Ninty-five-year-old musician plays newly arrived organ at local church

Ashley Opina, The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.
·2 min read

Jun. 3—Toward the end of the Great Depression in 1940, then 7-year-old Evelyn Rudenick began teaching herself something that would bring her and her family great happiness when they needed it most: playing piano.

Soon after, the organ.

A piano entered Rudenick's life after a merchant's house in her hometown of burned in a fire. The fire damaged the shell of the piano but the instrument itself survived. The merchant decided to part ways with it and offered it to Rudenick's parents who gladly accepted.

"My mother knew how to play the piano," she said. "We had one hymn book. She took the hymn book and she wrote what the notes were: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Then on the piano, she wrote A, B, C, D, E, F, G. And that was it. I learned from there."

Rudenick's mother enjoyed listening to her play so much that she would instruct Rudenick to do so instead of doing her chores.

She then began playing the piano for her Sunday school at age 9.

On the day of her confirmation at age 13, the organist failed to show. Rudenick's minister — aware of her piano skills — told her to fill in and play the organ for the ceremony.

She's played for years ever since and really honed the craft at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in North Mankato, where the 95-year-old musician has been asked to play the newly renovated organ that just recently arrived at the church during today's Sunday service.

Originally built in New York in 1889, the 12-rank tracker action organ was repaired and relocated by The Fritz Noack Organ Company in 1964. It has since been owned by Concordia Lutheran Church in Sioux City, Iowa.

After the closure of Concordia was announced, the organ was offered — free of charge — to a church that was in need of a new instrument.

Rudenick has been donating to the organ fund at her church for years in hopes of getting a new organ, and now her dreams have come true.

The organ was restored and repaired in Lake City, Iowa, before being transported to its new home at Good Shepherd and ready to be played by Rudenick.

"It's to the glory of God that I play the organ," she said. "He gave me this talent so that I could develop it."