Organist Harmon retires from university position

By Howard Ho
Daily Bruin Reporter

Believe it or not, UCLA has a university organist, the talented
Thomas Harmon. Unlike the cheaper synthesizers that ostensibly took
over the function of the pipe organ, organs such as the one in
Royce Hall remain useful for their beauty, magnitude, and
continuation of past traditions. Unfortunately, Harmon is retiring
for good, possibly taking that distinguished tradition with
him.

“I have confidence that UCLA will run a search for a
qualified replacement once I retire. The search has not yet been
launched, but I’m confident that they will want to do
that,” said Harmon, who plays his farewell solo recital at
Royce Hall tonight.

Playing pieces that are his personal and audience favorites,
Harmon will leave behind 34 years at UCLA.

During some of that time, he was the chair of the music
department. He saw the department undergo radical changes that
makes it the place it is today. Fresh from studying organ at
Stanford and in Europe, Harmon couldn’t help but exceed the
expectations of his position.

“There is no job description so it’s pretty much
what you make of it and what the circumstances require,”
Harmon said.

Taking advantage of the carte blanche of the position, Harmon
embodies possibly the very best that such a position can be.

“What is a university organist, anyway?” begins
Harmon’s “Reflections of a University Organist,”
an essay he wrote for his farewell concert’s program. He
explains, “As in England, the American campuses appointed a
university organist or chapel organist to provide music for
whatever religious services and official university ceremonies took
place and to teach organ students as required.”

Yet the religious aspect gets hairy since UCLA is a secular
place. Also, organ students are limited because outside the church,
large, fragile organs are impractical. Even so, Harmon made his
program work.

“Organists are probably tied to a church and the whole
church thing. Who knows how many organists we would have without
Harmon? This guy carved out this program single-handedly and
that’s impressive, no question about it,” said music
professor Paul Reale, a faculty composer who wrote an organ
concerto for Harmon in 1991.

Also, working against Harmon were the biases of time and
culture.

Seventy years ago, the university organist played three free
recitals a week to packed houses at Royce Hall. But television,
radio and films took over after World War II, leaving the
university organist underused.

When Harmon came to UCLA in the spring of 1968, the Royce Hall
organ was deteriorated beyond use, and Harmon personally got the
support of then-new Chancellor Charles E. Young to renovate it. By
1971, the new organ was complete, and Harmon could begin to be the
university organist, which not only included playing the organs,
but also maintaining them.

“Among the most interesting challenges in my career as
curator of the campus organs, have been floods, two earthquakes,
and two remodellings of Royce Hall,” Harmon wrote in his
“Reflections” essay.

Harmon also saw the opening of the Schoenberg Hall annex in
1982, which houses the organ room where he lectures and practices
and holds the organ that he helped design. This will be
Harmon’s last year teaching his modest group of 10 or so
undergraduate and graduate organ majors.

Perhaps the greatest contribution Harmon made to UCLA, was
overseeing the reorganization of the former College of Fine Arts
into what the School of Arts and Architecture and the School of
Theater, Film, and Television are today. In a 10-year span as chair
of the music department, Harmon revamped the music school, creating
new degrees and new courses which exist today.

“It always takes many people to make these things
happen,” Harmon said, adding, “This was my first
full-time university position. My first and only. I came and I
stayed.”

Performance, however, is still Harmon’s focus despite his
administrative vigor. Even with his university position, Harmon
still found time for a 20-year tenure as the organist for the First
United Methodist Church of Santa Monica.

Moving to his new abode in Medford, Oregon, Harmon will retire
in June to the quiet life. He plans to split his time between his
model railroad and performing occasional guest recitals. After 34
years of hard work and beautiful performances, who can blame
him.

“I’ve come to love Los Angeles,” said Harmon,
“But I’m ready to retire to a more serene environment
now that L.A. has become such a busy place, and as one gets older,
one seeks a quieter lifestyle. I’m looking forward to
that.”