Fifty years of making beautiful music

There are two people who have to be in church every Sunday, Maurice Kemp Jr. likes to say: the priest and the church organist.

And every Sunday, Kemp can be found at Christ Church Bellport, playing the organ at the 10 a.m. service, with Shirley, his wife of 52 years, sitting in the pews.

When Kemp started playing organ at the Episcopal Church in January 1975, he was teaching music in the Center Moriches School District. (He’d go on to teach there for 30 years, retiring in 1998.)

At the time, Kemp was still fairly new to Long Island, coming here in 1970 for a teaching job when he couldn’t find one in his hometown of Portsmouth, Va.

The church organist job was supposed to be temporary, something that would last a few months.

But it wasn’t long before the congregation fell in love with Kemp, and he with them.

The community Kemp found was a welcome change from his experience growing up in the segregated South. He remembers being made to ride in the back of the bus and being part of a sit-in at a local five-and-dime that wouldn’t serve Black people at its lunch counter.

“I felt at home here,” Kemp said. “I stopped thinking of it as a job and more as a family.”

This month marks 50 years since Kemp, now 82, first took his seat on the organ bench.

In that time, Kemp, who is also the church’s Minister of Music, has become a fixture of the church. Raised a Baptist, he became an Episcopalian in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

“He’s a very sweet man,” said Ginny Waterman, a longtime friend and church member.

“The fact that he has been the organist and choir director for 50 years is a testament to

his dedication to the church,” Waterman said in an email. “His love and vast knowledge of music and his enthusiasm to share this love with everyone is phenomenal.”

“He’s one of the things I really miss,” said Rev. Terrence Buckley, who was Christ Church’s priest-in-charge and rector for seven years until November 2023.

Kemp, he said, is one of those rare people who can play the organ and also has a vast knowledge of church music.

Kemp is so knowledgeable, Buckley trusted him to select the hymns every Sunday based on that week’s reading.

“He always picked the perfect hymn for the occasion,” said Buckley, who is priest-in-charge at Episcopal Church of Saint Andrew, on Staten Island.

Occasionally, Kemp likes to introduce more contemporary music into the service.

Buckley said that by way of explanation, Kemp loved repeating a phrase often attributed to theologian Martin Luther.

When Luther was criticized for writing the hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” he would say, “Why should the devil have all the good music?” 

“He’s lived a fascinating life,” Buckley said. “He’s partial to the classics: Franz Liszt, Bach, Mozart.”

Musically, Kemp spans several worlds: church music, classical and jazz.

An only child, he developed an appreciation for classical music from his father, Maurice Sr., a church organist, and his mother Mary, who “tinkered” at the piano.

Kemp studied at Norfolk State University, which he graduated from in 1965 with a degree in public school music education.

After graduation, he spent almost four years in the Air Force during the Vietnam War as a member of the Air Force Band. Kemp even toured with legendary comedian Bob Hope on one of Hope’s U.S.O. tours.

Kemp is also a lover of jazz. He’s played piano with jazz greats Dave Brubeck and Billy Taylor. He also recently introduced a Christmas Eve jazz service at the church.

Sunday morning isn’t the only time when you’ll find Kemp performing. 

He is a board member and longtime member of the Long Island Symphonic Choral Association, for which he sings low bass. He’s performed in many European countries with the group. Kemp also sings with the Bay Area Friends of the Fine Arts choral group, of which he is a past president. 

Even after half a century as organist, Kemp likes to keep things fresh. He sometimes mixes into the service songs from “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” an African American hymnal.

The title song, by James Weldon Johnson, is a favorite of longtime friend and church member Ginny Waterman’s.

Whenever Kemp plays it, “It makes me happy,” she said.

Meet Maurice Kemp Jr.

Age: 82

Occupation: Organist and Minister
of Music at Christ Church Bellport

Family: Kemp and Shirley, his wife
of 52 years, have two adult children:
Maurice III, 50, and Lena, 45