Organist Drake has performed around the world

Brittany Phister

The most noticeable decorations in James Drake’s office are photographs, posters and postcards displaying many of the world’s grandest cathedrals and meeting halls. But Drake has not been a tourist to these sites.

He has performed in them.

Drake, professor of music at USU, has held recitals in St. Paul’s in London, Westminister Abbey, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. John the Divine in New York City, National Cathedral in Washington D.C., and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco – to name a few.

Drake began playing the organ 56 years ago when he was 5 years old.

“I’ve loved it,” he said. “It is the king of instruments. It has the greatest dynamic range, most color, most power, most depth. It is the most complex musical instrument.”

It is complex because it requires a performer to play three keyboards and play with his feet while operating stops to control sound effects, Drake said. A successful organ player has to have a good piano background, he said.

The keyboard and petalboard are the same in every sized organ, but, “the larger cathedral organs have more color and sound, more possibilities for dynamics,” Drake, said. “It is kind of like driving a Volkswagen then going to Rolls-Royce.”

He’s played large organs – the organ at Wanamaker, a department store in Philadelphia, which has 32,000 pipes, and the organ at the Crystal Cathedral in Los Angeles, which has 22,000 pipes, are two of the largest.

“But size doesn’t always make a great instrument. Some of the most beautiful organs I played have been smaller organs,” Drake said. “The one in the Salt Lake Tabernacle is probably the 13th largest in the world. But it is one of the most magnificent that I have played. It is just a superb musical instrument.”

Two of Drake’s favorite recitals were in Paris at the Notre Dame Cathedral. “I got a standing ovation from 9,000 people, if that means anything,” Drake said.

“It’s hard to say any concert is your favorite because each performance has its own satisfaction,” he said.

Although organs were first used by the church, it is no longer just a church instrument, Drake said. “It moved out of the church and into the concert hall in the 1800s.”

This semester, about 22 students are studying the organ at USU, which has a 3,200-pipe organ, Drake said.

“It is one of the largest university organs in the west,” he said. The USU organ is a beautiful instrument, he said, “but the concert hall isn’t kind to music. It was designed for Ballet West.”

Besides being an organ instructor, Drake is a teacher of the Alexander Technique, an exercise that helps performers fight stage fright. It is a technique that anyone can use, he said.

“It just teaches you better body use. It opens the body, freeing it from tension so when you go to perform you don’t grab, lock and tighten,” he said.

Drake’s next recital will be Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Kent Concert Hall.

“It is going to be a fun performance,” he said.