David Alfred Pizarro

Pizarro, David Alfred

David Pizarro was a lifelong resident of Mount Vernon, NY and the son of Helen and Ricardo Pizarro. He passed peacefully away on February 23, 2011 at the age of 79 years. He was a distinguished and well-known church organist and recitalist. He became a chorister in the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City and studied the organ with Norman Coke-Jephcott and gave at the Cathedral his first organ recital in 1946 at the age of 15. Later, he entered the Yale University School of Music, earning the Sherman Organ Prize and his Master's Degree in 1953. More study followed in Germany with Michael Schneider and in Paris with Marcel Dupre thanks to a Fulbright Scholarship. For over 40 years, he gave concerts and recorded organ music in Europe, especially Germany, England and Scandinavia. He taught and held church positions in Rhode Island, North Carolina, Boston and New York, where he became Organist and Master of Choristers at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 1974. In 2003, he directed a great Memorial Concert with 350 singers in honor of N. Coke-Jephcott at the Cathedral, drawing many friends and alumni. In 2004, he retired for health reasons and lived at home, enjoying his cats and doing editing work. He still played in church on Sunday, aided by his wife Irene. In 2008, he entered the Tolstoy Foundation Nursing Home in Nyack, NY, where he stayed until his death. His funeral ceremony was performed at the Holy Virgin Protection Church in Nyack, of which he was a member, by Father George Larin in English and in Russian. He now rests at the All Souls Cemetery in Queens with his parents. He is survived by his wife Irene, his brother Ricardo Pizarro, and the Bochow family in Westchester, Connecticut and California. He will be very much missed by his wife, his family and his lifelong friends.