The position for organist and choirmaster at Central Lutheran Church opened up in 1984. This time, Andrew ElRay Stewart-Cook felt comfortable pursuing it.

It had been open before, during his early years in Eugene, but Stewart-Cook (“ElRay” to friends and family) demurred, instead remaining at Bethesda Lutheran in West Eugene. He was in his early 30s by 1984, but before that, he notes, “I knew I needed more experience before I got in this pond.”

“This pond” includes the enormous John Brombaugh-built pipe organ and its 2,800-plus pipes, as well as a large and musically sophisticated congregation that knows its sacred hymn texts. When Stewart-Cook got the job, a friend offered congratulations — sort of. The friend wondered if “they will eat you up and spit you out.”

Stewart-Cook laughs at the memory. In 40 years he has grown the music program from 22 singers in the choir (and with no tenor section to speak of) to 50-plus members with a chamber orchestra and a handbell ensemble as well as growing the children’s choir. He has mentored many musicians, and some of those musicians — all friends — will join Stewart-Cook Nov. 24 to celebrate with A Friends’ Concert at Central Lutheran Church.

Modestly, he says, “My job is to make the clergy look good,” and Stewart-Cook is now working with his 10th and 11th pastors at Central (Laurie Jones and Ben Nickodemus). It’s his steady presence inside the church, however, that makes him beloved. As soprano Siri Vik notes, he has been “a shepherd,” all the while adhering to a simple sign in the choir rehearsal room that leads to the choir loft: “Let Music Touch Your Soul.”

“It’s just so hard for me to conceive of the Central choir without ElRay,” says Vik, a Eugene native who was 9 years old when she met Stewart-Cook and was 13 when she performed in her first musical at the church, Bishop Theodulph. “He was the anchor that brought me back to the church. He made me feel encouraged and safe.”

“He’s very much a music pastor,” says David Gustafson, a tenor who met Stewart-Cook while a student at the University of Oregon 40 years ago. Gustafson was the new choirmaster’s first hire because the tenor section needed a strong voice. “He’s been the one constant. He gets along with everybody.”

Stewart-Cook was raised in a Mormon family on a potato farm in Rexburg, Idaho. He jokes that at age 4, if his parents couldn’t find him, they learned to look for him on the organ bench in the church, “a tenth of the size of the one here,” he muses. 

By age 12 he was the church organist. “I was infatuated with the instrument,” he says. “It’s that deeply embedded in my DNA.”

His love for the organ and sacred music took a further leap when he went to study at the Guildhall School of Music at the University of London. In his mid-20s, Stewart-Cook was near the Royal Ballet and Royal Opera, as well as St. Paul’s Cathedral and The Abbey. 

“It was,” he says, “an incredible opportunity.”

Also in London, he met a Scottish woman — D’reen Stewart-Webb. An instant friendship blossomed into love, and the two were married for 37 years before she died of cancer-related illness in 2017. “I definitely married above myself,” Stewart-Cook says. “She was a remarkable woman.”

“Before she got cancer, she was a go-getter,” Gustafson recalls. He says that in the final years of her life, Stewart-Cook would often leave rehearsal early to tend to her. “He really did all the care for her,” Gustafson adds.

Stewart-Cook notes that the choir was a refuge during his wife’s illness and after her death. “It kept me afloat.” Further, he adds, he has become “spoiled” by the professionalism of the choir today and has no immediate plans to retire. 

Now in his 70s, Stewart-Cook has trimmed his schedule. He works on 10-month contracts, spending 90 minutes a day on the organ bench instead of the three or four hours a day in the early years. Lindsey Henriksen Rodgers is now the associate organist and handles the children’s choir, and Stewart-Cook gets plenty of help with the physical aspect of setting up chairs and tables.

“I think he’s living a pretty large life,” Vik says. “It seems he has the best of both worlds.”

A Friends’ Concert, marking Andrew ElRay Stewart-Cook’s 40 years as organist and choirmaster at Central Lutheran Church, is 4 pm Sunday, Nov. 24, at Central Lutheran Church, 1857 Potter Street. FREE. Reception to follow.