Daniel Ficarri gets ready to play the organ in 2012 at Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh when he was in high school. Now 28, Ficarri is the associate director and organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.

It was an organ performance at St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland that made up the mind of Daniel Ficarri, then just an eighth grader in the North Allegheny School District.

He was entranced by the sounds and sights of an instrument that beautifully echoed throughout the grand space of the nearly 120-year-old church.

"I was blown away and came home and begged my parents for lessons," said Ficarri, a former Franklin Park resident, who is now the associate director and organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.

It's an awesome feeling to play on an instrument that has origins from before the birth of Jesus Christ, he said.

"To sum it up, you feel part of something bigger than yourself, which is really special, feeling connected to something so powerful," said Ficarri, now 28. "I almost feel like I'm still learning. It's a full-body experience. Every limb is doing something different."

Ficarri's musical journey began with the violin in third grade as part of North Allegheny's orchestra program. But he also recalled enjoying watching a digital organ being played at his home church at St. John Neumann in Franklin Park.

"I remembered being amazed at seeing all of the different keyboards and pedals," he said.

Ficarri would mimic the organist's movements with his school orchestra pieces, playing the violin part with his right hand on the organ, the viola part with his left hand and the cello part with his feet.

In middle school, his parents found several local instructors, and he liked that it wasn't a popular choice of instrument for other kids.

"Part of the fun of it was finding my own creative voice as it was new to me and I was getting to introduce other people to it," said Ficarri, who continued to play violin and piano. He also eventually played the organ and led the choir at St. John Neumann.

After high school, Ficarri attended The Juilliard School in New York, where he was one of only two organ students accepted his freshman year, subsequently earning both his bachelor's and master's degrees there.

Now, a published composer of organ, choral and chamber music, Ficarri has played in renowned spaces such as New York's Carnegie Hall and St. Patrick's Cathedral, and London's Westminster Abbey, to name a few.

Ficarri also was named as one of the top "20 under 30" organists by The Diapason, an international journal founded in 1909 and devoted to the organ, harpsichord, carillon and church music.

Currently, he can be heard playing the Great Organ at St. John the Divine, a 115-year-old instrument that recently was rededicated.

The Great Organ at the cathedral was made specifically for that space and is described as a "four manual and pedal, seven division, electro-pneumatic action instrument of 151 ranks and 8,514 pipes" on St. John Divine's website.

Ficarri said there is only one like it in the world.

"Some of the pipes are 32 feet tall and individually weigh almost a ton, compared to others as tiny as a pencil, he said.

The Great Organ, built by the Ernest M. Skinner Co. in 1910, according to the cathedral's website, was affected by several fires at the cathedral and recently underwent a restoration, returning to the cathedral in December and being featured in several rededication performances, such as Ficarri's on Feb. 11.

Another key to Ficarri's musical process is his synesthesia, a neurological condition that causes certain sensory experiences to be linked, which he thinks everyone has on some level.

"For me, it happens that color and music are very closely associated," Ficarri said.

His parents, Cathy and Tom, who still reside in Franklin Park, said there really isn't any musical background in their family, aside from their other son who plays the guitar.

"He's really in a zone when he's playing, showing his spirituality and where his heart is," Cathy said. "We're just amazed at where this has really taken him. It's just an amazing world that we weren't aware of."

Ficarri now realizes how unique and impressive North Allegheny's music program was and how much his instructors helped him grow.

And he enjoys visiting Pittsburgh and all it has to offer in the world of music.

"Pittsburgh Symphony is really one of the greatest in the world. The music tradition in Pittsburgh is really unique," he said.

The Harlem resident can be heard every Sunday playing at the 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. services Cathedral of St. John the Divine.