did that."

After three years in Germany, they returned to Minneapolis. She arranged for lessons from Berryman and approached Temple Israel in Minneapolis about playing there.

"I asked, 'Can I play Bach here?' And they said, 'No. Bach comes from a German Lutheran tradition.' So I contacted the American Guild of Organists, and they sent me here [to Chapel Hills]. If you had told me when I walked through the door 45 years ago that I'd still be here, I never would have believed you."

(Although she still loves Bach, there are no hard feelings with Temple Israel. She continues to be a member there.)

She wouldn't have stayed at Chapel Hills if she hadn't felt welcome, she said. She had promised herself that if she heard any anti-Semitic comments, she'd leave.

The organ shares space with the choir in the loft at the back of the sanctuary. Shelves along one side of the loft are stacked with her music, the breadth of her interests displayed with songbooks ranging from big band arrangements to Celtic music to Lorie Line's Christmas collection.

"Over the course of 45 years, I've bought a lot of music," she acknowledged.

On the floor behind the organ is an electric fan for summer, a space heater for winter and a pair of shoes that she's been wearing at the organ for 15 years.

"They've been patched multiple times," she said. They offer the perfect blend of low heels and leather soles that slide over the pedals.

She keeps the service bulletin open on the bench next to her, but she rarely needs to look at it. "We have a very relaxed approach here," she said, explaining of the prelude she was about to play: "When I stop playing, Alan stands up and starts talking."

McNamara, Davis-Lerner and choir director Andrea Erickson pick each week's music together.

"It's a good situation for all of us," said Erickson, who has been at the church for 28 years. "We work well together."

The church is part of the United Church of Christ, a denomination that has a history of embracing a wide array of religious backgrounds.

"The UCC is a big tent that encompasses a lot of faith walks," Erickson said. "Catholic, Jewish, Protestant: We treat it like a Venn diagram. There are places where we intersect and places where we don't."

Davis-Lerner has decided that she will work until her 92nd birthday. She's taking a lead from her mother, who used to help her during Christmas Eve candlelight services by holding a flashlight to illuminate the dark organ loft.

"Oh, no you won't," interjected Scott Johnson, a choir member who overheard her comment. "We'll build you an elevator."

Jeff Strickler • 612-673-7392