Doktorski, Henry A.
(Jan. 30, 1956 - )
Accordionist, organist author, composer, educatorGrowing up and graduating from St. Peter's High School in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Henry A, Doktorski heard a lot of Polish music at home and wasn't exactly sure whether he liked his mother playing the violin better than his father's collection of 33 rpm records of polkas and koledy (Christmas songs). When he was seven years old, his parents, Henry and Theresa (Czartowicz) Doktorski, bought an accordion for him after a man, going door to door to find students for his music school, offered to give him a free lesson. After taking more lessons, the young Doktorski - which was found in 1990 predominately in Warsaw, Poland - learned to play popular tunes and entertained his family and friends whenever he had a chance. At 14, he and two other Polish boys, who played different instruments, played at weddings, picnics, and in dance halls.
In high school he changed his taste to classical music and put his accordion away in a closet. He devoted more time to playing a piano and classical works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Bartok. As a result he was awarded a music scholarship to Park College (now University), a small private institution in Missouri, and graduated summa cum laude in 1978 with a degree in music.
In August of the same year he wanted to add God to his music and joined a religious colony, known as Hare Krishnas, which had an ornate shrine on a remote ridge in Marshall County, West Virginia, about 90 minutes south of Pittsburgh. Known for their incessant chanting, shaved heads, and saffron robes. Doktorski shed his long hair and followed in their footsteps. He changed his name to Hrishikesh Dasa. No one knows how many persons acted the same way. For a while they were featured in news stories and shown on street corners, parades, and other gathering places.
In addition, Doktorski served as organist and choir director for the New Vrindaban colony near Moundsville, West Virginia. In 1987 the guru of the colony asked him to bring his accordion to the evening services and "liven things up a bit," as he said, and Doktorski was reluctant to play his accordion in a religious ceremony. At last he relented. Then the monks asked him to teach them how to play an accordion. The guru sent him to New York to buy a lot of accordions. He taught each monk how to play classical music and formed an accordion orchestra. He continued to play the accordion during the evening services. The monks also played their accordions at conventions, music halls, and other places and won trophies.
The worst blow to the Hare Krishnas came in the 1990s when a Texas lawyer sued the sect for sexual abuse of children at the boarding school in West Virginia and other states. It was too much for Doktorski. He dropped out in 1994 and moved to Oakdale, Pennsylvania, where his parents, then in their 7Os, joined him. Over the years, he was an accordion teacher in Alaska and Pittsburgh. He performed with cellist Mstislaw Rostropovich, violinists Gil Shahan and Itzhak Perelman. Between 1995 and 2005 he appeared forty times with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and played on the accordion, piano, harpsichord, organ, and celesta. He has also performed with other orchestras and musical groups and made numerous recordings. He emerged in one church after another, both Protestant and Catholic, and filled the air with classical music on the organ. He has played the organ regularly since 1997 at Grace Lutheran Church in Rochester, Pennsylvania. Hardly a week passed that he didn't hear from someone about his performances. One parishioner of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, McKees Rocks, said, "Our organ will never be the same again!"
From: Edward Pinkowski (2009)