Piety or panache? Church, ballpark organist sets the tones

From April to September, Dean Rosko splits his time between the house of God and the house that Miller built.

As the organist for St. Raphael the Archangel Catholic Church in Antioch and the Milwaukee Brewers, Rosko has learned to easily switch gears from "On Eagles' Wings" to the "Beer Barrel Polka."

"It's definitely a different atmosphere from one day to the next," Rosko said. "I go from 40,000 baseball fans to a church that seats about 200 people. The interaction is a lot more intimate at the church, too, although people joke that baseball is a spiritual thing."

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Rosko has been accompanying the Brewers at 70 to 80 home games a season since he was 18 years old.

Now, at 24, Rosko surprises people when they find him sitting behind the organ at Milwaukee's Miller Park.

"I think they are expecting a 60-year-old woman or something," he joked.

It's true that nowadays a church is the most likely place to find an organ. More and more ballparks are switching to recorded music for entertainment. Chicago's Cubs and Sox remain true to tradition, both still having their own longtime organists, Gary Pressy and Nancy Faust, respectively.

In Milwaukee, after longtime organist Frank Charles retired in 1986, the Brewers began using recordings of Charles's music at Milwaukee County Stadium, and later, Miller Park when it opened in 2001.

But when former Brewers' president Ulice Payne held a community listening session in 2002, he discovered fans wanted an organist back at the park.

Rosko, who had graduated high school at the time, immediately sent the Brewers a resume and CD. After numerous interviews and auditions, officials in the Brewers' front office liked what they heard and Rosko became the team's first organist in 17 years.

A lifelong Brewers fan, the Kenosha resident said he prefers playing at games with "a lot of real baseball fans." He calls Opening Day "amateur afternoon."

During a recent Thursday afternoon game, Rosko warmed up the crowd with familiar songs such as Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" and the Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" as the audience filed into the stadium with their hot dogs and beer.

Tucked away in the team's press box, Rosko is obscured, so most people tap their feet to his tunes without even thinking about where the music's coming from.

"I never get nervous here because I'm pretty disconnected from the audience," he said. "I pretty much just serve as background music."

Rosko said there are plans to move him into the crowd, but the Brewers want to wait until he has a more impressive-looking organ to play on.

He now plays on a Kawai electronic keyboard -- a far cry from the pipe organ that was recently installed at St. Raphael.

Rosko prefers the classical sound and feel of a pipe organ. In fact, he purchased a 1928 Wurlitzer theater organ the summer he graduated from eighth grade.

"We always had a piano in the house, and I've been playing since I could reach the keys," he said. Rosko says he loves playing both the piano and organ but has consistently found work behind an organ.

Rosko has been a fixture at St. Raphael since November. The Rev. John Jamnicky knew of Rosko from his work tuning the organ at Mundelein Seminary.

"We needed an organist and I had my tentacles out looking for the right person," Jamnicky joked. "He is young and enthusiastic and seemed like the kind of person who would make a good church organist. Everyone is so happy with him. It has been a perfect fit."

In addition to playing at St. Raphael and Brewers games, Rosko also plays at the Organ Piper Pizza restaurant in Milwaukee twice a week.

Rosko doesn't mind having to work three jobs to make ends meet. He says he wants to play the organ in his free time.

And switching from playing baseball crowd-pleasers to church hymns isn't as hard as one might imagine.

"Once in a while I'll see a piano in a random public place and just start playing," he said. "People always ask me how I do it. The truth is, I can't imagine not being able to do it. And I never get tired of playing. I guess that comes with loving what I do."