The real reason I went to school... 

In no particular order, I went to school to a).  Hang with my buds, b). Get dates, and c).  Participate in extra-curricular stuff.  If I  was real lucky, all three would converge.  If  I was super lucky, all three would converge and be an academic  class as well ( choir, orchestra, drama.)

Most of my time was spent in the music category.  I was in the junior church choir and graduated to the senior choir.  I was in the orchestra and took cello lessons.  Upon entering High School, I landed in the Jefferson City Symphony (sounds like a bigger deal than it is).  I didn't have room in my schedule during junior high to be in the school choir, but as soon as I could fit it in, I was in the school choir.  I tried out for and got into the Chorale choir my junior and senior year.  Oh, and we had a church handbell choir and I was in that, too.  Makes me tired just thinking about it now!  And that was just the music potion of my schedule!

You may be wondering how I was able to all of that, (plus all the other stuff I did).  Well, my church choir director, the Symphony conductor and the high school choir director were all the same person!  My orchestra teacher was a member of my church choir and the Symphony, too so there was never any cross over. 

Mr. Burkel was something special for Jefferson City (or really any where for that  matter).  His name was Carl E. Burkel and I  think the "E" stood for enigma. We kids referred to him as CEB amongst ourselves, but had way too much respect for him to call him anything but Mr. Burkel or Sir to his face.  He was a true Renaissance man.  Adept at playing the organ, understanding art, conducting vocal and orchestral music and getting us to sound amazing. 

This man went to Europe every year to see the stained glass windows in obscure churches.  He had a Christmas Ornament collection that had to number in the thousands.  One was made from a splinter of wood he had pulled out of his bum after getting skewered while sliding across a bench that Franz Gruber had sat on to compose Silent Night. His ornament collection was so extensive that he had to hang a different set  each year, and even them,  he had to have a rotating tree stand in order for all of them to be seen. 

Burkel inspired awe in all of us. He, along with my equally wonderful orchestra teacher and the band director created a music program that could rival any in the country - as far as I'm concerned anyway!

I am going to write more about our awesome program, but I want to return to the parsonage for a minute.  My room faced toward the church.  I had a wonderful view of the stained glass and the steeple.  On the hour, the bell would ring and a hymn would play on the carillon.  I know it was actually just a tape, but I thought it was great, anyway.  But better still were my own private organ concerts courtesy of CEB himself.  Every once in a while, Mr. Burkel would come to church on Saturday  to practice on the amazing organ.  I know he usually practiced at home on his personal organ or on the harpsichord he built himself.  But once in a while he needed to hone Sunday music  choices on the real deal pipe organ and so would come to the church. 

In the summer, the windows to the narthex  would be open and I could listen to his whole practice session.  The piece he practiced for the most was Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.  You would recognize the Toccata part as the music for Dracula, but the best part of that piece was the fugue!  Mr. Burkel could really get going to that piece.  His fingers would pretzel themselves across the keys while he deftly pulled and pushed the right stops.  His legs and feet got a workout, too as he played the low pipes, sometimes alone and some times in harmony with his fingers.  His organ playing was 1,000 times harder and took more coordination that driving a stick shift car up the big hills in the snow!

I didn't know what an amazing gift I was given in being privy to Mr. Burkel's private practice sessions. Too young to appreciate how rare and wonderful this was!

Mr. Burkel will figure in future posts, but I want to close today with this.  In Dec. of '95 when my son was just four months old, my dad called to tell me that Mr. Burkel had a heart attack and died.  Fatefully, my dad had been in Jefferson City and had been able to see Mr. Burkel and show him pictures of Eli just the day before .  So, now I think Eli has a special place as one of the last new babies to be in Mr. Burkel's life.  I choose to believe Mr. Burkel  is watching over Eli and the rest of us while wailing away on the best organ in Heaven.  And he doesn't even have to practice to get every note exactly right!