Christmas Cards from the Senate Wurlitzer

By Karen Pier Hunt

When Tim Schramm says that he has lots to do for the holiday season–”it’s my busy season”--he  explains, he’s not just talking about shopping and cooking and decorating other things related to the season. It's his job, you see. Tim is a professional musician who gives holiday concerts just like the one he will be giving December 14th at the Senate Theater where he will be performing an organ concert of Christmas music.

But giving concerts is not just a job to him, it’s a labor of love. “I love bringing joy to the holiday season to people, especially those who are struggling with life issues, just to give a little hope and bring a little life into their lives,” he says enthusiastically.

Although Schramm plays in many different venues and different kinds of concerts, Schramm puts a lot of special pride into making his holiday concerts enjoyable for everyone, with many unique touches.

For example, some of the time, he will play a piece using both a piano and an organ. He will show a video of him playing part of the song on the piano, and then will play the rest of the song live at the theater on the organ.

He will also play video vignettes “like Christmas cards” as he plays the organ. “It’s really cute.” He will also play medleys of famous holiday tunes.

At six, he discovered the piano. His parents weren't musical, and there was no piano in his home. His aunt had one, and he was entranced by it, and he began playing. When his parents saw his interest and talent, a piano for his own home was acquired, and he began formal lessons.

His real destiny was fixed a few years later when at 10 he attended his first organ concert at the Auditorium Theatre in Rochester. It was love at first hearing. The next year, he played his first church service, playing the organ at the Webster Assembly of God.

Seeing his interest, just like when he was six,  his parents bought him another instrument, this time his first organ. Although he worked on his new instrument in earnest, he didn’t neglect the piano. During these early teenage years, he expanded his musical horizons by touring with the Harmonaires Gospel Quartet, and further developed his piano artistry.

Since then, Tim, a native of Rochester, New York, has continued to carve out a career in music.  He’s now retired from the Rochester City School District where he had been a full-time choir accompanist at The School of Arts.  Tim has also been the House Organist at Shea’s Buffalo Theatre, a 1926 movie palace, where he has played their celebrated Wurlitzer organ. 

Even now, Tim keeps busy in the performing world. Not only is he the director of Music Ministries and is also the organist at St Michael's Catholic Church in Newark, New York, he is also the assistant organist at St. Francis Catholic Church in Geneva, New York. Additionally, he also is the House Organist for the Rochester Broadway Theater League’s Auditorium Center and has served on the board of the Rochester Theatre Organ Society for many years as its program chair, as well as vice president.

Although they are both organs, a theater organ is not the same as a church organ. A theater organ is designed to imitate an orchestra with added percussion sounds such as drums and symbols. Theater organs also have more stops –devices that's like different volumes or sounds– than do church organs. These additional stops allow more colorful and versatile tones.

While Tim plays both the church organ and theater organ, Tim definitely has a preference. “I prefer the theater organ. It’s my forte,” he said. When he plays a church organ, he must maintain a strict fidelity to the written music. “With a theater organ, I can improvise and I like that.” 

The organ Schramm will be playing for the Senate concert is the 1928 Wurlitzer, the 4 manual 34 rank organ, that was originally in the Fisher Theater.

Size is definitely an advantage for organs. “A bigger organ has more ranks. The more ranks you have, the more versatility you have,” he explained, because the more ranks allow for more of a variety of tones. In pipe organs, a rank is a set of pipes of the same type. Each pipe is for each key on the keyboard. The organist chooses and combines the pipes to create different sounds and volumes by using stops

Although Tim has traveled to England many times to play at the Byron Jones Music Festival, as well for the Kingston Theatre Organ Society in Canada, along with playing throughout the United States, Schramm has never played a concert in Detroit before. In fact, he's never been to Detroit before! He has been to Michigan once on organ business, of course, when he went to pick up an organ in Hart. 

The Senate Theater’s organ is larger than what he usually plays, it’s not the biggest one that he played. Schramm has played on the world’s largest pipe organ, which is located at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

To add to the holiday fun, attendees are free to bring a plate of cookies for the intermission’s cookie exchange. When people arrive, they will put their plates on a long table, and during intermission, people will fix themselves a cookie plate.  

As Schramm says, “It’s not going to be a stiff-necked concert. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Tickets begin at $17 and are available on https://app.gopassage.com/events/36824

Tim’s website is Timschramm.com, and he has a YouTube Channel, as well.