As we walk into All Saints’ Anglican Church in King City, our ears distinguish organ resonances, both powerful, and gentle. The organist we are about to interview is so involved in his music, a piece by Healey Willan, that he does not see us enter. We pause, reveling in the surround sound. For a second he looks up, seemingly to catch something – but not our entrance – and later mentions a flawed organ stop not sounding as pure as it should. That tone hadescaped our ears, but not the master’s.

Over a cup of coffee, Quirino Di Giulio says that his involvement with the organ began when he was an altar boy, though his father played the guitar. The mechanism of the old pull bellows attached to a pump organ, (no electricity needed), led him about age 14 from fascination to learning to play. However, he soon learned he needed
a career apart from music to pay the bills.

“Playing the organ was a hobby; education became my profession,” he says. Closer to retirement, and free to take music more seriously, he acquired Licentiate in Organ from London’s Trinity college in the UK, and an ARCT diploma at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

He describes many different types of organs – German, French, Italian, English – each with different characteristics in stops and sounds. All Saints’ has a smaller organ in the 152-year-old chapel, with three ranks of pipes (a real favourite), and the bigger one in the sanctuary, with an entire roomful of pipes, and other parts from different sources. We learn that a good organist adapts to the capabilities of the organ.

Mainly because of size and maintenance, the organ is an instrument used at church rather than at home. Fewer study organ than piano, though Toronto is still home to very good organists such as his teacher, Michael Bloss, and others he meets through concerts and workshops he regularly attends.

All Saints’ hired Quirino to live out his dreams in retirement as organist and choir director in September 2008. After some smaller musical church events, he was able to provide Kingfest with the church as a venue, and negotiate to bring in the Elmer Iseler Singers last year. He
has already begun to set up a four-concert series for the 2009-2010 year at the church, listed under Concerts at www.allsaintskingcity.com. The next event features the Elora Festival Singers on March 26.

We ask him if he would consider teaching organ, but he declines. “I have realized how much I feel united with the organ, and therefore I spend hours and hours practising it, and preparing myself for concerts. I also do choir work – thus it does not leave me any time for teaching.”

Quirino’s vision is broad, but he wants to draw people locally. “Through the concerts not only do I want to provide a good musical program for the community, but I also hope to develop some interest in people wanting to join the choir.” If community members like to sing and are committed to Thursday practices as well as Sunday services, he says they should contact All Saints’ church.

After a generous interview interrupting his hours of practice, Quirino disappears behind his organ. Once again his eyes translate the notes from the book, and his fingers interpret them on the keyboard. His instrument becomes an extension of himself.