(*Editor’s note: The title of this piece is a poorly-constructed pipe organ joke. Explanation at end.)
You wouldn’t guess from his tough, tattooed, motorcycle-riding aesthetic today, but Frank Perko III holds the distinction of having been the youngest-ever staff performer at the Organ Grinder, hired to play at the Denver location at the age of eleven.
We caught up with Frank during our recent Denver Road Trip.
“I grew up in Pueblo, Colorado. I had little interest in sports and whatnot as a kid. But I found by age seven that my grandmother had purchased a Conn organ for her home. And it was quickly a big interest of mine. And so I was begging my parents to take lessons and to have my own organ and to be involved in music.”
“One Christmas, my grandmother, who always said I couldn’t touch the organ – ‘Don’t touch the organ. Don’t touch the organ’ – she left the organ on, and everybody was in the kitchen drinking and eating. And I went to the living room and sat up at the organ and picked out the tune of Silent Night. Well, that kind of changed my parents’ idea about what I might do. And so by age nine, I had my own home organ, and I started taking organ lessons.”
It wasn’t too long before Frank had his first experience listening to a real pipe organ, and it was quite the choice for an introduction: A trip to Denver with Pueblo’s organ club, which Frank had joined at age 10, to visit the Organ Grinder:
“I remember walking in and just being blown away with an enormous amount of sound, and being able to feel it on the floor, and seeing these giant reservoirs bouncing up and down with the tremulants. I was just – I couldn’t believe it – it was enormous to me.”
After a few more regular visits, Frank’s family recognized that he was wanting to do more than just listen while enjoying a pizza:
“A family member was a friend of another organist at the Organ Grinder and said, ‘I’m going to talk to that organist and let’s see if we can get Frank to have a lesson at the organ’. It was supposed to be kind of a one-time deal, just a special thing for me to get a lesson at the organ.”
That one-time-deal immediately turned into regular lessons for Frank, which meant that he would take weekly bus trips to Denver for his instruction. First, with a parent or relative, and then just by his 10-year-old self.
Just a month or so later, now eleven-year-old Frank was in for quite the surprise – a job offer.
“I can remember coming through the back entrance of the Organ Grinder – my parents walked me in and we sat down in one of the large booths – and there was Ed Benoit, the organist and my teacher at this point, and [Organ Grinder co-founder] Jerry Forchuk. And as I sat at that booth, Jerry looked at me and said, do you want to work here?”
And so, a performing career was launched.
Frank wasn’t the only young organist to be hired in those years – Justin Adams (also interviewed during our road trip), and they became good friends. As an indirect result of the documentary project, Frank and Justin are now back in touch and catching up on old times.
The Organ Grinder portrayed the two as having a bit of a rivalry, including them in a “Battle of the Organs” concert – pitting not just the mighty Wurlitzer against an electronic imitator, but performer against performer, to the delight of audiences.
Frank spoke to us at great length about his experiences performing at the Organ Grinder and elsewhere, and the profound sense of loss he experienced when it closed. (We’re saving some of the more intense tales for the film.)
These days, Frank still plays the pipe organ, as organist at a local Episcopal church, is involved with choirs and community theater, and still gives the occasional theatre organ concert. Frank lives with his husband, Jason, both avid motorcyclists.
If you see an imposing figure pass you on a Colorado highway, riding a big bike and sounding a loud, low note, it may just be Frank emulating the deep sensations provided by the Organ Grinder’s Wurlitzer.
(Joke explained for non-organists (normal people): The Tibia Clausa is a type of organ pipe, and one of the main voices of the theatre pipe organ. The title is a play on the James Dean film Rebel Without a Cause, riffing off of Frank’s modern tough-guy look, and the loss of the Organ Grinder instrument.)
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