Out of the blue, yesterday, I received an email from a young organist in France, whose name is Eric Cordé, the organist at Dol-de-Bretagne Cathedrale in Brittany. He apparently is doing research on local organists and came across the name of “Jack Norman,” who after some investigation, determined that it was my first organ teacher, Norman Söreng Wright!

This is what he wrote to me:

Quite by chance, while I was doing some research about an organist named “Jack” Norman Wright, I discover your blog where you talked about the organist (and you first teacher), Norman S.Wright. After some deductions, I’m near to be sure that these 2 organists are the same person.

“Jack” Norman Wright, has been organist at the Gaumont-Palace of Paris, around 1925/1929, and the Norman S.Wright was pupil of Dupré in the same years in Paris, so…. That’s certainly the same person !!!

Until now, this organist was a big mystery, no informations about him, no pictures, so it’s a man out of nowhere ! Except he was organist at the Gaumont-Palace and he made some very old recording on Pathé RPM (I own 2 of these discs).

I wanted to know if you can bring me more informations about Norman S.Wright, or do you someone who can give me more informations about him ? And why not some pictures ? 

I thank you in advance for you help,

In checking my blog, I have written several posts mentioning my first teacher, but I haven’t put all the information in one place. Plus— I’ve received emails from some of his relatives, so’ I’ll try to fill in some of the gaps.

First of all, there is the “About me” in which I introduce myself and mention Dr. Wright: About Me

Then there was the post I wrote in April, 2015: My first organ teacher

Here’s what I received from Chris Trost, his grand-nephew:

I’m happy to correspond with you. I’ve been gathering information on both my Mother’s and Father’s families. I always called him Uncle Norman, but he was really my Dad’s Uncle- his mother’s youngest brother. 

Uncle Norman’s grandfather, Andreas, was born in 1835 in Norway. His father, Albert Julius Wright, was born in Norway in 1858. The family of three immigrated to SouthWest Minnesota in 1860 where eight more children were born. Andreas was ordained as a minister in 1870. He died in 1917 and is buried in Rushford Minnesota. Albert Julius, known as AJ, moved to Moorhead Minnesota in 1881. Uncle Norman was born January 29, 1905, and was the youngest of nine children, all of whom were born and raised in Moorhead. AJ founded Trinity Lutheran Church and was the first Treasurer of Concordia College. He started Wright Funeral Home which is now owned by the fourth generation of Wrights.

Uncle Norman lived in Paris with his sister Alice in the late 20s, where he studied (with Marcel Dupré) composed and performed. My Grandma, who was a renowned soprano, piano teacher and choir director, spent a year in Paris with them in about 1928. Uncle Norman moved to Los Angeles in about 1933 and married Aunt Ruth, after he returned from Paris. He lived in Hollywood for about 20 years before moving to Montecito. My parents were married in his house in Hollywood in 1946. I was never in his Hollywood house, but it was huge. I loved his Montecito house which was vastly different. It was a smaller, single-story, Japanese-influenced home with a huge yard and gorgeous gardens. He had a grand piano in the living room and a separate studio across the driveway. Unfortunately, it was torn down after he died and replaced by a McMansion.

He frequently returned to Minnesota to visit his siblings, nieces and nephews. He laid down and died on January 3, 1982. My grandma had died six weeks earlier and Uncle Clarence died three weeks later. It was the end of an era. 

I mentioned in a previous post that Dr. Wright was a “Commuter Organ Teacher” — he lived in Montecito (a community now made famous by its residents, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle!) and commuted on weekends to his church job at the First Methodist Church in Hollywood, California, where I had weekly lessons every Friday afternoon.

Here’s what I received from Theresa Holladay, a former voice student of Dr. Wright: I saw Duanna’s name in this blog which jogged my memories of Dr Wright as my first voice teacher in Santa Barbara in the early 1970s. I remember Duanna was one of his accomplished young college age students, myself being in high school at that time. At that time, he was the music director at the Mission Santa Barbara and many of his students including myself made up part of the the choir. Some voice students from Los Angeles including up and coming opera singers came to sing with that church choir on special occasions. Dr Wright expected great things from the Mission choir and introduced me to oratorios. At 15 years old, I remember rehearsing and singing in the Faure’ Requeim concert at the Old Mission accompanied by the young and very talented organist David Potter. It was a thrilling experience and everytime I sing an oratorio to this day I thank God for that. I still have a couple of the albums the Mission choir made under Dr Wright’s baton. He asked me whether I wanted to attend Julliard which I had no idea was a premier school for singers. I told him I was going to be a veterinarian. I remember him being disappointed but I kept taking lessons and eventually came back to opera later in life. Dr Wright was a wonderful musician who influenced many singers in the LA and Santa Barbara area. I believe he had conducted at the Hollywood Bowl and wrote an oratorio called King David?
Thank you for posting your experiences. -Therese Holladay

What may be interesting to organ teachers is that he never used a “method book” to teach me the organ. Instead he used Marcel Dupré’s “79 Chorales” in which I started with the very first piece in the book and was assigned pages in order until I finished the book!

Here’s what I wrote about Dr. Wright assigning me Marcel Dupré’s “Cortège et litanie” when I was only fourteen years old: I was first introduced to the Cortège on January 23, 1965 when I was just fourteen years old (Oops, now you’ll know how old I am!) I know that is the exact date because that what my teacher, Dr. Norman Söreng Wright, wrote in my music which I still play from today. As a teacher now, I’m astounded that he assigned me this piece less than a year after I started organ lessons, as I would peg the difficulty level as “Definitely Difficult,” because of the double pedal and wide pedal arpeggios. I would never give it to one of my students after only a year of study! As you can guess, my poor music is practically in shreds, with registration notes written all over it, on all the various organs I’ve played. I think the term we organists apply to old French music manuscripts is “Toilet Paper!”

Here is a slideshow of all the pictures I’ve collected of Norman Söreng Wright:

Speaking of life as a “commuter organ teacher,” on Labor Day I went to Kauai for my monthly visit with organ students. I had scheduled my return flight with only 45 minutes to spare from the end of my lesson to my flight departure — and I was getting pretty nervous about making my flight to start with, when we hit a huge traffic jam due to the road not being coned for contra-flow because of the holiday. When I finally arrived at the airport, the TSA Pre line was out to the sidewalk, which it NEVER is! I finally got to the end of the TSA protocol and ran to the gate — with about 5 minutes before departure. And OF COURSE, it was at Gate 4, at the very end of the terminal!

“What’s your name?” Crosier

“We already took your name off the manifest for departure!”

The long and short of it was that my mobile boarding pass was no good anymore, and they had to issue me a paper one. I was the last person to board before they shut the door, but I made the flight.

That’s cutting it a little too close!