If you go to a movie at the Heights Theater and there’s a man in front blocking your view of the screen, check to see if he’s playing a pipe organ. If so, he might be Karl Eilers. He’s one of three organists who perform on weekends and during silent-film screenings on the Heights’ lovingly restored Wurlitzer pipe organ, one of the few of its kind left in the U.S. Eilers knows his work literally from the inside out—for decades, he not only played organs, but also built them. These days, he worries that there aren’t enough new players to replace the old guard, but he loves performing for theatergoers as much as ever, savoring the improvisational skill it requires. “Sure, you’re playing standards, but like jazz, it’s new every time,” he says. “Even if it’s written by Duke Ellington, when I play it, it’s mine.” Here’s what Eilers would bring along if cast away on some lonely Pacific island.
1) The Heights organ, of course. This would have to be a very well-planned shipwreck, because that took three years to put in. But that’s the only entertainment choice I can think of that’d do me forever. That, or a big Steinway grand piano.
2) I’m going to cheat—I’m going to burn my own CDs. CD one: Mozart’s and Gabriel Fauré’s requiems. The Mozart, it’s universally regarded as one of his greatest works, even though half was written by somebody else because he died in the middle of it. The Fauré Requiem isn’t like any I can think of. It’s sometimes called the “Dream Requiem,” all peace and light. Very nice. You should try it.
3) CD two: Alicia De Larrocha’s Spanish piano stuff. Spectacular and extremely well played. I’d tack on “The Chairman Dances” by John Adams, something he wrote but didn’t use for his opera Nixon in China. It has everything—emotion and complex structure, but also superficial charm.
4) CD three is a bunch of stuff. Piano jazz from Sergio Salvatore, Brian Setzer, Don Henley, and actually a cut or two from Justin Timberlake. Now, if I’m marooned forever I’ll get tired of those, but at the moment they’re still fresh.
5) Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. You can read it ten times and still find worthwhile stuff. And also a boxed set of the Harry Potter books.
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