The University’s longest-playing organist has spent almost six decades filling both the University Chapel and University Baptist Church with music. Barbara Moore has played the piano since she was six years old, and began taking organ lessons when she was 14. Now, she teaches as a professor in the music department, serves as the Chapel’s organist coordinator and is responsible for ringing the Chapel bell, a role that has placed her at the center of some of the University’s most meaningful moments.
Most days, an audio recording of the Chapel bell rings across Grounds every hour, on the hour. But on certain special occasions, such as honoring the life of a person that has passed away, the automated bell is turned off for the day so the only chimes heard are played by Moore to honor that person and bring gravity and significance to the day.
Moore, along with the Chapel’s seven other approved organists, plays for events such as weddings, ceremonies and musical performances held in the Chapel. She has performed at over 400 weddings in the Chapel and over 700 in total, with her first one being in the Chapel when she was just 16 years old. She reflected on how the organ’s versatility continues to draw her to the instrument.
“The organ is fun and it’s beautiful, and it’s called the ‘king of instruments’ for a reason,” Moore said. “It creates so many beautiful sounds from a whisper to glorious [music], even at the Chapel, where the organ is relatively small, but it’ll fill that room.”
Moore’s years of expertise have positioned her as a valuable teacher for musicians in the Charlottesville community interested in learning the craft of organ-playing. She instructs students in private lessons when her schedule allows, but Moore said she will only teach already skilled pianists to play the organ because the instrument is so technically demanding. In addition to reading multiple staves of music, organists must coordinate their hands and feet simultaneously, a challenge that does not suit beginner piano players.
However, as the coordinator of the Chapel’s roster of organists, Moore’s responsibility extends far beyond her students. She structures an audition process for experienced musicians interested in becoming one of the Chapel organists, schedules performers, approves guest organists and ensures the organ is tuned and in working order.
In addition to her role as organist coordinator and instructor, Moore plays an instrument called a carillon — an enormous device made up of bells, batons and pedals — to ring the Chapel bell for ceremonies of remembrance observed by the University community. When Jared Loewenstein, the previous carillonneur, retired in 2011, he selected two organists, including Moore, from the Chapel’s list to train on the carillon. Although Moore is not a carillonneur by profession, the instrument’s similarities to an organ allow her to easily adapt to the instrument when she plays.
The carillon’s console is similar to the keyboard on an organ, but it is much smaller. An organ typically has two keyboards with 61 keys each and a pedalboard organists play with their feet with 32 notes. In contrast, the carillon does not have a pedalboard and only has 23 keys.
“[The console] looks like a toy piano, it’s a tiny one,” Moore said. “But you have enough keys to ring, and this [carillon] is complicated, so there’s all sorts of choices about the bells you ring.”
According to Moore, one of her most frequent requests is to toll the Chapel bell in remembrance of a member of the Seven Society — one of the University’s secret societies — who has passed away. The Seven Society donated the original carillon to the University in 1957 for the purpose of honoring its members. When she is asked to fulfill this request, she receives a call from an anonymous contact that a member of the Sevens has died, and they schedule a time with Moore for the bell to be rung. The bell is rung in sets of seven tolls seven times, all seven seconds apart. Then, the “Good Old Song” is played on the carillon.
After a date for the bell-ringing is scheduled, the member’s family is invited to the ceremony to hear the tolling. Given that membership in the society is kept secret until death, the ringing of the Chapel bells marks the formal announcement of a person’s membership in the Sevens. Moore keeps a record of former Sevens members she has rung the bell for, which is kept in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.
Moore also tolls the bells each year on Nov. 13 in honor of D’Sean Perry, Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler in remembrance of the fatal on-Grounds shooting in 2022 that took the lives of these three former students. She plays “Amazing Grace,” followed by three chimes for each of the three young men.
“It’s such an honor,” Moore said. “It’s worth it to me to go up and do it .... It’s very moving .... The football team comes, the families come, Coach [Tony] Elliott comes and they sit and pray. Some of them are weeping.”
Though much of Moore’s work happens out of sight, the sound of the organ and the Chapel bell carries far beyond the walls where she plays. For many on Grounds, the music marks moments of celebration, reflection and loss. Through decades of service, Moore has helped shape the soundscape of the University, leaving a lasting imprint on its most meaningful moments.
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