Perched atop the chair with perfect poise, Joshua James Gusman plays the organ with intense attention to detail as his haunting melodies reverberate down the hallways of the Music Building.
Gusman, 19, music major, is one of two organ students here, he said.
Away from the instrument he has a quiet demeanor and professional attitude; Gusman demands attention.
For him, the sound of the organ has been echoing in his head since he was a child.
“I’ve always loved the organ,” Gusman said, “My earliest memories of going to church with my family members are of me adoring the sound of the organ.”
He got his first hands-on experience with playing an instrument when his grandparents bought him a miniature electronic keyboard.
“I would just put the organ sound on it and learn to play melodies and things by ear,” he said.
When he was 10, his father enrolled him piano lessons where Gusman learned two important things.
“I absolutely hated it. I did not care for the piano and the teacher was very strict,” Gusman said. “I didn’t care for the discipline.”
So after six months of lessons, Gusman dropped the piano lessons and took up the organ, playing whenever he possibly could.
“I would go by myself every weekend to the church after the service was over and sit at the organ for a few hours every week,” he said.
Gusman said that once he began taking formal lessons on campus with James Hurd, music professor, he was made aware of the technical errors in his playing as a result of teaching himself over the past years.
He currently works as assistant organist at St. Catherine Laboure Church in Torrance and said he has taken up a number of paid positions, filling in for other organists at other churches.
“I’ve put on two concerts of my own in the past, a Christmas concert and an Easter concert where I directed and played most of the hymns,” he said, adding that he has performed in a number of concerts as well both playing organ and singing, another one of his talents.
Stating that the music is his sole inspiration, Gusman cited contemporary composer Cameron Carpenter, among others, as those he admires.
Gusman said his favorite genre is English Renaissance choral music, although he is currently learning Bach’s work.
At this point he is uninterested in composing his own work.
Instead, Gusman said he would love to inspire others and lead orchestras.
“I aspire to direct choirs and orchestras and possibly even teach,” Gusman said. “But over the past two years I’ve learned I cannot predict my future. I’m going where the path takes me, where school takes me and where the music will take me.”
Gusman had some final words for other up and coming musicians or just students looking to follow their dreams.
Gusman was given this life lesson by his former professor Hurd and it has grown into a theme in his life that he tries to embody in everything he does, especially the organ.
“Do what you’re called to do,” he said.