When Rick Erickson started piano lessons at age 10 he told his teacher that he wanted to learn to play the organ, and he wanted her to prepare him. Apparently, she did—and very well at that. His mother and paternal grandmother were church organists, and his family included many other musicians as well as pastors. He knew early on that he wanted to follow their paths.

And, in fact, Rick’s whole career has been spent as a church organist. While teaching at Eastman School of Music, he was organist at Lutheran Church of Incarnate Word in Rochester, New York, for 14 years; then he spent 20 years at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Manhattan; and for the last eight and a half years he’s been at Christ the King Church.