The article excerpted below was printed soon after Dr. Huiner returned home from his two weeks in Sitka. We are grateful to the paper for allowing us to use it here.

A local organist meets a survivor

(Excerpts from an article in The News & Advance, Lynchburg, Virginia. www.newsadvance.com)

In some ways, Harvey Huiner was treated like a rock star when he visited Sitka, Alaska, earlier this month.

His picture was on the front page of the Sitka Sentinel - above the fold, even above a story on the latest gubernatorial debate. He was provided with lodging and a car. His performances at the Sitka Lutheran Church were advertised all over town, and one of them was made into a CD, with the help of a sound man who used to work for Carly Simon.

On the other hand, Huiner wasn't paid for playing. And even with all the attention, the longtime Lynchburg College music professor and Bethlehem Lutheran Church organist was definitely upstaged by his instrument. He didn't mind.

"It was very responsive," he said of the 160-year-old Kessler organ, the oldest of its breed on the West Coast of North America. "Given its history, I thoroughly enjoyed playing it."

Harvey and Marjorie Huiner were in Sitka from Oct. 14-18, a period that culminated in the annual Alaska Day celebration. Every day at noon, Harvey Huiner would climb up to the Swallow's Nest, where the Kessler organ now has a place of honor, and try to remember how to play an organ with no foot pedals.

"I sat on a stool," he said, "and it was quite a bit like playing a piano. I used some music written for the early English organs, and some pieces that were intended for harmonium and harpsichord."

Apparently, it all worked.

"I got a good reaction," he said. "We had maybe 35 people a day, except for the last day, when it was closer to 50."

No need for a tuxedo, either. This was Alaska, where informality reigns, and Huiner could perform in a casual sweater.

The Huiners had met a couple from Sitka at an Elderhostel in Sweden several years ago. The Alaskans knew that Harvey was an accomplished organist, so when their church found itself without someone to massage the Kessler for Alaska Day, they contacted him and offered him the opportunity to volunteer.

"Harvey just retired in May," Marjorie Huiner said, "so this was our first retirement adventure."

This instrument is a survivor. The church was demolished in the [1880's] and only the intervention of a local historian and pastor kept the organ from going with it. When Sitka Lutheran was destroyed by fire in 1966, the organ was fortuitously absent, on exhibit in a local museum. And when another fire ravaged the sanctuary in 1993, Huiner said, "The organ was under a balcony and only slightly damaged.

"The insurance company paid for its restoration - which was wonderful, because it hadn't been played in decades."

You've got to love a church whose current spiritual leader calls himself Pastor Jim and whose motto is: "We pause at commas."

In other words, they savor the words of the liturgy. And they savor the music from their Kessler, which Huiner proclaimed "just fine for a church that size. It has a good sound."

[The Pastor commented:  "We thank Mr. Darrell Laurant for his story about Dr. Huiner and our Kessler."]

Sitka Lutheran Church  •  224 Lincoln St.  •  PO Box 598  •  Sitka AK 99835
Office phone: 907.747.3338  Office E-mail  •  Last updated: 04/02/2008

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