James P. Autenrith dead at 97

James P. Autenrith

James P. Autenrith, 97, of Potsdam, New York, died September 20 in Canton, New York. Born in New Berlin, New York, on October 1, 1923, he was raised in Newport and graduated from West Canada Valley Central School. He served in World War II as a chaplain’s assistant in Mannheim, Germany, and was assigned to play the organ in Heidelberg at the funeral of General George S. Patton.

James Autenrith held a 46-year career including teaching at Michigan State University, East Lansing, and at the State University of New York Potsdam’s Crane School of Music. He also served as church organist in Gloversville, Utica, and Auburn, New York, as well as in Battle Creek and East Lansing, Michigan. Autenrith was organist and choir director at the Potsdam United Methodist Church for 35 years and played many organ recitals during this time, including performances at conventions of the Organ Historical Society.

James P. Autenrith is survived by his wife of 68 years, Audrey, as well as two sisters, Joan Stack of Boynton Beach, Florida, and Betsy Newman of Newport, New York, and nieces and nephews. A private service took place at Bayside Cemetery, Potsdam. Memorial gifts may be made to the James Autenrith Scholarship at Crane School of Music, c/o Potsdam College Foundation, 44 Pierrepont Avenue, Potsdam, New York 13676, or by visiting potsdam.edu/give.

John Kuzma

John Kuzma, 75, music educator, composer, arranger, organist, conductor, and philosopher, died August 7 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Born March 16, 1946, in Cincinnati, Kuzma began composing and arranging music as a high school student. Having taught himself to play the keyboard in grade school, he began study at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and won a scholarship at Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York, where he studied with David Craighead. A Fulbright scholarship took him to Copenhagen, Denmark, for a year’s organ work with Finn Viderø before returning to the United States for graduate studies in organ and composition at the University of Illinois. There his organ teacher was Jerald Hamilton.

After graduation, he served as organist and choir director for St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, San Diego, founder and music director of the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, a teacher at San Diego State University and at University of California, Santa Barbara, and was a staff musical arranger at the Crystal Cathedral, Garden Grove, California. He became music director of the American Boy Choir in Princeton, New Jersey, before moving to Denver, Colorado, in 1987 to serve as minister of music at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church, a post he held for nearly three decades prior to his retirement in 2015.

Kuzma’s arrangements and compositions have been performed by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Chorus, Colorado Children’s Chorale, Denver Brass, Denver Gay Men’s Chorus, Ars Nova Singers, American Boy Choir, and Dallas and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. Many of his compositions and arrangements have been performed around the world, and he was the arranger and composer of music for Pope St. John Paul II’s visit to Denver for World Youth Day in 1993. During his tenure at Montview, he established the Montview Conservatory of Music and began a series of classical music concerts for children that reached more than 14,000 Denver students over several years. His creation and funding of the Montview Music Endowment continues to support Montview’s music program and to pay professional musicians to perform in Montview’s concerts. Kuzma was a Colorado Arts Council Music Composition Fellowship winner in 1999.

John Kuzma is survived by his wife, Bess. Memorial gifts may be given to the music program at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church, 1980 Dahlia Street, Denver, Colorado 80220. For more information: montview.org/music.

Charles Huddleston Heaton

Charles Huddleston Heaton, Sr., 92, died June 11, in Huntsville, Alabama. He was born November 1, 1928, in Centralia, Illinois. Heaton earned his Bachelor of Music degree from DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, in 1950, studying with Van Denman Thompson. He then went to New York City for his Master of Sacred Music degree at the School of Sacred Music of Union Theological Seminary, completed in 1952. After service in the United States Army, he returned to Union Seminary in September 1954 for his Doctor of Sacred Music degree. Among his teachers at Union were Hugh Porter and Harold Friedell.

In 1954, while a student, Heaton was appointed chapel organist for Kirkpatrick Chapel, Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, playing a three-manual Skinner organ. The following year, while still a student, he became organist and choir director for the Presbyterian Church of Bound Brook, New Jersey. He was awarded his doctoral degree in 1957.

In 1956 Heaton was named organist and director of music for Second Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, Missouri. He would become organist for Temple Israel of the same city in 1959. From 1962 to 1964, he taught organ at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Heaton then served as organist and director of music for East Liberty Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1972 until 1993. During his tenure at the church, he recorded the disc, Music Till Midnight, named for a series of concerts he formulated at East Liberty beginning in 1976. He was a lecturer in music at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary between 1973 and 1976.

Following retirement Heaton was organist-in-residence at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (1993–1996 and 1997–2002) and served as interim organist for a year each at Calvary Episcopal (1996–1997) and Oakmont Presbyterian Churches, all in Pittsburgh. Heaton was a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists (1957), penned two books—How to Build a Church Choir (1958) and A Guidebook to Worship Services of Sacred Music (1961)—published several anthems, and was editor of the Hymnbook for Christian Worship, published by Judson Press in 1970. He was a staff reviewer of new recordings for The Diapason magazine and was pleased to have a complete run of the journal, which he had bound and donated to DePauw University. He also contributed to journals such as Clavier and The American Organist. A 90th birthday celebration concert in Heaton’s honor was held at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in the Highland Park neighborhood of Pittsburgh on November 3, 2018, with several local organists performing.

