copyright 2000
Cleveland Chapter
American Guild of Organists

ORGANIST OF THE MONTH: Melody R. Greene

Music Director: Faith United Church of Christ in Richmond Heights


Senior Music Editor: Ludwig Music Publishing Company, Cleveland, Ohio

Education: BFA in Music, Notre Dame College of Ohio. (They only awarded a handful of music degrees early in the college history. I have the last one.)

Came From: Kent, Ohio

Going to: Hell, in the end. (My ashes will be scattered in Hell, Michigan.) [No reason given for this choice.]

My Epitaph Will Read: Melody is gone, but the tune lingers on.

Current Residence: Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland, within the sound of the bells of Our Lady of Good Counsel.

House Mate: Weiner Stewart Ferren, an advanced being disguised as a cat.

Born to: Make Noise!

Greatest Joy: Musically collaborating with best friend, cellist Joel Ferren.

Worst Turnoff: Appliances impersonating musical instruments.

Instrument: M.P. Moller, Opus #10028 (at church) and 1896 Grotrian Steinweg grand (at home.)

Secret Vices: Good 'n' Plenty candy and playing Wagner on the Accordion My

Neighbors Wish: That I wouldn't play ANYTHING on the accordion.

Music began to interest me: Immediately. My mother was a flutist and violinist. All kinds of string and wind ensembles met at our house. As a child, I would sit at the top of the stairs (after I had been put to bed) and listen. I was always sorry when the musicians went home. Music and mathematics have always been the most meaningful things in my life. Everything else is ancillary. When I was four, I knew that I would be a composer, that it would be a lonely and difficult existence, and that was OK, because I would hear and know things that would be hidden from other people.

I became an organist because: there is no greater thrill than dissolving and reassembling my soul in the most glorious sound in the world. Playing the organ is where my heart talks to God. I started playing organ when: I was twelve and our church organist, who was pregnant, went into labor at the beginning of a service. She told me to "take over." I did. Later, when I was in college, playing the organ paid more than singing in the choir and was infinitely better than waitressing. After a year, I was hooked and have never really wanted to do anything else.

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