a musician's second act

THE FOLLOWING STORY APPEARED IN THE AUGUST 26, 2010 EDITION OF

THE WILBRAHAM-HAMPDEN (MA) TIMES AND IS REPRODUCED HERE WITH PERMISSION

New music director has played with the greats

Grace Union's Olive Thompson

sang with Ormandy,

Rachmaninoff and Toscanini

By Joan Paris

Turley Publications Correspondent

Dressed in light lavender and rich purples, Olive Thompson arrived back at Grace Union Church in Wilbraham last week -- again. Retired from the church in 2000 as a 17-year music director, she begins again with gusto as both music director and church organist following Diana Jay's departure in June as director of music.

Thompson is a well-known musician and vocalist. As a graduate of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ where she studied music and cello, Thompson sang before some of the greatest performance maestros of the twentieth century including Sergie Rachmaninoff, Arturo Toscanini, Rozansky and Bruno Walter. Thompson is humble. She is also a music virtuoso.

She was born to music. So were her parents. Her mother, Irene Burnham was an organist and choir director in Worcester MA, and her father, LeRoy sang in his wife's choir. Their three daughters learned to play piano early on and sang in the choir. She recalls that family reunions were music events as well. Family members provided a full range of musical voice including soprano, alto, tenor and bass and "we would run through Handel's Messiah."

Thompson recalls her days with Eugene Ormandy, a Hungarian-born Jewish conductor and violinist (1899-1985), who played violin at age 3 and continued musically until he was 84 years old. He was her choir conductor when she sang with an 80-member voice choir -- up and down the East Coast while at Westminster.

"Tall, Lanky and Sad"

In those days, she explains, the whole college was a choir. Thompson also vividly recalls concerts conducted by Rachmaninoff. "He was a tall, lanky looking man. I was impressed with how sad he looked. His whole being was sad." She reflected that he was self-exiled from Russia and wonders whether his loss of homeland was mirrored on his face. "Now Toscanini," she smiles, "He was a showman." She witnessed his "Toscanini temper" many times. "Once in Philadelphia, he stopped an entire morning rehearsal to discipline a Metropoiitan Opera soprano. He raged at her in Italian, threw his baton in the air and stomped off the stage with a dramatic flourish. Following a deafening concert hall silence, it was announced that the rehearsal would resume in the afternoon," she remembers.

Lively,  Upbeat Songs

When Thompson started out in college, there was strictly classical music in the churches. Now the choirs and church members enjoy lively, upbeat songs. She jumps to the organ and quickly plays a lively version of "This Little Light of Mine."

Thompson began her musical journey with a Minister of Music degree and a college placement in Ohio where she was a soprano soloist for many years. She has since directed music at the Congregational Church in East Longmeadow, sung in the Grace Union choir and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra Chorus where she recalls, "I was pulled out as a solo performer to join a quartet of singers during a production of 'Carmen' in 1960." She currently teaches in her East Longmeadow home to notable performers and musicians and blossoming high school students.

Thompson's husband, now deceased, was a jeweler. He operated a jewelry store at the corner of Main and State streets in Springfield from 1963-1980.

In his absence she is glad to have her music and happy to be at Grace Union Church. Pastor David Hurst is glad she is back with the church as "Minister of Music." "She has years of experience in conducting choirs, teaching piano and voice, and is a welcome addition to the church," he said.

Sings Every Sunday

The 12-member choir will rehearse once a week in the fall and sing every Sunday at services. In the summer months, Grace Union joins two other Ludlow parishes and they alternate Sunday services for two weeks at a time at each church. There are 150 members at Grace Union Church: "The friendly church on the corner" as it is called, said Hurst.

According to church history, the congregation is firmly planted in old North Wilbraham. Meetings began there at the old Collins Depot prior to a meetinghouse built on (Warren) Collins' donated land in 1877 to accommodate the many families that rose up to work in the Collins paper mill along the Chicopee River.

For more information, contact the pastor at 596-4397 or visit the church website at www.graceunionchurch.org.