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SKOWHEGAN — Parishioners at Notre Dame de Lourdes Church on Saturday, Oct. 5 will celebrate Jeff Quinn on his 50th anniversary as music director of the church.
The celebration is open to all, and will follow the 4 p.m. Mass at the church, when Quinn will trade his customary position behind the organ and step into the spotlight to receive thanks on the occasion of his 50th anniversary as music director at the church.
“For the most part, I do still get joy from playing,” Quinn said recently. “When I lose that joy, I’ll be leaving the job.”
The reception, like the man, will be humble and respectful, organizers said. Though the celebration is simple, the milestone it marks is anything but.
The Rev. James Nadeau, pastor of Christ the King Parish, of which Notre Dame de Lourdes is part, said, “Psalm 149 tells us to ‘Sing to the Lord a new song, a hymn in the assemble of the faithful.’ Jeff Quinn has been doing this at Notre Dame de Lourdes for the last 50 years. He has been part of the liturgical renewal over the last five decades from Gregorian chant and folk groups to our current musical repertoire. He has been the conductor of the orchestra. We are truly grateful.”
Quinn grew up in Cornville, just north of Skowhegan, and attended Notre Dame de Lourdes as a boy.
“I started playing at Notre Dame at age 18,” he said. “I had just left for college (University of Maine) and originally was only supposed to do it for the winter, but I caught rides back home on the weekends and began playing in October of 1969. My parents weren’t too keen on the idea of my coming home every weekend as they thought it would hurt my grades and my homesickness would prompt me to quit, which was not an option.”
The impediment of traveling would not keep Quinn from his passion, nor would the butterflies.
“My first Masses were fraught with nervousness,” he said. “I didn’t know any choir members and had not participated in choir at all. I clearly remember walking up the stairs to the loft and seeing older people that I had never met before. Thankfully, there was one woman, Ernestine Pooler, who took me under her wing and showed me the organ and helped me with music and such.”
A growing level of comfort was accompanied by a sense of stagnancy as Quinn found himself playing the same hymns over and over each week.
“At that time the priest planned all my music,” he said. “My job was to sit and play and I was perfectly happy with that. The church had not developed any music that would fit the changes of Vatican II, just a handful really. Choosing hymns to sing was basically ‘Let’s do this one. We haven’t done it in a while.’ I first played on a large old Wurlitzer. It was fast becoming obsolete as tubes and other parts were being replaced with newer technology.”
As time went on, the equipment would improve, and music played a larger role in the liturgy.
“When I first began, my playing consisted of the four-hymn pattern and not much else,” Quinn said. “Today, Mass parts and psalms have become more important. Congregations were completely unaccustomed to singing and it was challenging.”
Another challenge was that Quinn, primarily a pianist, would run across some who thought the piano was “not religious enough.”
“No instrumentation other than organ was even considered. A piano in church, unheard of,” said Quinn. “I wanted to play that instrument as well. I didn’t start using piano in church until the early 1980s, when the organ was brought down to the front of the church and the piano more easily fit in the space. Over time, I continued to use it and increased the use as well. All instruments, of course, are now accepted.”
It was also in the mid-1980s when Quinn’s love of music extended beyond the walls of Notre Dame de Lourdes and into the wider community when he led a group to take charge of Lakewood Theater, on the western shore of Wesserunsett Lake in Madison.
“Lakewood had closed in 1984 and, on a whim, my business partner at the time stopped in and asked if they would consider bringing in a local theater group to perform three shows for the season of ’85,” he said. “The rest is history.”
Quinn and his wife, Susan, now own the theater, where he has also served as artistic director for 35 years.
“Our children basically spent their childhood summers with us at the theater,” said Susan Quinn. “They were 4 and 6 at the beginning of our first season. Our daughter, Katherine, is now the manager of the restaurant at the theater (Lakewood Inn Restaurant) and our son, Matthew, was for many years the technical director.”
The theater, its restaurant, a young performer’s camp associated with Lakewood, and his church duties combine to keep him the busiest man in Somerset County, but Quinn said he wouldn’t have it any other way. “It can be a daunting task, but we love doing it and that makes it all worthwhile,” he said.
Fulfillment of one’s calling can be the sweetest of rewards. “Liturgical musicians are a rare breed,” said Quinn. “This vocation, you must be called to do it. No one gets rich over it.”
After 50 years behind the keys at Notre Dame de Lourdes, Quinn shows no signs of slowing down. But when it comes time to pass the gratifying ministry on to someone else, he hopes to be the first to know.
“I want to know when my skills have diminished enough to warrant a retirement,” he said. “I would like people to regret my leaving instead of being happy they don’t have to hear me play anymore.”
PHOTO: Jeff Quinn marks 50 years as music director at Notre Dame de Lourdes Church in Skowhegan. (Submitted photo)
