After decades touring with the Army and various piano and organ manufacturers, Les Thornburg has settled in Traverse City but continues to make his mark musically.
One of the featured performers at last Saturday's Night of Nostalgia, the audience went wild over his smoking renditions of jazz and musical theater classics.
Now an estate consultant with a territory counted in counties not a continent, he still keeps his hands sharp after a lifetime of dedication. Thornburg is the accompanist at the First Christian Church and is beginning to perform in the community. He plays occasionally at the Elks Club on Friday nights and has a solo concert scheduled for Saturday, April 22, at the church.
"Music has always kept me going, that and a sense of humor keeps you young and healthy," he said. "I still try to play a lot, I never get tired of it."
Raised in a full gospel church, what he terms a Pentecostal church, his favorite form of music is gospel. A devout man, Thornburg feels that his playing now is a ministry to members of the congregation.
"We're enjoying him so much," said Evan Williams, pastor of the First Christian Church. "He appreciates the blessing of people worshiping together and what part he can play in that with the gifts God has given him musically — and his love of God is quite evident."
Thornburg began playing the piano when he was three years old. Years of dedication to the instrument cemented his adult career, albeit an unusual one as a touring pianist.
"My dad was a concert pianist and a teacher," said Thornburg. "He loved to teach and he had the patience of Job, I was always amazed."
Growing up in South Bend, Ind., Thornburg jumped to even more demanding European teachers when his dad discovered the young pianist was still playing by ear after three years. Still playing by ear even today, although he does read music, Thornburg appreciates the foundation his father instilled from an early age. He had to memorize every piece he played as a child and rarely uses music while performing.
"His vision for me from the day I was born was that I would be a concert pianist," recalled Thornburg, who moved to Traverse City four years ago. "I tried that for a while but I wanted to play different types of music."
So he joined the Army and was accepted into the prestigious Naval Academy of Music in Norfolk, Virginia. After 26 weeks training there with musicians from all the services, he toured with the Army band for several years.
"They had fantastic musicians there, great jazz musicians, that's for sure," he said of the academy. "I've often wondered why the faculty taught there, they could have made a lot of money in the civilian world."
After leaving the Army, Thornburg considered law school but a phone call from the Kimball company changed his life.
"They asked me to come and audition as a staff artist," he recalled. "Wow, I could always go back to school but I may not get another phone call like that."
Over the next few decades, Thornburg represented a range of piano and organ manufacturers around the nation, including a seven-year stint as artist in residence with Kawii America. He played in concerts both large and small, taught clinics for customers, trained salespeople and helped sell the instruments.
It was a grueling schedule that kept him on the road 20-25 days a month at times. At one point while living in Colorado, he tried to give up his nomadic lifestyle and took a regular job in the human resources field. No traveling, no performing, no piano.
"Oh, I was like a duck out of water!" he said.
Having traveled and performed in 49 states — he never made it to Hawaii in all those years — Thornburg was most touched by a six-week tour of the Soviet Union before the Iron Curtain fell.
Traveling with a missionary group to underground churches in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Russia, he performed in venues humble and exalted. After the tour, he spent a week in the "musician's Mecca" of Vienna, Austria, where he played in the Vienna Opera House.
"We were smuggling Bibles into Russia and Poland at the time," he recalled. "I played in basements and in beautiful Gothic cathedrals, the pipe organs were just fantastic."