A Church Organist Celebrates 66 Years

Haverhill, Mass.—The year is 1948. A 33 rpm record made its debut to the vinyl industry. The game of Scrabble took America by storm while Judy Garland was strolling along in her “Easter Parade.”

A young 14-year-old choirgirl volunteered to play the organ in her church—and never stopped. Instead, she’s been pulling all stops over the past 66 years.

Octogenarian Sylvia Tavitian continues to play the organ after 66 years at Armenian Church at Hye Pointe in Haverhill.
Octogenarian Sylvia Tavitian continues to play the organ after 66 years at Armenian Church at Hye Pointe in Haverhill.

You’ll find her every other Sunday accompanying the Mass at Armenian Church at Hye Pointe, formerly known as St. Gregory the Illuminator Church, 110 Main St., alternating with another named Virginia Tavitian, her sister-in-law who has 45 years’ service.

Furthermore, she’s playing on what’s called “a miracle organ” donated by a benefactor after the church’s regular pipe organ was ruined by a storm. The instrument is a product of the Berj Jamkochian Organ Fund, which has supplied some 15 organs to Yerevan, Armenia’s capital city.

Jamkochian was the principal organist for the Boston Pops and Boston Symphony until his death and started the fund to create a better musical society for his ancestral homeland.

But back to Sylvia. On a hot summer’s day, with no air-conditioning in the sanctuary, you’ll find this organist pounding the keyboard, playing music that dates back 1700 years with the birth of Christianity. It’s a language nobody speaks, except in the Divine Liturgy.

At one time, she was joined on the altar by her late husband Paul, a choir chairman, and two sons who were sub-deacons. Now she has grandchildren who are active with the Armenian Church. Three sisters and a brother were also active members of the Apostolic faith.

“We grew up inside an ethnic home where church was priority,” she reflected. “Our parents made it mandatory. Being from the first nation that adopted Christianity as a state religion was Armenia’s greatest contribution to society—and we lived up to it.”

So it all started in 1948. Sylvia was already singing four years in the junior choir at a Lowell Armenian church when an opportunity arose. A new electronic Hammond Organ had been acquired and needed a player.

“There were six of us who were taking piano lessons and two of us actually volunteered,” she recalled. “I remember the teacher telling me I would never amount to being an organist.”

Sylvia went forth and got a part-time job that paid 50 cents an hour for organ lessons, determined to prove herself capable. After marrying her husband Paul, they moved to Plaistow, NH, and made St. Gregory the Illuminator their church over the past 53 years.

The two were honored with the prestigious St. Vartan Award before his death by the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America for their dedicated service to the community.

“I swell with pride and tears when I think about my family being together in the service of God and the church,” she admits. “It was our responsibility instilled by our parents and we passed that tradition onto our kids and now the grandchildren. It’s a cycle that has kept our wonderful heritage alive.”

Sylvia has never considered herself a professional. While organists in other churches get paid, be it salary or stipend, it’s all volunteer with her. Always was, always will be, in sickness and health, rain or shine.

She’s proportioned her time between the church and other venues like genocide commemorations or wherever the situation beckons. Funerals have often pierced her heart, especially with good friends or relatives. Weddings have always been a joyful time.

In all, she has played under eight different pastors, through the present, Rev. Fr. Vart Gyozalian, who’s delighted to have an organ duo at his disposal. When Sylvia went to visit her 93-year-old sister in Florida recently, she handed the pedals over to her sidekick Virginia.

Other venerables like Sue Kezerian and Alice Kasparian also have 50 years’ service with the choir.

“I’m not any different than people like that,” Sylvia points out. “I’ll play for as long as I’m able, giving what I can of a God-given talent. The ideal situation would be to pass it on to a younger member.”

At a time when most people her age are retired, Sylvia still works part time as a billing coordinator at Associates in Orthopedics in Haverhill where she started in 1974.

Another passion has been the Daughters of Vartan, a Masonic order, where she has belonged since 1971, twice serving as a member of the Grand Council.

Just how much longer she’ll play the organ, she cannot say. But each day she’s at the console, it’s another day in paradise.

She looks to the icons in her church and therein lays the answer.

“God only knows.”

Tom Vartabedian

Tom Vartabedian

Tom Vartabedian is a retired journalist with the Haverhill Gazette, where he spent 40 years as an award-winning writer and photographer. He has volunteered his services for the past 46 years as a columnist and correspondent with the Armenian Weekly, where his pet project was the publication of a special issue of the AYF Olympics each September.
Tom Vartabedian

Latest posts by Tom Vartabedian (see all)

1 Comment

  1. Nice article and congratulations to her on her accomplishments.

    One small correction: The Daughters of Vartan are related to the Knights of Vartan, and have no relation to Freemasonry other than both being fraternal organizations.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*