After 63 years, Marge Stillwell still loves to play the pipes

Seated at the console of the beloved pipe organ she has played for more than six decades, Marge Stillwell paused for a moment. Her mind rolled through the catalogues of favorite music and fondest memories of past concerts and services, choir directors and organ instructors who helped her along the way.

Stillwell, 87, has served as organist for the Presbyterian Church of Cloquet for the past 63 years. She was 24 when she started to play. The church organ was the instrument that she learned to play on.

Growing up in Blackduck, northeast of Bemidji, she learned how to play the piano as a child. Stillwell moved to Cloquet when she married, but had no idea of what was to come when she attended a holiday service at the Presbyterian Church.

"I remember coming on Christmas Eve and sitting in the balcony. The organist was so good, and I was thinking: I'm so glad I am not the organist. One year later I was sitting there wondering: What happened?"

Soon after that service, the church needed a new organist. "The minister came to me - and I didn't even know how he knew me - and asked if I would learn to play. He said, 'We'll pay for your lessons, we'll pay for your music, and we'll give you a salary.'"

The learning curve was daunting. Playing a pipe organ is not like playing the piano, and not even much like playing an electronic organ.

"Someone who plays the keyboard cannot play the [pipe] organ without many years of lessons," Stillwell said.

She was no exception, and in her case that meant plenty of of study and practice.

"I started out knowing nothing, except what the woman that first taught me for a little while could teach," she said. "I knew enough to know where to put my hands, but I really didn't know how to play.

"Then I studied with another fellow who taught me quite a bit more, and I thought that I was doing pretty well."

But when her organ instructor left Cloquet, Stillwell felt there was yet more to learn.

She went to see Lucille Webb at the University of Wisconsin Superior. "She had studied in France with some of the greatest French organists. She had a certain method, and that's what I learned."

Stillwell was in for a shock: "She told me, 'You are now starting over.' And I did - I had to completely start over."

Webb became Stillwell's most exacting teacher, and Stillwell's abilities began to shine under her tutelage.

The pipe organ installed at the Presbyterian Church of Cloquet is still largely the same instrument that Stillwell began on 63 years ago. But she is quick to differentiate between the instrument - typified by the exposed pipes above the altar in the chapel (and the equipment that feeds air to those pipes) - and the console, the complex set of keys, pedals, draw knobs and presets, that she sits at to play the instrument.

While the instrument is still mostly the original Kimball organ installed in the church in 1928, the console, which was also originally a Kimball, was rebuilt in 1962.

"We had a member in the choir who had studied organ," she said, "He traveled all over. Everywhere he went in the world he managed to get in and try the organs, so he knew the sounds he liked. Then, when they rebuilt the console, he worked with the builder. So, it's a well-balanced instrument," she said.

The chapel of the Cloquet Presbyterian Church is also an important part of both the instrument and the choral songs it often accompanies.

"Acoustically, this space is wonderful, and people love to sing here," Stillwell said. "I'm sure it's because of the height, and the walls don't have wallpaper, or things like that. Choral groups love to sing here. So, this church is known, acoustically."

When asked about some of her fondest memories, a series of programs presented with the church choir years ago came to mind.

"We did some cantatas, and one of them was the Fauré Requiem, which we did twice. The first time we did it, when we finished, we all went down to the choir room and cried. It was gorgeous. I think that was the most memorable."

But she is equally enthused about what is happening now with music at the church.

"Jim Sheetz is now our choir director, and he has done some really great things, combining our choir with Zion Lutheran, because he is also the choir director there. So, we've had a good time together and they're going to be part of this concert coming up [on June 20]," she said.

Stillwell was honored about three years ago, when the American Guild of Organists came to Duluth to play and show off local pipe organs. There was a concert at the Sacred Heart Music Center in her honor.

For many people, just watching her play can be a memorable experience. Feet dance effortlessly across the pedals, as left and right hands move independently on the upper and lower keyboards.

"Many of the pieces that you play, your right hand is doing one melody, your left hand is doing another, and your feet are playing another one," Stillwell said. "Sometimes the melody is in the feet. It's fun."

Special "organ shoes" allow Stillwell's feet to work their magic. She has had to send away for those, going through a pair every six or seven years.

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, as she has for the last few years, Stillwell took her 8-year-old Maltese, Heather, to the Sunnyside Health Care Center in Cloquet. She plays an electronic piano for the residents during their Tuesday afternoon church service. After the service Heather was taken around to each resident for petting time.

Heather may have been the highlight for the residents, but the happiness that Stillwell feels in performing the act of kindness is evident on her face.

People often express to her how much joy they get from her music, she said. She says there is a lot of joy in her own life. "There's no time to not be joyful."

"Music is what keeps me going. I love every bit of it that I'm doing. Whether it's a band, or organ solo, or accompanying, I love it all."

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Hear her play

Want to hear Marge Stillwell play the pipe organ? Cloquet Presbyterian and Zion Lutheran churches are presenting a community concert on Thursday, June 20 at 7 p.m. The concert will be directed by Jerry Rubino and James Sheetz, with music by Marge Stillwell on the organ, Gretchen Chelseth and her piano students on the piano, Hamre School of Voice students and Dan Palmquist on trombone. The concert will be presented at the Presbyterian Church of Cloquet, 47 Fourth St., Cloquet.