Aroostook County musician retires after 72 years at St. Mary’s Church
When a music trainer requested 14-year-old Dan Ladner if he’d prefer to play the organ at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Presque Isle, he mentioned he’d strive it.
He stayed for 72 years.
Ladner retired final weekend as organist and choir director on the church, a part of the Parish of the Valuable Blood, which serves Presque Isle, Caribou and surrounding communities.
It could be tough to seek out an Aroostook resident who hasn’t heard Ladner’s music or seen him on stage. Apart from enjoying many years of church providers, weddings and funerals, he has been a fixture in native musical theater. He additionally began a long-running neighborhood refrain and spent 40 years in training.
However for parishioners, he tried to bridge a spot between worship and life’s busyness with the musical peace of a sacred hour.
“I attempted to create a holy area. That’s the pleasurable a part of enjoying for providers, is creating that temper,” he mentioned. “The sensation of attempting to achieve individuals is what I’ll miss essentially the most.”
For Tammy Scott, the eldest of Ladner’s 4 daughters, being at church together with her dad was a lifestyle. She got here to understand all that he did to fill each accessible area within the Mass with music, she mentioned.
One factor that fascinated her was the 5-by-7 mirror he saved on the organ.
It turned on the market was an excellent purpose. Up in St. Mary’s choir loft, the organist sits together with his again to the sanctuary. Ladner used the mirror to see what was taking place beneath, so he knew when to play.
Final Sunday the church stunned Ladner with a particular presentation, Scott mentioned. They invited him all the way down to the altar, and she or he accompanied him. Parishioner Judy Kenney introduced him with a card of thanks and a plaque in honor of his service, which can cling within the choir loft.
“I cried all the best way down,” she mentioned. “Judy’s phrases had been actually lovely, and so they gave him a standing ovation.”
Ladner beloved music whilst a toddler. His mother and father, Viola and Fay Ladner, supported him in taking piano classes and singing in a youngsters’s choir. Whereas residing in Mapleton, the place his father had a normal retailer, neighbors had a pump organ that he taught himself to play.
He began enjoying at St. Mary’s as a highschool freshman, and have become organist and senior choir director at 18 when his predecessor and mentor, Victoria Martin, retired. He discovered it difficult and thrilling as a result of he might select the music, he mentioned.
After a short stint at Boston Faculty, he graduated from Aroostook State Lecturers Faculty, which later grew to become the College of Maine at Presque Isle.
Apart from instructing in Presque Isle and Caribou, he directed and starred in musical theater for many years, and helped launch the Presque Isle Group Gamers. Whereas at Caribou Excessive College he directed the Caribou Performing Arts Heart.
Weddings and particular providers at Easter and Christmas had been amongst his favourite events, and he’ll miss offering music for his longtime church household, Ladner mentioned.
“Probably the most great factor, I believe, about enjoying the organ is the number of sounds you may make with all of the stops,” Ladner mentioned. He enjoys experimenting and tailoring the sound to the sensation of the musical alternatives.
Ladner has seen the Catholic Church by many years of change. Vatican II within the Nineteen Sixties turned liturgical music the other way up, Ladner mentioned. The priest now faces the congregation, Latin chants had been exchanged for English and people music got here into the church.
He beloved the adjustments as a result of they meant shifting out of an historical custom and into a brand new, extra vibrant church, he mentioned.
Ladner has accomplished double responsibility on Sundays for 25 years, enjoying at 9 a.m. at St. Mary’s after which at 10:30 at Grant Memorial United Methodist Church in Presque Isle.
He grew to become organist and choir director at Grant Memorial in 1998. The church moved its Sunday service a half-hour later for him, he mentioned.
He’ll proceed at Grant Memorial, however now gained’t need to rush from one church to the opposite — a feat that acquired him stopped for rushing the primary day he did it, he mentioned.
He’ll additionally nonetheless lead what is probably going Aroostook County’s longest operating neighborhood refrain. The Caribou Bicentennial Refrain shaped in 1976 and later grew to become the Caribou Choral Society, he mentioned.
“It’s very thrilling to conduct a big choir of adults,” Ladner mentioned. “It’s a pleasure, since you begin from scratch [every season].”
Now in its forty fourth 12 months, the society began rehearsals Tuesday. The group attracts individuals from all through The County and performs winter and spring concert events.
Ladner’s different three daughters are Margo Bair of Pennsylvania, Beth Shaver of Virginia and Allison Ladner of Presque Isle. He and his spouse, Barbara, even have seven grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.
His daughters will host an open home in celebration of his St. Mary’s profession from 1 to three p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 1, on the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library in Presque Isle.
No matter is subsequent for him, it’s positive to incorporate music.
“It’s all the time been in me,” he mentioned. “It’s all the time been part of me, wherever I’m going, no matter I’ve accomplished.”
