At the tender age of 7, Philip Fortenberry became the pianist at Edna Baptist Church in Marion County. That proved to be the launching point for a career that has taken him from the tiny community of Hub to Broadway and Las Vegas.
And what do you know, a few years ago Community Lutheran Church in Las Vegas, where the musician now lives and performs, approached him after its longtime organist retired. He took the position.
“Can you believe that? What you grow up with comes back to you,” Fortenberry said in a recent phone interview.
He will be returning in another way March 22 for a solo benefit concert, “Coming Home, One Night Only” at his alma mater, William Carey University in Hattiesburg.
The former child prodigy said he’s excited about returning to the community that nurtured him and where he still owns property. He joked that in Las Vegas they don’t have much weather so he always keeps up with what’s happening in Columbia when storms are approaching.
“I’m very proud of where I’ve come from, and I’ve never forgotten it,” he said.
South Mississippi hasn’t forgotten him either: William Carey President Tommy King said the university’s board of trustees has voted to confer an honorary doctorate upon Fortenberry at graduation.
King said William Carey was the first in Mississippi to become an all-Steinway school and that one of the agreements with the Steinway Company is to show the ability to keep the pianos in tip-top repair. Some of the proceeds from Fortenberry’s concert will go into that fund, and it will also support the international student support program because the university has been able to attract accomplished stringed instrument players from abroad as it works to establish an orchestra.
King said Fortenberry has an amazing story. He started on the piano at 4 while growing up in Hub, which is about 10 miles south of Columbia.
“He was playing outside with trucks in the sand, and he just had this feeling and he jumped up and ran in the house and ran up on the piano stool and started playing,” King said. “Had never had a lesson. That’s when he was 4 years old.”
That natural talent led to the position at Edna Baptist Church three years later. It was an important role that involved playing on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday prayer service, choir rehearsal, weddings and funerals.
It was a challenge for a shy, frightful kid to play in front of a congregation of 65 worshippers, Fortenberry said. He recalls being embarrassed that he couldn’t read music yet and would have his mother sit by him on the piano bench to help find the hymns quickly as a show, even though he was playing completely by ear.
Now looking at 7-year-olds, Fortenberry says it’s hard to imagine he was ever that small and doing that job. But it was just what was done. His friends would wait after services to go play basketball or whatever they were going to do until his musical duties were complete.
“It didn’t seem special or anything like that. I think that’s a blessing to have come from a small place, where it was just what was expected,” he said.
Once he started playing at church, his parents, the late Charles Leon Fortenberry Sr. and Elsie Cranford Fortenberry, decided it would be good for him to take lessons. His teacher from then until he went to William Carey was Hilda Johnston, an aunt who lived in Columbia.
He attended Hub School for six years followed by three years at East Marion. He spent his last three years at Columbia Academy, graduating in 1976.
At 15 when he was able to drive, he began playing the piano at larger churches, first Cedar Grove Baptist and then First Baptist in Columbia.
He said all the skills that have sustained him musically, like sight reading and transposing to different keys for singers, were developed there.
“All of it I learned at the Baptist church. I learned it playing for the church in the South,” he said. “It instilled in me a work ethic and the basics, not just of music, but in life. That doesn’t change wherever you go, professionally or personally.”
And Fortenberry has literally gone all over the world through music. He has performed on famed stages from Carnegie Hall to The White House and has composed and released eight solo CDs.
He moved to New York City after graduating from William Carey in 1980 and played and wrote music for many Broadway shows. He also obtained a Master of Music Degree in classical piano performance from New Jersey City University and continued his private piano studies at The Julliard School.
In 2004 Fortenberry moved to Las Vegas and is a partner in two entertainment companies, PK Music and PK Entertainment. He served as the hand/body double for actor Michael Douglas in HBO’s 2013 biopic “Behind the Candelabra” about Las Vegas pianist Liberace.
In August, Fortenberry completed a three-week solo concert tour of China debuting his “Salute To Broadway” concert. He said it’s a different world than Americans can even imagine; for example, the smallest city he played in had six million people. His entourage toured 14 cities in 19 days, traveling by a rapid succession of planes, trains and automobiles.
Fortenberry said he’s planning to go back to China this fall and is also developing a show called “Hands of Liberace” to be performed in Houston.
At the William Carey concert, Fortenberry said he’ll be interacting a lot of with the audience. As he’s matured as a performer, Fortenberry said he’s embraced the challenge of getting in touch with himself and presenting that, as opposed to just giving a recital. His message is to never give up on dreams, have no fear and find your faith and cultivate it.
“I’m going to share my story,” he said.
Pictured Above: Marion County native Philip Fortenberry plays during the Nevada Sesquicentennial at the Smith Center in Las Vegas in 2014. He’s returning home for a March 22 concert at William Carey University. | Photo by Erik Kabik
