Music, for organist Darin Kennedy, is something to be felt. He said it offers a retreat from his personal worries when he sits down at the organ.
“When you struggle with time, this will allow you to slow down time and can let you control your time in other areas of your life. What got me into it, as I said in the beginning, were hard times. This was a place to come, put everything else aside, and let the music come to you, to control you,” Kennedy said. “Handing yourself over to the instrument, and making it make you feel something.”
And the St. John’s Lutheran Church organist will get the chance to do that on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. as the church hosts a recital where Kennedy will perform pieces by J. S. Bach and Boellman followed by favorites of the Christmas season.
Kennedy said when he plays he focuses on the tone of the notes as he uses his hands and feet to play the massive organ at the church, playing carefully and not rushing through the music.
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“If music is in any part of your soul, you’ll be able to come to hear something that’s important for everybody in the room,” Kennedy said.
The organist has taken a 90-minute drive to Statesville on Sundays and Wednesdays for more than two years now to perform for the church and said he looks forward to surrounding himself with the sounds of the organ as he plays.
Sharing that with listeners is part of why the Kennedy organist enjoys performing and focuses on the passion behind the music.
“If I can’t speak through words to you, I speak through music,” Kennedy said.