Douglas Green is a baritone, comes from a small town in Maryland, and has been teaching organ and piano lessons for over 45 years. His favorite composer is Bach and he plans on traveling with his wife during his retirement, after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.

When Douglas Green called me a musician, it was a dream realized because I thought I had lost my voice to cigarettes, long before I quit smoking. As a new member of the St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir, I was thrilled to be archiving scores of his music into the computer. As compensation, he would slip me a $10 bill or treat me to a grinder from D’Elias.

I sang with the St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir for four years but it did not take that amount of time to understand that Green is a gifted organist and singer.

Green began playing the organ in churches at the age of 13 and landed his first professional gig at the age of 16.

He said that during his senior year in high school, he was “very fortunate” to study with Dr. Alexander McCurdy of the Curdy Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Green was named assistant director of the Cadet Music Activities at the United States Coast Guard Academy upon graduating from The Westminster Choir College in 1973.

He was the director of music and organist at St. Patrick’s Cathedral choir in Norwich for 43 memorable years. In 1978, Douglas Green founded the Diocesan choir comprosed of devoted singers who come from Catholic parishes in Norwich and southeastern Connecticut.

Lisa Shasha lives in Norwich.

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