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Georgia McGehee Atkins (1954- )

Georgia Atkins is an Episcopal Church musician. She is currently playing the organ at several Episcopal Churches in the Los Angeles area. These churches find Georgia through word of mouth and from the substitute list of American Guild Organists. Besides organ playing skills, Georgia also has choral conducting skills; she chooses a music piece for the choir and teaches it.

Early Years

Early childhood

Her mother was a very talented singer and once Georgia was at age of 7, she enrolled Georgia in piano lessons. As she grew and got enough experience, she found herself accompanying her mother in singing, which she found a very fun activity herself – to a point that even to this day, Georgia enjoys performing with a group of musicians, which is called an ensemble; and she loves performing for singers and choirs. With her father being a minister, she always got a chance to perform through working through church music. She grew up listening to organ music which really stuck with her of how powerful the organ is through its music – especially in a church. She refers to it as her passive power as nothing moves her more than the sound of an organ being played in a live area.

Childhood and teenage years

Georgia started taking piano lessons when she was 7. Between the ages of 7 and 18, she would practice piano for thirty minutes before school everyday except weekends, and would have a private lesson once a week for thirty minutes. She had a group theory class in addition to her private piano lessons. In the spring, she would perform in a recital with other piano students, playing one piano piece every year. She entered a juried audition called National Music Teacher’s Auditions. This would take place once every year. She entered with ten pieces which she would need to perform several of them from memory. The juried audition had three to four judges, one of them being her piano teacher.

College Career

Georgia enrolled in Rhodes College (formerly Southwestern at Memphis) where she studied piano for four years, duo piano and singing in choir for two out of four years. She graduated in 1976 with a B.A. in Music History.

During her college years of studying duo piano,   she enjoyed performing this type of music with her classmate, playing two different pianos at the same time, in the same room. They would select a specific already composed piece composed specifically for duo piano. Some of these pieces were from Mozart, Rachmaninoff and Della Joio.

After graduation, she went to Romania with her classmates as an alumni for three weeks to perform in a choir tour.

After Romania trip, she took a long break from piano and choir. She became a travel agent, got married and had two kids.

After the long break, she started taking private organ lessons, performing professionally and attending graduate school.

Georgia’s private organ instructor encouraged and prepared her to go to graduate school in New Jersey. She started graduate school in 1994 at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. Her major was Sacred Music/Organ. She left the program due to her move in 1998 after four years of studying.

Professional Career

In 1987, she returned to her music career by taking private organ lessons from an instructor in Florida. Her teacher asked her to play at his church. Georgia accepted the offer and played the organ at her teacher’s church for a few months till her teacher moved away. She found another teacher who had access to a big pipe organ at another Episcopal Church in the same year. She continued to professionally play for a year until she moved to New York.

In New York, Georgia became a permanent organist and choir director at St. George’s Episcopal Church, Newburgh, New York, between the years of 1990 and 1998.

Georgia moved to California in 1998. She became a permanent organist and choir director at St. James Episcopal Church in South Pasadena from 1998 to 2003. From 2003 to present, she has been subbing at different Episcopal Churches as an organist, most frequently at St. Matthias in Whittier, California.