Virgil Keel Fox • 1912-1980
1926		He makes his concert debut at Withrow High School in Cincinnati before an audience of 2,500.
1929		He is selected unanimously by the National Federation of Music Clubs as winner of its Biennial Contest in Boston—the first organist to win this honor.
1931		He becomes the first organist to win a full scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, where he studies with Louis Robert. During the school year, he plays five recitals from memory and performs with the school’s symphony orchestra.
Fall 1932		He goes to Paris for a year to study with Marcel Dupré at St. Sulpice (where he also took lessons from Joseph Bonnet, for which he got into trouble with Dupré).
Fall 1933		He makes his New York debut at the Wanamaker Store’s 200-rank organ, and joins the management of Bernard LaBerge, a major organ impresario.
May 1, 1934		He is appointed Organist of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church (where he plays a four-manual E.M. Skinner with an Echo division) in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Richard Weagly is appointed choir director.
May 8, 1936		He becomes the first organist to play a paid-admission concert at Carnegie Hall, New York. He is presented by his first concert management, Bernard R. LaBerge Mgt., Inc.
Aug/Sep 1938		He plays in Great Britain at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge; Lincoln Minster; Durham Cathedral; and in Germany at the Thomaskirche, Leipzig (Bach’s church—where he becomes the first American organist ever to perform publicly there); Marienkirche, Lübeck
1941		His arrangement of “Come, Sweet Death” is published by H.W. Gray.
Apr 29, 1945		Staff Sergeant Fox plays a recital at Cadet Chapel, West Point, New York, on a 206-rank organ.
1946		He accepts the position of Organist of the Riverside Church, New York, with Richard Weagly as choir director.
1948		The Riverside Church acquires a new five-manual Æolian-Skinner console for the Hook and Hastings organ.
Sep 1950		He plays in England at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Canterbury; and in Paris at the Salle Pleyel.
Aug 1952		He plays in England at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Canterbury.
Jul 1, 1954		He plays for the first time with the Boston Pops Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler conducting, at Boston Symphony Hall.
Mar 30, 1955		He gives an orchestral dedicatory recital at the Riverside Church with the New York Philharmonic, Dimitri Mitropoulis conducting. The program includes Bach’s Concerto in D Minor and Joseph Jongen’s Symphonie Concertante.
Jun 1956		He plays the Guild Service for the AGO National Convention at Riverside Church: American première of Ralph Vaughn-William’s Dona Nobis Pacem with the Riverside Choir, Richard Weagly conductor; American première of Maurice Duruflé’s Suite (Opus 5). He play
Sep/Oct 1959		He plays in Europe at the American Church in Paris, St. Matthäuskirche (Munich), St. George’s Hall (Liverpool), Colston Hall (Bristol), the Royal Air Force Church of St. Clement Danes, and Birmingham Town Hall.
		He records six albums for Capital Records.
Jun 1961		He records Joseph Jongen’s Symphonie Concertante with George Prêtre and the Paris Opera Orchestra at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris.
1961-1962		He is presented in several all-Bach concerts at Riverside, organized at his request by E. Paul Fitz Gerald. He decides that playing all-Bach recitals should be a main theme of his career from this point on.
Jun 1962		He plays at Richard Simonton’s home for a private concert during the National Convention of the AGO in Los Angeles, California.
Jan 7, 1963		He performs the first solo organ recital at Philharmonic Hall (and later that month makes the first recording on the new organ for Command Records).
Jun 1963		He becomes (and often insists on being called) “Dr. Fox” after being awarded an honorary degree from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He claims that the honorific helps him get better service from hotels and airlines.
Sep/Oct 1963		He plays in England at Bolton Parish Church and Birmingham Town Hall.
1964		He receives the “Distinguished Alumni Award” from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.
Sep 1964		He begins his “sabbatical” from the Riverside Church.
Jun 1965		He resigns from the Riverside Church.
