{"id":116735,"date":"2025-01-10T10:29:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=116735"},"modified":"2025-02-11T14:13:34","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T19:13:34","slug":"the-pipe-organ-master","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/magazine\/articles\/2025\/the-pipe-organ-master\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pipe Organ Master"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin magazine-block-editorial-leadin is-style-side-by-side has-media has-flip has-box has-media-focus-center-top\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"4000\" height=\"6000\" src=\"\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-1.jpg\" class=\"\" alt=\"CFA alum and pipe organist Peter Krasinski in Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-1.jpg 4000w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-1-424x636.jpg 424w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-1-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-1-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-1-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-1-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-1-667x1000.jpg 667w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 4000px) 100vw, 4000px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin-caption wp-prepress-component-caption\"><em>Photos by Chris McIntosh<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">CFA Alumni<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Pipe Organ Master\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">Peter Krasinski has taken his love for the behemoth instrument all over the world<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar magazine-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">January 10, 2025<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/magazine\/authors\/molly-callahan\/\">Molly Callahan<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-introparagraph magazine-block-editorial-introparagraph is-style-dropcap-dimensional has-dropcap has-dropcap-color-tertiary\"><div class=\"wp-block-editorial-introparagraph-content\"><p>For  acclaimed pipe organist Peter Krasinski, sitting down at the console of an unfamiliar instrument is \u201calmost like meeting someone new,\u201d he says. He would know: Krasinski has played pipe organs all over the world, including Notre Dame in Paris. He\u2019s taught master classes in Finland and entertained audiences with silent film accompaniments in seven cities in Japan.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">\u201cI think one of the most wonderful things about organs is that they\u2019re all different,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/krasinski.org\/\">Krasinski<\/a> (\u201980, STH\u201998), who can identify the year and maker of every pipe organ he\u2019s played as easily as some people rattle off automotive models. \u201cEvery pipe organ is built for a specific place, room, people. You have theater organs, concert hall organs, church organs\u2014to me, the attraction is the variety. If you were to ask me who my favorite pop singer is, I couldn\u2019t tell you, because I love so many of them. I don\u2019t even have a favorite color.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">If variety is the spice of life, then Krasinski\u2019s life is abundantly seasoned. He travels to concert halls across North America, Europe, and Asia, playing alongside silent films to bring them to life. He is the house organist for four venues in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He\u2019s won a number of prizes, including the highly regarded First Prize in Improvisation in the American Guild of Organists National Competition. Krasinski is a conductor too\u2014he\u2019s led professional musicians both domestic and international. And recently, he\u2019s taken those skills to the silver screen: Krasinski appears in the Oscar-nominated 2023 film <em>The Holdovers<\/em>, as a choir conductor and organist (for which he earned a Screen Actors Guild membership).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">The throughline for all of Krasinski\u2019s ventures is music. Music pervades his life; it\u2019s the lens through which he views the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">\u201cSo if you ask, \u2018Why music?\u2019 I think it\u2019s impossible not to love it,\u201d he says. \u201cI think it\u2019s always been a big part of my life, and I think the people who played the organ were just fascinating to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>The call of the pipe organ<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">Growing up in Quincy, Mass., Krasinski heard music everywhere. \u201cI used to tell my mother that I could hear the subway underneath our feet, and I would sing along with the vacuum cleaner\u2014things like that,\u201d he says with a warm smile. Perhaps it\u2019s in his genes: Krasinki\u2019s mother was an amateur cello player, and his father, he jokes, \u201cplayed the radio really well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery aligncenter columns-2 is-cropped\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-2-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"CFA alum and pipe organist Peter Krasinski in Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA\" data-id=\"116878\" data-full-url=\"\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-2.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?attachment_id=116878\" class=\"wp-image-116878\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-2-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-2-424x636.jpg 424w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-2-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-2-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-2-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-2-667x1000.jpg 667w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-2.