WILMINGTON, DEL.
When he was a 12-year-old deacon in Midvale, Utah, Neil Harmon's piano teacher encouraged him to learn to play the organ for priesthood meeting.
Three decades later, he's still playing.
Every Sunday morning, as well as for special services, Brother Harmon is at the organ at Grace United Methodist Church in downtown Wilmington, Del., where he is employed full time. Besides providing organ solos, interludes and accompaniment for services, his weekly duties include conducting three hand bell choirs and a semi-professional choir.
"I never imagined playing the organ as a profession, but I love it," said Brother Harmon. Surveying the organ's long pipes at the front of the church's sanctuary, he added, "I love all the colors you can get from it."
The coming holiday season is an especially busy time for church musicians.
Christmas Eve five years ago stands out in the Harmon family's memory. Anese Harmon was pregnant with the couple's fifth child but managed to play the harp in the fourth of five Christmas Eve services, accompanied by her husband on the organ. They made it through the duet, but just barely.
Brother Harmon had to enlist the aid of a substitute organist for the midnight service as he rushed his wife to the hospital. A daughter was born a few hours later, on Christmas Day.
Taking first place in a Utah State Fair competition when he was a senior in high school opened the door to organ studies at Utah State University, where he attended his freshman year. After serving in the Brazil Sao Paulo Mission, he was offered a music scholarship at BYU. He studied organ with Parley Belnap and Tabernacle organist Richard Elliott and was assistant director of the BYU Men's Chorus under Mack Wilberg.
He decided to pursue a doctorate at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., where he met his wife-to-be. He planned to teach, but a lack of teaching jobs and a surprising offer from a Methodist church in Delaware led him in a different direction with his music.
"It seemed like a good fit," he said of taking the full-time position with Grace United Methodist Church in 1999. "Protestant churches value music highly. I love organ music, and I love choir music."
He works with Pastor Anne Pruett-Barnett to select themes for each week's services. "I select a Biblical text," she explained, "and he plans his music around those themes so that it interfaces with the worship liturgy." The music plays a critical role, she said, as it makes up 40 to 60 percent of a worship celebration.
Pastor Pruett-Barnett calls Brother Harmon "a gifted and talented church musician and a humble man of faith" whose "ability to select music thematically enriches the worship experience and offers persons a way to connect more intimately with God."
In coordinating music to fit the theme chosen for the week, Brother Harmon often ends up arranging bell choir and choral music. Many of his solo organ arrangements have been published. His "Jig in A Minor" was written to commemorate the retirement of John Longhurst, organist for the Tabernacle Choir for 30 years.
In addition to working as music director and organist five full days a week, he also serves as choir director in his ward and music chairman for the Wilmington Delaware Stake. He is over a combined choir and orchestra concert during Christmastime — a challenge in a stake with broad boundaries and long travel, he notes. The Harmons open their Wilmington home for ward choir rehearsals.
During his 12 years at Grace United Methodist Church, Brother Harmon has been able to attend all three hours of whichever ward meets in the afternoon in the LDS meetinghouse in Wilmington.
He views his work as a way of breaking down religious barriers and building bridges. He has been invited to make hospital visits with the pastor and lead the weekday Bible study class, pray with the church staff and go with them on humanitarian mission trips to Mississippi and Tennessee. He said his LDS priesthood leaders have also been supportive of him and his family.
Brother Harmon, who has served two terms as dean of the Delaware Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and served as the worship and music chair of the American Choral Directors Association, was invited to perform a recital on the newly renovated 10,000-pipe Aeolian organ at Longwood Gardens near Kennet Square, Pa., (about 30 miles west of Philadelphia) in its November concert series. His goal consisted of playing the organ transcriptions of well-known works from memory.
"It's exhilarating when it all comes together," he said. "I don't want to stop playing."
