Paul Fejko

Fejko: In His Own Words

Paul’s autobiography as it appeared on his original website. The text has been changed to past tense.

Provocative, Challenging and Iconoclastic, Paul Fejko (7/9/57 - 5/5/25) was always quite fond of extremes. He was often found treading on the boundaries of accepted limits and traditions. Art was exploration and provocation; improvisation was a wonderful vehicle for both. He was often chastised for mixing improvisation into repertoire ('taking too many liberties'), but it seemed to him a one way comment; never has there been a charge leveled against the reverse - adding repertoire to improvisation.

Fej found the pipe organ to be his favorite solo instrument. It can muster more power and subtlety than an entire orchestra while having a responsiveness impossible from a large group of people. He was often challenging people (to the point of annoyance!) to shed their preconceived notions of the organ as merely an instrument of religion, and to realize that in the first half of this century almost every movie house and many concert halls had organs. To him, a good pipe organ is a virtuoso instrument of vast capabilities!

Fej divided his time among many endeavors, most notably with theater and dance as a composer and conductor, but also as a concert organist and pianist. To this one must add his work as a sound and lighting designer, photographer (the covers of three of his ARKAY releases - Incantation, Tyme's Escape and OUTBURST!), audio systems designer, auto mechanic and sometime sculptor (witness the cover of 'On Making the Flowers Dance' - designed by Fejko with flowers by Gretchen Ernest).

In his lifetime, he recorded 13 CDs of large European and American organs, covering a wide range of existing repertoire and his own improvisations.

He was the long-time musician at historic Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church in Philadelphia, PA and was a musician with the Dance and Theatre departments at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA.

In 2003, he founded and was the Artistic Director of ' The Chester Performing Arts Project ', a foundation dedicated to bringing world class performing arts to the formerly depressed industrial city of Chester, PA. His André Café Acoustique in Chester was well known in the region.

Fej was a product of The Curtis Institute of Music (class of '75) where he studied with Alexander McCurdy, Rudolf Serkin and Max Rudolf. His first taste of opera came at Curtis from Dino Yannopoulos - a long-time stage director at the Met in NY.

in 1987, Dino commissioned an opera from Fejko - Matteo Falcone - for the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia where Dino was Artistic Director at the time. A review of Matteo can be found on the Press/Reviews page at this site.

After Curtis, he connected with renowned dance scholar and pedagogue Nadia Chilkovsky and became music director at her Philadelphia Dance Academy - a source of many well-known dancers from the 50's through the mid 70's. During this time, he spent summers at the famed Marlboro Music Festival. In 1980 he headed east to become a musician with Maurice Béjart's Ballet of the Twentieth Century in Brussels, Belgium. From there he headed south to become Music Director of The Ballet of Lyon in France. During much of the 80's his time was passed between these two positions, but not without many forays into Italy and Germany for work with other smaller theatre and dance groups. There were also many various and sundry organ and piano concerts! Because of his world travels, he was able to converse in five languages.

Fej won first prizes for improvisation in Lyon (1981) and San Anselmo, CA (1990). At their Atlanta convention in 1992, the American Guild of Organists awarded him a second prize.

Fejko: In Their Words

Words from Friends and Collaborators

So many of us have been influenced by Paul's music, late-night discussions, and curiosity.

We were all touched so profoundly by Paul's energy and enthusiasm.

Paul was a coworker and wonderful person to know. He was one of my Lighting directors on the Philadelphia Flower Show. We worked closely with John Larkin on many projects. My wife Marie and I spent time with Paul on a trip to Buenos Aries starting a long friendship with Gilles Brinas. I will miss his contagious smile and good humor.

I remember him from a very young age being a protégé... think he was about 14 when we first met. His musical acumen at the organ playing barefoot at beautiful Gloria Dei Old Swedes' Church still resonates in my mind. Paul would extend an invite once in a while to sit next to him at the organ while he played during Lucia rehearsal from the choir loft. Truly and it was surreal to witness his abilities and feel the power in the music.

For 20 wonderful years Paul made my music sing with his patience, expertise, and amazing piano reductions of my orchestral scores. His vocal coaching was first rate and I could always assure the vocalists that Paul would cradle them like a baby with his accompaniment to assure a seemingly flawless performance no matter what. He was a pleasure to work with and a great mentor to me as a composer.

I met Paul years ago through the Delaware Valley Opera Chorus. I found out what a unique individual he was. Gifted musically and in every sense of the word.

Fej was one of the first musicians to hire me when I moved to the Philadelphia area. I have never forgotten that beautiful Christmas Eve service and the music we all made. I especially remember being very impressed that he could play the organ without shoes. What I remember most though was his kindness, which he continued to show throughout the years. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him.

Paul was a regular at the AGO events. We will all miss his presence there. We’ll miss his wonderful music making and collaborating with him.

I treasure the scores he improvised and composed for my dances. He seemed to get me, my artistic vision.

A simple résumé

As Paul kept it on his own site, with end dates brought up to 2025.

Explore the archive

• Recordings

  22 albums and live concerts — 24.1 hours of organ music, free to listen to in full.

• Compositions

  Choral works, chamber music, an opera, and improvisations for dance and theatre.

• The André Café Acoustique

  The venue he built in Chester, Pennsylvania, and ran for almost twenty years.

• Photography

  Photographs Paul took through the 1990s and 2000s.