Dr. Denis Nicholson, Longtime Organist at St. Ignatius, Dies at 81

Dr. Denis Nicholson was determined to battle a terminal illness before it stopped him from orchestrating one final performance of Handel’s “Messiah,” an annual Christmastime concert at St. Ignatius Martyr Church in Long Beach.

The parish’s head organist and choir director since the Kennedy Administration lined up as many as 50 singers and 20 musicians just weeks before the Dec. 16 show. He even phoned them all to ensure they were signed on for rehearsals. Peter, the second eldest of his six children who has performed in his choir for 32 years, said this feat of his father’s will remain his most memorable.

“He was quite weak by then but he was absolutely determined that he was going to do it,” Peter said. “He felt very spent but it was a very good concert and he was thrilled, because he knew it was going to be his last one.”

Yet after that concert Nicholson still had more to give before he died this week, on March 20 at 81. He played a Mass on the Epiphany, Jan. 6, and gave one final performance on Candlemas in early February. But at that concert he had to be carried up the stairs to his three-keyboard electric Rogers organ in the choir loft that overlooks the church’s sanctuary. Choir members from years past, many travelling long distances, participated in his swan song.

“He got through the service but he told me he almost collapsed,” Peter recalled. “He was so spent after that but he was determined to do it. He knew it was be his last service. He was happy.”

Nicholson was an internist with an office in his home on West Penn Street, where he continued to see some patients in recent months. But when he set his stethoscope aside, he was likely at St. Ignatius, whether practicing with the choir on Friday evenings, accompanying the choir at Sunday masses, or preparing for the church’s seasonal concerts.

“He loved being a doctor but he also loved being a musician and getting to do the music and share the music,” said Peter, who fashioned his father a Renaissance man.

Born Jan. 26, 1932 in Manhattan, Nicholson grew up in the city, visited Long Beach with his family each summer, and sang in the St. Ignatius choir. He was 17 when he first played the parish’s original pipe organ. That led him to perform at Sunday Masses.

He took to the organ more than the piano for its mixed sounds of flutes, violins and oboes. “The organ is a much more colorful instrument,” he said during an interview at the church in 2009. “With all the different possible combinations of sound, you can more or less orchestrate the music.”  

Nicholson married his wife, Eleanor, at St. Ignatius in January 1956. The next year, he graduated from the Columbia School of Medicine. From 1957 to 1960, he served in the U.S. Public Health Service in Boston. But each weekend he would drive to Long Beach to perform at St. Ignatius.

“This is where I used to come and worship, but I also love the acoustics in this church — they’re tremendous,” he said. “I’ve sung in many other places, but the acoustics here are unreal.”  

The day after he finished his medical residency at a Bronx VA hospital in 1963, Nicholson moved to Long Beach, opened his practice and would eventually perform three major concerts a year and weekly church services at St. Ignatius.

Among his most memorable concerts was his presentation of “Messiah” when Long Beach Catholic Regional School opened in 1954, according to a death notice posted on the St. Ignatius website. Another was a performance with the choir at a 9/11 ceremony a few years after the terrorist attacks, when they performed Brahms' “Requiem.”  

“Dr. Nicholson has used his mission of performing and spreading the love of traditional sacred music over the last 60 years to not only the parish but to many other places as well,” the church said.

He especially enjoyed playing Renaissance and Baroque pieces. “Those composers knew how to write for the human voice,” said Nicholson, who noted that the music he played was tied to his spirituality. He fondly quoted St. Augustine: “He said, ‘He who sings prays twice.’”  

Nicholson will be waked at Christopher T. Jordan Funeral Home, at 302 Long Beach Rd. in Island Park, from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday. There will be visitation 3 to 7 p.m. Sunday and a funeral Mass at 10 a.m. Monday, both at St. Ignatius.  

Nicholson is survived by his wife Eleanor; children and daughter-in-laws Denis, Peter, Denis, Peter and Ann Nicholson, Philip and Dori Nicholson, David and Belen Nicholson, and John and Tracy Nicholson; grandchildren Karen and Julie Nicholson, Christina Trinidad, Joseph and Jason Gotay and Denis, David, Gregory and Catherine Nicholson; and five great grandchildren.