AUBURN — “When I see smiles, tears and foot-tapping from someone who previously showed no emotion at all, that is spiritual to me. I have reached down into that person’s soul for that moment.”
So says Phil House, who on Sunday, Jan. 6, will celebrate 25 years as organist at the First Universalist Church of Auburn.
Known for his stride technique and stirring spiritual style, House has had a 45-year career in music. He began playing piano by ear at age 5. Without formal study in music, he played at the Bryant Pond Baptist Church at age 12. He became organist at the Deering Memorial United Methodist Church in South Paris at age 16, as well as the Norway United Methodist Church.
House attended Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., for one year, but found it too formal. He was hired to play at Auburn UU by longtime organist Vesta Orr in 1970, when she was giving up the position.
Moving to Nashville in 1972, he played piano professionally for 13 years as organist at St. John’s United Methodist Church in Nashville and at St. Thomas Hospital Chapel. The minister there would often tell the congregation, “I could easily dismiss all of you now because we have just heard the sermon from the organ.”
Returning to Maine in 1986, House began searching for a church where he could play organ. While playing at Graziano’s Restaurant in Lisbon, he met Auburn UU organist Jonathan Whitmore.
Whitmore referred House to Judy Webber, choir director at the time. Webber recalls Orr telling her, “I don’t care how much he charges — hire him.” House became the church’s new organist on Sunday, Jan. 3, 1988.
Invited to give an organ concert at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, Austria, in 1998, House is often found playing at Poland Spring Inn or at local nursing homes. He plays nearly every Sunday at the 10 a.m. worship service at the First Universalist Church of Auburn, 169 Pleasant St.
Perhaps his old bumper sticker best describes his passion for spiritual music: “When words fail, music speaks.”
For more information about the celebration, call 783-0461 or visit www.auburnuu.org.
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