Kevin Raymond Worth

1968 -

Kevin Worth, a pianist and organist, also finds musical fulfillment as a singer in choirs and quartets. Although he is pursuing a career in secondary school administration, he enjoys making music as an important and serious avocation.

Kevin was born in Marlboro, Massachusetts, one of two sons of David Garth and Donna Rae Walde Worth (later McGinnis). He spent most of his childhood in the Atlantic Union College community and in Portland, Oregon. He was exposed to music from his earliest years, going with his father, a church musician, as he did his work as an organist and choir director; singing in a boys' choir; doing organ crawls; and exploring churches and cathedrals on his own.

Beginning at age ten, he took piano lessons with Norma Wendt for a year while living in Oregon. The following summer he took some introductory lessons on organ from his father at AUC's Thayer Conservatory while visiting with him. On his return to Oregon, he started piano lessons with Myrn Corban which continued for several years, an experience he found inspiring.

He attended Portland Adventist Academy and then pursued music study following graduation in 1987 under scholarship at AUC, where he studied piano with Virginia-Gene Rittenhouse and Kaestner Robertson for two years. During that time he toured with the New England Youth Ensemble as a soloist, performing Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor, Gerald Finzi's Eclogue for Piano and Strings, and Camille Saint Saëns Carnival of the Animals. He regards his study and experience with Rittenhouse to have been a privilege.

In 1989 Kevin transferred to Walla Walla College, now University, where he pursued a B.A. with majors in music and business. He studied piano, his major performance area, with Debra Richter, now Bakland, and organ with Kraig Scott. He was elected president of the 1992 senior class and was awarded membership in Pi Kappa Lambda, the national music honor society. He was particularly fascinated by his study of music history.

Following graduation from WWC in 1992, Worth worked in the family business for two years and then accepted a position as business manager at Greater Boston Academy, where he also taught computer classes. In 1999 he became Vice Principal for Finance at Mile High Academy in Denver and two years later assumed that position at Mount Pisgah Academy in North Carolina, one he continues to hold.

While Worth occasionally plays piano solos, he most enjoys playing and hearing chamber music. He and his father have performed as a piano and piano-organ duo team and as players of piano and organ duets. He provides most of the services at the MPA church, playing on its Randall Dyer seventeen-rank, three-manual organ.

He and his wife, Laurie Jean Grant, a French horn player, have two daughters, both of whom are taking Suzuki lessons on violin. 

ds/2012

Sources: Information provided by Kevin Worth, September 2011; Personal Knowledge; Online Sources