Gerre Hancock, St. Thomas Church Organist, Dies at 77 G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times Gerre Hancock was the organist and master of the choristers at St. Thomas Church in Manhattan for more than 30 years. Gerre Hancock, a renowned organist known for his skill at improvisation, an art considered all but lost among American classical organists, died on Saturday in Austin, Tex. The cause was coronary artery disease, his family said. Mr. Hancock spent more than three decades as organist and master of the choristers at St. Thomas Church in Manhattan, where the annual performance of Handel's "Messiah" he led was one of the most critically praised among the welter heard throughout New York each December. From 2004 until his death, he was professor of organ and sacred music at the University of Texas at Austin. As an organ soloist, Mr. Hancock performed in churches and concert halls worldwide. His talent for improvisation - in which a player elaborates a musical theme off the cuff in the appropriate key and meter, with fealty to the composer's style and intent - was considered the finest of any American concert organist. A fundamental component of Baroque music, improvisation is routinely taught to organists in Europe but is far less commonly taught in the United States. Mr. Hancock was so proficient at it that his recitals were sometimes organized as tests of skill, with audience members giving him sealed envelopes containing suggestions of melodies for him to embellish. Besides playing the organ at St. Thomas, an Episcopal church on Fifth Avenue at 53rd Street, Mr. Hancock oversaw a string of choral services there each week and directed the church's choir school, a residential academy for boys in grades three through eight. Conducting the choir, which, in the English cathedral tradition, comprises only men and boys, Mr. Hancock gave public concerts featuring a range of sacred music by Bach, Handel, Purcell and Palestrina. The choir also performed liturgical music by contemporary composers including Benjamin Britten and Mr. Hancock himself. Writing about the St. Thomas choir in The New York Times in 2004, Allan Kozinn said, "It produces a polished, powerful and beautifully balanced sound that for sacred music - particularly that of the Renaissance and Baroque, historically sung by all-male choirs - is about the best that New York has to offer." Gerre Edward Hancock was born on Feb. 21, 1934, to a Baptist family in Lubbock, Tex. His given name is pronounced Jerry. He came to liturgical music early: his mother was a pianist who sometimes played in church. Young Mr. Hancock began organ lessons at 10, practicing on an old Wurlitzer that had been salvaged from a movie house and installed in a local church. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree in music from the University of Texas, Austin, and a master's in sacred music from Union Theological Seminary in New York. He later studied in Paris, where he cultivated his improvisational skills under the pianist and composer Nadia Boulanger. His other teachers over the years included the organists E. William Doty, Robert Baker, Jean Langlais and Marie-Claire Alain. Before joining the St. Thomas staff, Mr. Hancock was organist and choirmaster of Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati and assistant organist at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York. He came to St. Thomas in 1971 and inaugurated its annual "Messiah" concerts not long afterward, engaging a Baroque orchestra to accompany the singers. He taught at the University of Cincinnati, the Juilliard School, the Eastman School of Music and Yale. Mr. Hancock is survived by his wife, the former Judith Eckerman, an organist whom he married in 1961; two daughters, Deborah Hancock and Lisa Hancock; and a brother, James, a Baptist minister. His recordings as a choir conductor include "A Cappella From Saint Thomas Church" and as an organist include "Christmas Improvisations." Mr. Hancock was the author of "Improvising: How to Master the Art," published by Oxford University Press in 1994. Among his many honors, he was a fellow of the American Guild of Organists; he was also a fellow of the Royal School of Church Music and the Royal College of Organists, both based in England. In interviews Mr. Hancock was often asked the secret of mastering his vast instrument, with its prodigious thunder and simultaneous demands on hands, eyes and feet. "Coordination is key," he told The Austin American-Statesman in 2004. But so are earplugs.