'You have a symphony, right there'

Jul. 24—She resolutely climbed four flights of stairs to the balcony of the Church of the Immaculate Conception.

Once there, she smiled and walked toward a broad pipe organ. She paused to change into a different pair of shoes. Patent leather soles allow her feet to smoothly move from one of the musical instrument's foot pedals to another.

Then, Sister Regina Marie McIntyre sat on the organ's bench, unfurled the four-pages-wide sheet music and began to play. Bach's "Toccata and Fugue" soared through the 114-year-old church at St. Mary-of-the-Woods on a drizzly Friday afternoon. Her fingers deftly darted over the three tiers of keys, while tapping the foot pedals for the bass notes. She held the closing chords, stopped, turned and grinned.

This is her ministry.

"I like to lead the people of God in hymns and songs of praise," she said.

And McIntyre carries out that mission vibrantly, at age 90. She entered the Sisters of Providence congregation seven decades ago and continues to serve as senior organist at the church. McIntyre plays at funerals, many masses and other services. She also plays the 9 a.m. service every Sunday morning at the nearby St. Mary's Village Church.

"What a little powerhouse of wisdom, skill, talent, commitment, ministry, and so much more, she is," said Susan Outlaw Stallings, who also serves as an organist, as well as assistant liturgist, at the Sisters of Providence. "She's just so very active. What a person to emulate. I'd like to age so well as she has."

McIntyre sees herself in the midst of a progression, always learning and improving. "I think I'm still trying to be [better]," she said. "I'm still working at it."

It's a process that began for her as a grade school kid. She was born in Eaton, Ohio, but her family moved to Richmond, Ind., where her mother had attended school, learning from Sisters of Providence teachers. McIntyre learned to play piano there, but longed for a chance to play the parish's organ.

"I saw that organ, and I just wanted to go up and there and play it," she recalled.

So, she'd sneak in and play the song, "Oh, Lord, I Am Not Worthy."

"I used to go in and play it over and over," McIntyre said, "but that was just on my own."

Eventually, a life in music ministry led her to more formal organ training, though that took a while. She came to Terre Haute and earned a bachelor's degree in piano performance from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, and then added a master's degree in the same discipline from Indiana University. Additional training in the Suzuki method allowed McIntyre to teach stringed instruments, too.

She taught piano, strings, hand bells and choir at schools in Maryland, Chicago, Oklahoma and Indianapolis, and then for 26 years at St. Charles School in Bloomington. "You have to love the children," McIntyre said, "and you put that love into teaching them."

While in Bloomington, McIntyre played the organ at Sunday masses at a parish there. "But, still, I wasn't trained," she emphasized. "I didn't consider myself that good."

A "very finished organist" from a neighboring church, Lois Pardue, gave McIntyre some instruction. Later, during a sabbatical, McIntyre studied under acclaimed French-Canadian organist and composer Conrad Bernier at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

At that point, "I considered myself to have some pretty good training," she said.

She served as director of liturgy at the Sisters of Providence in St. Mary-of-the-Woods for 16 years, and spent 14 years at St. Meinrad Archabbey in southern Indiana, becoming organist for the Benedictine monks at the Abbey Church. She also taught the monks violin and cello. The pipe organ there was massive, a powerful instrument crafted by the Indianapolis company Goulding and Wood.

"I went really big-time with organ, because I had this big organ to play and had that repertoire from Dr. Bernier and Lois," McIntyre said.

After those 14 years at St. Meinrad, she returned to The Woods. Along with playing the organ, McIntyre serves as a volunteer teacher and tends the community's flower garden.

"She's a force of nature," said Sister Lisa Stallings, a member of the congregation's leadership team and an organist herself.

As a musical instrument, playing an organ is "a community effort," Stallings explained. Its designer and builders influences the sound, along with the performing organist. The Woods organ, made in 1953, features 1,700 pipes that range in size from a few inches tall (high notes) to 16 feet high (the lower notes). Sister Regina Marie handles the multitasking element of organ-playing with skill and careful choices, Stallings said.

"She really is a wonderful interpreter of the music," Stallings said.

McIntyre's dedication to that role unfolds every morning, very early.

"Every day before sunup, she makes her way over to the church to rehearse," Stallings said.

McIntyre humbly shares credit with others involved in the music at Church of the Immaculate Conception services. "I'm just a volunteer now," she said. Still, her joy of the sounds of the organ, paired with voices of worshippers and other contributing musicians, is clear to see.

"I like all the different sounds you make, the different combinations you can make," she said, pointing to the myriad knobs, buttons and foot pedals that can soften, sharpen, deepen and brighten the notes. "You can make a piece come alive, with all its different colors, so to say."

Glancing back at the instrument, she added, "You have a symphony right there."

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.