On April 17, 1954, Heaton married Jane Pugh, who predeceased him in September 1999. They had three children, who survive: Rebecca Lynn Turner (Patrick) of Herndon, Virginia; Charles Huddleston Heaton, Jr. (Miki), of Brierfield, Alabama; and Matthew Aaron Heaton (Shannon) of Medford, Massachusetts, along with four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A memorial service for Charles Huddleston Heaton, Sr., will take place in September at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh. Burial will be in Crystal Lake, Michigan, where the Heatons spent their summers. Memorial contributions may be made to a scholarship in Heaton’s memory to the American Guild of Organists, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 1260, New York, New York 10115, attention: F. Anthony Thurman.

Fritz Noack

Fritz Noack, 86, died June 2. Born in Germany in 1935, he apprenticed in organ building with Rudolf von Beckerath in Hamburg between 1954 and 1958. He would work with Klaus Becker and Ahrend & Brunzema, also in Germany, before coming to the United States, working briefly for the Estey Organ Company in Brattleboro, Vermont, and later with Charles Fisk, then with the Andover Organ Company in Methuen, Massachusetts.

In 1960, he founded the Noack Organ Company, then located in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The workshop would move to Andover, Massachusetts, in 1965 for larger space. In 1970, the company moved to its present location, a former schoolhouse in Georgetown, Massachusetts, where an erecting room was added to the building. More than a dozen organ builders, including the principal personnel of various other firms, have received their training there.

Noack was active in various professional organizations, including service as the president of the International Society of Organbuilders from 2000 to 2006; he also served two terms as president of the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America. He taught organ construction and building at New England Conservatory, Boston.

In early 2015, Noack retired from his company, turning its leadership over to Didier Grassin. At that point, the firm had built nearly 160 instruments, installed throughout the United States and abroad in locations such as Iceland and Japan.

William E. Randolph, Jr.

William E. Randolph, Jr., died May 15. In 1979, he earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, New York City, studying with Frederick Swann. He would further study with Jean Langlais in Paris and Christopher Dearnley in London.

Randolph worked at the Episcopal Church of the Intercession in New York City from 1983 until 1993. He then served at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church and at St. George’s Episcopal Church, New York City. He returned to Church of the Intercession in 2002 where he remained until his death. He also was adjunct organist at Columbia University, organist at the Marymount School for Girls, and assistant organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, all of New York City. A memorial service for Randolph was held at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on June 10.

Carl Schalk 

Carl Flentge Schalk, 91, died January 24 in Melrose Park, Illinois. He was born September 26, 1929, and attended high school and college at Concordia Teachers College, River Forest, Illinois (now Concordia University Chicago), graduating in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science degree in education. He proceeded to earn a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and a Master of Arts in Religion degree from Concordia Seminary in Saint Louis, Missouri. His first call was to Zion Lutheran Church and School, Wausau, Wisconsin, as fifth and sixth grade teacher and church musician. From 1958 to 1965, Schalk was music director for radio broadcasts of The Lutheran Hour.

From 1965 until his retirement in 1993, Schalk was professor of church music at Concordia University, River Forest. During this time, he guided the development of the university’s Master of Church Music degree, which has since graduated more than 200 students, edited the journal Church Music, and coordinated the annual Lectures in Church Music, which brings church musicians, performers, conductors, and educators together for a three-day conference. Schalk was a member of the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship, which produced the Lutheran Book of Worship in 1978, and the board of directors of Lutheran Music Program, the parent organization of the Lutheran Summer Music Academy and Festival. He was honored with the Faithful Servant award from the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, was named a fellow of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada, and received numerous other awards and several honorary doctorates. In 2002, Schalk was named the American Guild of Organist’s Composer of the Year.

At Grace Lutheran Church, River Forest, Illinois, adjacent to the Concordia campus, Schalk assisted Paul Bouman in church music; together they founded the Bach Cantata Vesper Series that continues to this day. Schalk is well known for his numerous choral compositions as well as his hymn tunes and carols, which number over one hundred. He had ongoing collaborations with poets Jaroslav Vajda and Herbert Brokering, producing tunes for several of their hymn texts. Schalk’s hymn tunes may be found in modern Christian hymnals of various denominations. In 2013, Nancy Raabe’s critical biography, Carl F. Schalk: A Life in Song, was published, and in 2015, Singing the Church’s Song, a collection of articles and essays about church music by Carl Schalk was released. As recently as 2020, his book, Singing the Faith: A Short Introduction to Christian Hymnody, was also printed (see the March 2021 issue of The Diapason, p. 21). He was preceded in death by his wife Noël Roeder, and is survived by three children and four grandchildren.