The 50-year encore

Performing for your graduating class is a pretty special moment. Doing it again as an alum 50 years later — to the day — is on a whole other level. Michael Simpson, R’74, hit this literal high note when he played the organ inside the Cannon Memorial Chapel at this year’s Baccalaureate.

Simpson had planned to attend his 50th reunion in June. When he got the call from music professor Jeffrey Riehl saying he needed an organist, Simpson knew he’d be on campus even sooner. “I thought, ‘This is too weird an opportunity to pass up.’”

Nor did he want to pass up playing the Beckerath organ inside the Chapel. The neo-Baroque-style organ was built by Rudolph von Beckerath of Hamburg, Germany. It’s also one of the main reasons Simpson attended Richmond. “I still love its sound.”

He enrolled in 1970 as a “town student” — back then, if you lived within 25 miles, you couldn’t live on campus due to the lack of housing — and parked in a lot that is now the Gottwald Science Center.

In 1973, Simpson played an electric organ in the Jepson Greek Theater for Baccalaureate. The organizers ran a long extension cord from the organ to North Court. Through laughter, he recalled how a pair of campus dogs started fighting near the cord and unplugged the organ mid-ceremony. For Simpson’s graduation in 1974, the students decided to move Baccalaureate into Cannon Memorial Chapel — to avoid the dogs and ensure sound quality — despite the chapel’s lack of air conditioning.

Following graduation, Simpson cemented a successful 50-year career as a professional organist, piano accompanist, and choral director. He also was an accompanist and assistant choral director for the Richmond Symphony before retiring in 2021. And yes, he even got to play the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ at Richmond’s Byrd Theater in Carytown, though just for fun, not for audiences. Richmond music faculty were often participants or catalysts in those jobs — a testament to the mentorship, friendships, and bonds created in the close-knit Spider community.

“I got to do all these really fascinating things,” said Simpson. “And I didn’t have to [leave Richmond] to do it.”