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/CFA-KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-3-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"116882\" data-full-url=\"\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/CFA-KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-3.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?attachment_id=116882\" class=\"wp-image-116882\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/CFA-KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-3-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/CFA-KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-3-424x636.jpg 424w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/CFA-KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-3-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/CFA-KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-3-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/CFA-KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-3-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/CFA-KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-3-667x1000.jpg 667w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/files\/2024\/12\/CFA-KRASINSKI-Pipe-Organ-Master-3.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-background has-normal-font-size has-black-color has-quaternary-background-color\">Peter Krasinski travels across North America, Europe, and Asia, playing the pipe organ alongside silent films. In both images, he plays at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">As soon as Krasinski could reach the keys on the piano, he started playing. He switched to violin when he was nine, and by junior high school he\u2019d joined the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (known today as the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">At the same time, he sang in the choir at his local church, Bethany Congregational Church in Quincy, where he was transfixed by its pipe organ. Once, before service, he asked the organist, Agnes Ruggles Allen, if he might try it out. She told him to come back at the end of the mass, and when he did, Allen let him play a single note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">\u201cIt was thrilling,\u201d says Krasinski, who would go on to help restore, and eventually play, Bethany\u2019s organ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">He followed that spark for the rest of his life. He earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in music education and organ performance as well as a master\u2019s degree in sacred music from BU. \u201cThe fun thing for me, as an organist, is that I never dislike any kind of organ music,\u201d Krasinski says. \u201cThe pipe organ is very special because it\u2019s so real. It\u2019s an actual, physical thing that\u2019s making the sound from many different places in a room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">Krasinski plays in three settings: liturgies, concert halls, and theaters. There\u2019s sometimes a fourth setting too: Krasinski plays the pipe organ in BU\u2019s George Sherman Union during school and college convocation ceremonies each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">But it\u2019s in theaters where Krasinski\u2019s musicality really shines. Theater organs, he says, were invented to accompany films before they had sound of their own. The term \u201csilent film\u201d is a misnomer in that way: Original audiences always experienced movies accompanied by live organ, piano, or orchestral music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">When movies with their own integrated sound were introduced in the 1920s, theaters across the country fired their in-house musicians in favor of the more fashionable talking pictures. Though it was shoved to the margins, the practice never really died out, Krasinski says, and in the 1970s and \u201980s, when VHS tapes enabled audiences to watch movies from their living rooms, studios again hired musicians to play over silent film recordings for at-home viewers. This created another wave of popularity (and work) for silent film accompanists\u2014one that likely crested with Italian composer Giorgio Moroder\u2019s 1983 musical take on the science fiction silent film <em>Metropolis<\/em>, Krasinski says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">Krasinski\u2019s approach to this accompaniment is \u201cunique in that world,\u201d he says. By that, he means it\u2019s entirely improvisation. No two performances are exactly alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">\u201cI\u2019ve played in venues where I played the same movie twice in a row\u2014in fact, three times in a row\u2014and the management has said that it was different every time,\u201d he says. \u201cWhy is that? It\u2019s because <em>we\u2019re <\/em>different, not just every day, but every minute of the day. We\u2019re changing. If we\u2019re alive, we\u2019re changing beings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">Krasinski does have a consistent approach to each new film he accompanies, though. First, he memorizes the movie\u2014the major plot points, the characters, any unexpected or important moments for sound (\u201clike a gunshot going off, or something,\u201d he says). Then he memorizes the instrument at hand. And since each pipe organ has its own quality and sound, this can sometimes lead to standout moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">Here, it\u2019s important to understand something about pipe organs. They\u2019re wind instruments\u2014they produce sound when wind is forced through the pipes. That wind, and the flow of it, is controlled by the musician at the helm. As the musician presses certain keys, valves open up underneath the corresponding pipes, allowing air through and creating a sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">An organ can contain hundreds of pipes, which are grouped into specific sets. These sets have their own unique sounds designed to mimic other instruments, like flutes, trumpets, or horns. The musician can control the sets by pulling specific knobs, known as stops.