Christ Church Organist John Painter To Present Recital
During Fall Festival Of The Arts

By Susan L. Peña

John Painter, the organist and choir master for Christ Episcopal Church in downtown Reading, will give a recital in the church sanctuary on Friday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m., as part of the Fall Festival of the Arts. A graduate of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. and the Manhattan School of Music, Painter has served congregations in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, and has performed recitals in those states and in France.

In a recent interview in the chancel of Christ Church, Painter relaxed on one of the choir pews to talk about his life as a musician and scholar. While he has spent hundreds of hours in this kind of setting, where church music is rehearsed, sung and played, this is only a part of who he is. Like all Bard graduates, he received a complete liberal arts education, which for him included the study of history and languages. This background has given him intellectual depth that doubtless has crept into his music-making, and enhanced his understanding of the cultural milieus in which the music originated, and how each piece should be approached.

While his sophisticated knowledge of the world constantly crept into the conversation, Painter also has deep ties to his roots in rural Berks County. Born and raised in Mohrsville, he graduated from Schuylkill Valley High School in 1996.

Asked if he came from a musical family, he replied “No” at first, but then added, “My father gave my stepmother a piano for their first anniversary because she used to play piano and flute.” So there was music in the house, and at 5 he began piano lessons with the late Ferne Rubright, who was the organist and choir director at Belleman’s Lutheran Church.

“She wouldn’t teach me organ and she never told me why,” he said, as he entered his teens he was teaching himself on an old Allen organ at school, and on the Belleman’s organ. While the transition to the pedal keyboard was difficult at first, he persisted, and at college he double-majored in organ studies and historical studies.

Finding the beautiful Hudson Valley similar to his childhood rural landscape, Painter felt comfortable and peaceful at Bard. While there were only about 1,200 students there, he discovered that there were students from all over the world, and he relished meeting them.

“Bard’s approach to teaching was small classes—10 to 20 people around a table—and it was conversational rather than listening to lectures,” he said. “It was also the most work I’ve ever done!” (The college is known for insisting that everyone—even its Conservatory students—choose another non-musical discipline to study in tandem.)

Painter studied organ with the late eminent music historian and performer Sir Frederick Hammond, and privately with Dr. John Weaver of the Juilliard School. He also studied voice and vocal repertoire with Arthur Burrows, and was accompanist for voice students and the Women’s Ensemble under Joan Fuerstman.

At the same time, he studied Medieval literature, French cultural history, Jewish philosophy and much more for his historical studies major. During the summer of 1998, he took intensive French language studies for research purposes at the Language Institute at Tours, France. He also somehow found time to undergo an apprenticeship in organ maintenance with Kevin D. Chun in Philadelphia and New York. The mind boggles at this work load.

After graduating in 2000, Painter took interim and substitute positions in various churches, including a four-year stint as organist and choir director at Calvary Lutheran Church in Laureldale. From 2006 to 2008, he completed his Master of Music degree at the Manhattan School of Music, studying organ performance under McNeil Robinson, along with choral conducting, voice, composition, orchestration, music theory and more. He studied organ privately from 2002 to 2006 with Donald Dumler, principal organist for the Cathedral of St. Patrick in New York City.

In 2009, Painter landed a “dream job” (after more years of short-term stints), as director of music, organist and choir director for Saint Barnabas Roman Catholic Church, which served a huge parish in The Bronx, New York City.

“It was every day, with no days off,” he said. “I had to play for six Masses each weekend, and there were three choirs. I loved it, but I started asking myself if this was the schedule I wanted to keep for the rest of my life. After three years I finally took a break and went to Puerto Rico for a week and a half. That lit a fuse, and I realized I was ready for an adventure. I wanted to go to a place I’d never been before, where I was learning. I wanted it to be a productive thing.”

He settled on Morocco, which filled the bill. He would teach English, get some practicing done on repertoire he’d like to explore or relearn, and learn Arabic. He could travel to Europe and visit the great organs. Throwing caution to the winds, he flew to the coastal city of Agadir to look for a teachng job, and “after a week or two, I thought I could stay there.”

From 2016 to 2022, Painter taught at the Lycee Francais D’Agadir, the Ecole de Management et D’Administration des Affaires, and in other evening and weekend classes, for people ages 10 and up. He learned the Moroccan dialect of Arabic called Darija. And he traveled inland to the Atlas Mountains, where he found villages where there was no electricity, running water or money. “Living there was so captivating to me,” he said. “I never thought I would like classroom teaching, but I really enjoyed it.”

Unfortunately, there was no organ in the local church, and the conservatory was inadequate for further musical studies. He was able to play organs when he visited Europe, and there was a piano at the Lycee, but he could not complete that part of his to-do list. And after six years, he was missing his family. So he came back to Berks County.

“I spent time with my family, and found that I wanted to stay here to be closer to them,” Painter said. “It took about two years to get through the culture shock of coming back. I spent every day working on technique and repertoire. I stayed put and kept an eye out for church musician possibilities.

While substituting in the Reading area, he heard that Christ Church was looking for a music director, so he applied and was hired in 2023. He has been settling into this new position and has found a home  around the corner from the church. “The organ here is in better condition than most of the others I’ve seen,” he said. “And the choir is full of excellent musicians who have been singing for decades. It’s hard to find that, and it’s been such a pleasure.”

He is beginning to plan his recital for October, and while he prefers playing within the church service to being the focus of that level of attention, he is excited to perform pieces from the French repertoire that he loves, as well as some J.S. Bach pieces. (Look for updates on this closer to the performance date.)