doing what he loves to do

Even musical chords sound like a chorus of angels when the Susquehanna Valley Chorale warms up. The group rehearses every Tuesday under the direction of Dr. Bill Payn, a man whose very name has come to be associated with magnificent music.

It would be easy for Payn, 76, to kick back and rest, but instead he’s at Titan Tactical, in Shamokin Dam, three times a week to walk/ run three miles and work with a trainer.

“I’m conducting major works, standing on a podium for a two-hour rehearsal every week, waving my arms,” Payn said. “Staying fit keeps me healthy. It keeps me alert. It gives me energy and allows me to do what I love to do, which is to make music.”

Payn retired from Bucknell University, in Lewisburg, in 2014 as former chair of the music department and professor of music. His Emmy-nominated Candlelight Christmas production at Bucknell’s Rooke Chapel has been kindling people’s holiday spirit for decades.

Growing up in Ashtabula, Ohio, he was grateful to family and teachers who encouraged him to pursue a career in music. He credits professors at Westminster Choir College, in Princeton, New Jersey, for guiding him.

“Westminster Choir College changed my life,” Payn said, noting he learned from conductors like Leonard Bernstein and Sir Malcolm Sargent. “It was the right place for me.”

After receiving his PhD from West Virginia University in 1981, he applied along with 110 other applicants for a position at Bucknell and was thrilled to be accepted.

“It was kind of serendipitous,” he said. “I had played an organ recital at Rooke Chapel in 1976. I thought, ‘Wow, this would be such a great place to teach.’ I loved what I saw at Bucknell.”

He loved it so much that when he was later offered a position at the prestigious Northwestern University School of Music, he declined.

“I credit Dean Larry Shinn with my staying at Bucknell because he said, ‘Bill, you’re not done here. We need you. The students need you,’” Payn said.

He also realized how much he had grown to appreciate being greeted by name and working with students across campus.

“I always had students who had a passion for singing and wanted to do well even if it was not a main part of their lives,” he said. “To encourage that was amazing. So, 32 years at Bucknell, and I never looked back.”

The students’ energy and passion kept him young.

“I’m very blessed because I have many students who keep in touch,” Payn said, adding with a chuckle, “Lots of Christmas cards.”

Candlelight Christmas

The Bucknell Candlelight Christmas service, one of Payn’s most endearing legacies, has been aired on national TV for the past 20 years. Along with the splendor of the students’ voices soaring to the ceiling and softening almost to a whisper, it incorporates brass, harp and organ music with scriptural readings and ends with the Ringing in of Christmas. Payn is touched when people tell him it’s now part of their holiday traditions.

“Of course I am honored that people recognize the excellence I try to impart in my music,” he said. “I think, particularly choral music has a healing connection because it has a text. Seasonal music we’ve sung since childhood can elicit an emotion that allows us to go back to those things that were most important to us. The power of music is amazing.”

He recalled a time when a man who knew he wouldn’t be alive the following Christmas asked to speak with Payn after the performance.

“He just took my hand and thanked me,” Payn said. “Those are special moments.”

Payn continues his Candlelight Christmas at Zion Lutheran Church, in Sunbury, with the Susquehanna Valley Chorale (SVC).

“I decided to bring that tradition to the Valley with the Chorale,” he said. “Zion is a beautiful church.”

Susquehanna Valley Chorale

When composing anything from handbell compositions to major works, Payn searches for “a beautiful melody” and sometimes wakes at night to dash to the kitchen and write the notes he has heard in his head. He recently finished a major work called “Love” that was premiered by the SVC in October, 2022.

In 1996 he took over as conductor of the SVC, where he values working with community members united by their love of singing.

Adam Dietz, who handles marketing and development there, first met Payn as a high school sophomore when Payn directed district chorus and, under Payn’s advice, attended Westminster Choir College. Working with him in the SVC, Dietz said, is “effortless.”

“He always leads with gentleness and kindness in whatever he does, even outside of the chorale setting,” Dietz said.

“Watch his hands,” said SVC singer Joanna Rees. “There’s emotion on his face; he connects with us. The motion in his hands just pulls it out of us.”

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Looking Ahead

Since retiring from Bucknell, Payn and his wife, Ruth Anderson, love visiting their four children and 11 grandchildren all over the East Coast and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The pandemic cut into their delight in traveling, but they left recently for a longanticipated trip to Morocco.

Payn plans on conducting the SVC until he turns 80. After that, he and Ruth will continue to travel and attend their grandchildren’s milestone events. They’ll also continue entertaining friends and walking around their Walnut Acres Farm, in Penns Creek.

“We’re not going to sit around,” Payn said. “You just hope you can continue doing what you love to do. I feel very fortunate to be where I am and to be healthy. I don’t plan to get older too soon.”

Cindy O. Herman lives in Snyder County. Email comments to her at CindyOHerman@gmail.com

Dr. Bill Payn conducts the Susquehanna Valley Chorale during an evening rehearsal at the First Baptist Church, in Lewisburg.