Spring 1967		He plays his first recital on the Rodgers Touring Organ (“Black Beauty”) in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Dec 24, 1967		He performs on the “Ed Sullivan Show.”
1969		He records an album of hymns on the Rodgers Touring Organ for Kapp Records (“Songs of Inspiration”).
Nov 25, 1969		He performs “The Gallic Greats” on the second of the series.
Feb 24, 1970		He performs “The Contemporary Concerto” on the fourth of the series with the Symphony of the New World (Joseph Jongen Symphonie Concertante, Jan Hanus Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Tympani) and the Francis Poulenc “Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Tymp
Dec 14, 1970		He performs the second Heavy Organ concert at the Fillmore East.
1971-1974		His four Heavy Organ “live” recordings are listed among Billboard Magazine’s best-selling classical albums during most of this period.
Oct 14, 1971		He plays his first West Coast performance of Heavy Organ with Pablo’s Lights at Winterland, San Francisco. Decca records the concert.
Oct 14, 1972		He plays his final Heavy Organ concert with Pablo Lights in Beckman Auditorium at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
Nov 9, 1972		He appears on the “Mike Douglas Show” to promote an album of wedding music for Decca Records.
May 2, 1973		He appears again on the “Mike Douglas Show.”
Summer 1973		He tours Heavy Organ with concerts at Wolf Trap Farm Park in Washington, D.C. and at the Meadowbrook Festival near Detroit, Michigan. According to Wolf Trap Farm Park (seating capacity 6,000), the two largest “draws” in the facility’s history are Heavy Or
Dec 1973		He records a second Heavy Organ concert in Carnegie Hall, also released by RCA. Audience sings “Adeste Fideles.”
May 3, 1974		He plays with the Boston Pops, Arthur Fiedler conducting. The concert is later televised on PBS. Friends wish him “Happy Birthday” from the audience.
Jan 14, 1975		He plays for Albert Schweitzer’s 100th Anniversary celebration in Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Richard Westenberg. The all-Bach concert also features pianist Eugene Istomin, a spoken message by Marta Casals (who later be
Jun 1975		He acquires the rights to operate the Hammond Castle Museum in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The medieval castle has a four-manual, 135-rank pipe organ on which he had previously made 78-RPM recordings.
Sep 1976		Organ Arts, Ltd. presents “The Bach Gamut” in two concerts at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco as part of “A Triumphant Blaze of Sound and Light” (advertised as a “Festival of Organ Virtuosos and Illumination”).
Apr 1, 1977		He dedicates the new Fratelli Ruffatti organ at Garden Grove Community Church in Garden Grove, California.
May 1977		He celebrates his official gala jubilee (his 50th consecutive season on the concert stage) in a sold-out recital at Kennedy Center (a single-concert “Bach Gamut”).
Aug 28,1977		He makes two direct-to-disk recordings (and the first American commercial digital recording ever) at the Garden Grove Community Church for Crystal Clear Records.
Nov 1977		His management (Richard Torrence and Robert Fry) appoint Marilyn Brennan to form The Virgil Fox Society and to publish the first issue of the Society’s Clarion. He receives a Certificate of Honor from Delta Omicron, the International Music Fraternity.
Jun 1978		He announces his change of managers from Torrence Associates to Kolmar-Luth, effective for the 1979-80 season.
May 6, 1979		He performs and records his last concert at the Riverside Church (the Bainbridge recording of the concert is called “Soli Deo Gloria”). He receives a Certificate of Merit from Glassboro State College, New Jersey.
Jul 12, 1980		He performs his last solo recital in Ocean Grove, New Jersey.
Oct 25, 1980		He dies of cancer in Palm Beach, Florida.
Nov 9, 1980		Hundreds attend his funeral at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.
Oct 8, 2000		The Virgil Fox Society presents a 20th anniversary memorial concert at the Riverside Church, raising money for scholarships, and making possible the publication of this book.