At the Central California Baroque Festival, playing the organ is all in the family with Grant Smith and Sunkyung Noh

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Grant: I studied piano since I was very young, and when I was 17 I was asked by my church to play organ for Easter Sunday. Without knowing anything about the pipe organ, I agreed. I’m not sure if I would call that a mistake, but it was certainly naive! I practiced at the organ for two weeks for hours a day trying to get used to the pedalboard and figuring out the stops. I was completely enamored with the commanding strength and energy of the organ. That Easter Sunday gave me momentum to keep learning organ and find a teacher.

Q: Grant, you entered Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo as a civil engineering major. You ended up majoring in that and music. What a combo! Did your fellow engineers think you were crazy?

Grant: That’s right, I was committed to a civil engineering degree before I ever touched a pipe organ. I knew I wanted to at least get a music minor, but since I finished that in a little over a year, I decided to go for the music major. I’m very glad I did, because that’s the path I’ve taken since graduation. Surprisingly, the Cal Poly music program had a large number of double major students, including in engineering. But just because there were others like me doesn’t mean it was a walk in the park.

Q: There isn’t even an organ professor at Cal Poly. How did you pull it off? When did you win your first competition?

Grant: Although there isn’t an organ professor, there is a very talented and dedicated university organist and accompanist, Paul Woodring. I had lessons with him privately outside of my university studies, and he corrected my technique and prepared me for graduate studies and competitions. I was fortunate to win first prizes in a local organ competition with the American Guild of Organists in Los Angeles in 2021 and an international organ competition in Blieskastel, Germany in 2022.

Q: Sunkyung, tell us about your own journey with the organ. How old were you when you started studying it?

Sunkyung: Just like Grant, I played piano from a young age and started studying organ in high school. I liked the organ more than piano, and many of my friends played organ as well. I knew I wanted to study music in college, so I focused on organ as my main instrument. As I worked on my bachelor’s degree in Seoul, I noticed that performances and recordings of Baroque music had a great variety of interpretations, and I became very interested in learning how to understand and interpret early music. Europe has the best early instruments and some of the best scholars and performers of early music, so I decided to study organ in Germany focusing on early music, especially works by Bach, Buxtehude, and other North German composers.

Q: Fast forward to graduate school. How did the two of you meet?

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Grant and Sunkyung: There is an exchange program between Rice University in Houston (where Grant studied for his master’s) and the Hochschule for Music in Leipzig, Germany (where Sunkyung studied for her artist diploma). We met right away at a student recital and spent a lot of time together during Grant’s studies in Leipzig. That led to a long-distance relationship with lots of 10-hour flights, and a little over a year later we were married in Sunkyung’s hometown in South Korea.

Q: Sunkyung, when you were in Germany, you played regularly on instruments that such great composers as Bach and Buxtehude used. What was that like?

Sunkyung: I believe there is a lot to learn from playing a historic instrument. After many hours on three-century-old organs, I gained a better understanding of the old masters’ thoughts and the kinds of sounds and effects they wanted to bring out of the organ in their music. It was very formative for me as a musician and affects the way I play on any organ.

Q: Grant, you grew up in Fresno. What will it be like to perform here?

Grant: It’s always special to return home and reconnect with friends and local musicians. Being a guest artist at the Baroque Festival is especially rewarding to me since I was a student performer in high school. Although I have given several piano and organ recitals in Fresno before, I always cherish the opportunity to perform in front of many who have supported me over the years.

Q: Sunkyung, tell us about what you and Grant will be doing at the festival.

A: Sunkyung: The festival is centered around teaching Baroque style to students and bringing Baroque music to the public. As the festival jurors, we will be giving feedback to the student performers, teaching a few select students in a masterclass format, and performing a recital demonstrating Baroque performance practice. We are excited to hear the student performers and to listen to some young talent!

Q: You will be judging local music students. What will you be looking for when selecting a winner?

Grant and Sunkyung: The Baroque festival is not a competition in the sense that there is a winner; rather, we will give awards to students we feel should be recognized for their achievement. We are looking for students who are really making the music, not just playing it. It should feel like the music is coming out of the person. That takes a lot of practice and musical understanding, and we are excited to see what these bright students will bring on Jan. 24.

Q: Do you know of other organist couples?

Grant and Sunkyung: Yes! Perhaps it has something to do with the organ being a rather specialized field and that many organists complete high levels of education. But we think it’s more common to meet organists who are married to another musician or someone from another profession.

Q: Do you think you’ll ever live in a house big enough for two organs?

Grant and Sunkyung: Now that would be a luxury! Our dream is to have a small collection of keyboard instruments, including a small pipe organ. A piano would certainly be included, and we hope to collect other Baroque keyboard instruments like a harpsichord and clavichord