University of Toronto’s resident organist retires after 45 years

Thousands of graduates have crossed the stage at the University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall over the years, but while students have come and gone, one integral part of the ceremony has remained a constant for 45 years – university organist John Tuttle.

Students who graduated during the fall convocation ceremony on Friday walked the aisles of the hall to his finale performances.

Tuttle began working at the university in 1979 after moving to Toronto from the U.S.

“It was specifically to be the organist at St. Paul’s on Bloor Street. And my predecessor Charles Peaker was the university organist. And I think he must have put the bug in somebody’s ear here, because I was called in. I thought I was in some trouble. I was told to report to the president’s office and they suggested they’d like me to carry on,” he told The Leader Spirit before his last performance.

“I didn’t know what it would be except playing convocations. Over the years I began to teach organ for the Faculty of Music. And I was involved in the Hart House chorus here and for a couple of years did the choir at the Faculty of Music. And then I got into Trinity College to do the music for the chapel, which was, I think, the keystone of my choral experience here. So it just went on from one thing to another for 45 years. And here I am on the last day.”

The massive pipe organ that Tuttle plays is about a hundred years old and although he’s been working with it for almost half that time, he says he cannot get complacent during performances.

“I’m thinking, don’t screw up. It’s like herding cats. It’s very busy playing this instrument. Your feet are playing usually the bass part. And if you’ve played the piano for a number of years, which I did, your left hand wants to play the bass part. So suddenly it has something entirely different to do. Or sometimes it does play the bass part and you play the tune on the pedals. So there’s a lot you have to concentrate on,” he said.

He adds that it’s a temperamental instrument and despite some upgrades over the years to make it more reliable, it requires constant upkeep.

“If you’re going to tune this organ, every pipe in it … there are 5,000 some pipes … it takes about a week. So rather than do that every time we’ll tune some stops on Monday and then a month later, maybe we’ll tune something else. So it’s an ongoing project pretty much like doing the laundry,” he said.

Despite its idiosyncrasies, he says he can usually get it to cooperate, hitting all the right notes at the right time.

“In the procession, you try and get the peanut butter and the jelly to come out evenly. You want to run out of music just when the last people get to the stage. And there’s some tricks to that. If you choose the right kind of piece with segments of music, you can repeat a segment and use the last segment to end it,” he said.

“It’s a marvelous instrument and it’s a chance to promote the best kind of music to an audience which probably would otherwise not get to hear it.”

With his performance being the musical score to students’ culminating memory of the university experience, he wants to make sure they remember it for years to come.

“I’d like the music to be spectacular for it because I want them to go away thinking that there’s more than the ephemeral music that we hear on the tube. I mean, these contemporary pop artists are great, but when they are done, JS Bach will still be here. And every time I approach his music, and I’ve been playing it now for over 60 years, it’s fresh. It’s new and it’s engaging. And I want to share that. I hope I have.”

For the incoming organist who will take his place he has some simple words of advice.

“Don’t screw it up,” he jokes.

“I think that the next person will have to do their own thing … and I know there’s some people that can do wonderful things. I hope we get one.”

Looking back on his tenure of almost half a century, Tuttle says it’s been an honour to bear witness such a critical juncture in so many students’ lives.

“That is an incredible thing when you think about what each of these people is capable of doing. And then they go off and they do remarkable things,” he said.

While he will continue to practice and help out at St. Paul’s, he said he’s ready to play his final coda as the university’s resident organist.

“After 45 years, I know I don’t have the technique that I used to have. My wife and I will always remember seeing somebody wearing a T-shirt that said, ‘the older I get the better I was.’ And so I think it’s time for me to get out and let somebody else do this,” he said.

“It’s been a great ride.”