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Plagerman shares love of music
Some may consider it a dying art, but Michael Plagerman believes that organ playing is not as popular as it once was because people associate the organ with churches.
Plagerman, a freshman at New Life Christian School in Ephrata, is one of just a few young people who avidly play the bigger cousin of the piano.
x93I think that many people associate the organ with the church and since church attendance is in decline, many people donx92t think about the organ,x94 he said.
x93I donx92t want people to limit what the organ can do to church. Many of the works were written outside a church setting,x94 he added.
Currently the head organist at Quincy Christian Reformed Church, Plagerman plays about once a month and for special services like Easter and Christmas.
He recently played a memorial concert in honor of Al Reiman at St. Paul Lutheran Church.
Plagerman first heard organ music as a 3-year-old watching a Wishbone episode.
x93Wishbone played Phantom of the Opera and I loved the sound,x94 Plagerman said.
Both his mother and grandmother play piano and he began lessons about eight years ago.
Plagerman, whose parents are Dave and Janis, has been playing the organ for five years now, three of those professionally. He is the first organist in his family.
When preparing for an organ performance, Plagerman starts to practice for two to three hours a day a month in advance. When he is not preparing for a show, he practices for about 45 minutes each day on his analog organ at home.
Plagerman played in the Spokane Pipe Organ Encounter at both St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic Cathedral of our Lady of Lourdes. His teacher is Barry Williams of Ephrata.
One favorite composer is Louis Vierne, a French Romantic who played at Notre Dame Cathedral until the mid-1900s.
x93I prefer to take my own perspective on otherx92s works,x94 said Plagerman.
x93It is fun to take and figure out what a composer was feeling at the time he wrote the piece.x94
Dedicated to playing the organ now, Plagerman plans to continue with the music as his hobby and pursue a career in medicine.
x93I hope to do pre-med at Western Washington University and medicine at University of Washington.x94
