John Quinn  (jq064819@sju.edu)
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I started studying music when I was quite myself a youngster.  I
studied piano for about 9 or 10 years and it wasn't until high
school that I became interested in the organ.  Since my high
school years at St. Joseph's Prep in Philadelphia I had been
playing the organ for just a little under 6 years.
 
I started in freshman year of high school and through my senior
year I was self taught.  The organ on which I played was a small
Hook & Hastings located in the front of the church and to the
left.  It was not a very large instrument.  It was a 2m/10r
organ with unison and super-octave couplers.  This tracker
action instrument was in the worst condition ever due to its
ripped bellows and other miscellaneous problems.
 
In the fall (September) of 1994 I started at St. Joseph's
University in Philadelphia and from that point on I have been
taking formal lessons; first with the former director of liturgy
and music who was an organist by trade.  At St. Joseph's
Univeristy there is a 2m/26r Hook Organ which was rebuilt and
installed in 1992.  I had gone unpracticed for a couple of
months until February when I began taking lessons from Joseph
Jackson organist and choirmaster at The First Presbyterian
Church in Center City Philadelphia.
 
My musical interests range almost everywhere.  I listen to some
organ works by Bach and others as well as music which is more
recent dating from the rock-and-roll period and even some heavy
metal, e.g. Metallica, the Offspring, Rollins Band, Weezer, just
to name a few.