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">So, ahead of a recent performance of the German horror film <em>Waxworks<\/em>, Krasinski was sitting at the console of the organ, methodically going through its various tones and capabilities. One particular stop, meant to sound like an English horn, was misfiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">\u201cIt was making this awful sound,\u201d he says. Tuners immediately jumped in to fix it, but Krasinski, thinking quickly, asked them to leave it be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">\u201cAnd later on, I did this movie, and one of the characters [the pot-bellied Caliph Harun al-Rashid] was extremely unpleasant. During the entire movie, I avoided that stop and that [note].\u201d When the character appeared, Krasinski let it rip. The audience went wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">\u201cMy organist friends were like, \u2018How the hell did you do that?\u2019 It was magic.\u201d He adds, after a hearty laugh, \u201cI enjoy taking on those different roles as a storyteller, using the organ as an instrument to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>From accompanying films to being in one<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">In 2021, Krasinski accepted a job as a long-term substitute music director at Saint Mark\u2019s School in Southborough, Mass. Soon, he learned that a movie would be filmed on campus\u2014did the school know anyone who could play a choir leader?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">That film, <em>The Holdovers<\/em>, is set during winter break at a New England prep school in 1970. Krasinski\u2019s job was to act as choral director, leading his students into \u201cO Little Town of Bethlehem.\u201d Ever the teacher, Krasinski asked director Alexander Payne for two minutes before the crew started filming, to warm up his young actors and learn the hymn. Afterward, they did a few takes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"responsive-video responsive-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Alexander Payne&#039;s The Holdovers (2023) | Opening Titles\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g3c8612MPmo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size\">Krasinski appears in the opening of the film <em>The Holdovers<\/em>, which was filmed at Saint Mark\u2019s School in Southborough, Mass. <em>Titlesfromfilms<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">Imagine Krasinski\u2019s surprise, then, when he heard his own voice at the beginning of the film. That warm-up? Payne caught it and ran with it. What audiences hear is Krasinski, unfiltered, sharing his love of music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">\u201cCan I hear the opening word, \u2018O\u2019?\u201d Krasinski\u2019s gentle voice emerges from the dark screen, followed immediately by the sound of a boys choir chiming in, elongating the vowel. \u201cOhhhhh,\u201d they all sing. \u201cVery good!\u201d he congratulates them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">Krasinski, in his role as the choir director, instructs his students to breathe in, breathe out, sing the opening chord. He reminds them to pay attention to the words they\u2019re singing. He fiddles with the balance of high, middle, and bass voices. After they run through the first verse, he congratulates them again: \u201cReally great, especially that \u2018t\u2019 at the end\u2014all together. Very, very good. Excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-end-of-article\">For most viewers, it\u2019s an actor playing his character to a T. But it\u2019s just Krasinski, delighting in his roles as a teacher and a lover of music, first and foremost.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI think one of the most wonderful things about organs is that they\u2019re all different,\u201d says Krasinski (\u201980, STH\u201998), who can identify the year and maker of every pipe organ he\u2019s played as easily as some people rattle off automotive models. \u201cEvery pipe organ is built for a specific place, room, people. You have theater [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14125,"featured_media":116883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"{\"post_id\":95278,\"hed\":\"An Orchestra for All\",\"dek\":\"Next Article\",\"class\":\"wp-block-editorial-billboard magazine-block-editorial-billboard is-style-full-photo has-light-overlay has-media\",\"backgroundId\":\"95280\",\"backgroundUrl\":\"\\\/cfa\\\/files\\\/2022\\\/11\\\/Orchestra-for-All-22-1438-CFA-BROWN-WANG-001-970x456.jpg\",\"backgroundType\":\"image\",\"backgroundOpacity\":\"100\"}","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[],"bu-publication":[191],"magazine-article-category":[372,377],"magazine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[443],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/116735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116735"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/116735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118639,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/116735\/revisions\/118639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116735"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=116735"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=116735"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=116735"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=116735"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=116735"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=116735"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=116735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}