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Grace Trombley sings a hymn at her retirement performance at the Ticonderoga First United Methodist Church.
TICONDEROGA | If you love what you do, why not work until — oh, say the age of 96? On a Sunday in late August, Grace Trombley played and sang at the Ticonderoga First United Methodist Church, the capstone on a musical career that began 82 years ago as a pianist for services in the chapel at the Valley View Cemetery.
“It will just be me and the keyboard; I’ll be accompanying myself,” Grace said prior to her performance. “I’m looking forward to Sunday to see if I can still do it.”
She could.
For the last 39 years, she has been musical director at the Ti Methodist Church, retiring only because a broken hip and subsequent bout of pneumonia made it difficult to get around. “The church has been such a great place, everyone is so willing to do things,” she said.
Despite the Sunday solo, much of her career has been focused on others — directing choirs and providing piano lessons for too many people to count. It is difficult to go far in Ticonderoga without encountering someone who has been the benefactor of Grace’s love of music. When she was rehabbing in the hospital, two of her caregivers were former students of hers.
Grace began playing duets with her father, George Curtis, as a girl. “We played hymns mostly, because that’s what we had music for,” she said.
Her talent was recognized, and she had spoken with the Dean of Fine Arts at Syracuse about a college career when her plans were interrupted by World War II. In the 40s, a former student who had landed in Troy enticed her to come and direct a children’s choir.
From then on, every place Grace moved, she found a need for someone who could teach music. “I thought it was interesting that I wound up doing what I wanted to do,” she said. “It is an important thing for life because you can express yourself through your music.”
Her husband worked for International Paper, a job that took their family to locations across the country and in Canada. Each time, on her return, there was a musical job opening up, until she returned for good in 1980.
The hymns — “How Great Thou Art,” “He Touched Me” — remain among her favorites, along with classical music. She’s watched musical trends come and go, noting that little can cause as much commotion in a church as the introduction of a new hymnal.
Her young students have changed too. “The children to me now in 6th or 8th grade seem much more mature,” she said. And they have more on their plates, activities and sports practices, that doesn’t leave as much time for practice.
Still, she loves spreading its joys. “You can lose yourself in your music,” she said. “(Playing) is also very soothing. I have scads of CDs to listen to, but I’d rather do it myself.
