Philip Brunelle was 25 and had just been hired as the organist at Plymouth Congregational Church in south Minneapolis when an older member of the congregation asked about "that stuff" he had played right before the last hymn.
He explained that he had thrown in a little improvisation to set the mood for the hymn. "I described what it is and why I did it," he said. "And then I hit her with what I considered my best argument: that it's a tradition that goes back to Johann Sebastian Bach.
"She looked at me and said sternly, 'Bach wasn't a member of Plymouth Church.'"
Things have gone more smoothly for Brunelle since then, so much so that this Sunday the church is marking his 40th anniversary with a daylong celebration that will start with the morning service and end with a dinner following a hymn-sing -- accompanied by Brunelle, of course.
Forty years is an unusually long tenure for a church organist. It's even more unusual for someone like Brunelle, 65, who has his musical irons in a number of high-profile fires.
He founded and still serves as artistic director of VocalEssence, and so far this year he has played major roles in the World Choral Symposium in Denmark and the American Guild of Organists convention in the Twin Cities.
He's had plenty of other offers, but he stays because he loves the job as much today as the first day he walked into the sanctuary.
"I was 15," he said. "I had signed up for organ lessons from Arthur Jennings, who was the organist at Plymouth at the time and was using the sanctuary for his lessons. The first time I walked in here, I said, 'Wouldn't it be something if someday I got to play the organ in a place like this!'"
