It is fair to say Carlo Curley has gone to extraordinary lengths to break into the music scene.
Like many musicians, the 58-year-old flamboyant and popular classical concert organist got his introduction to music from his grandmother, who taught him to play piano when he was 4.
Later, he joined his grandmother in the local church choir in North Carolina, where he discovered the organ.
"I was very young - 6 or 7 at the time. I loved the puffing and wheezing of the organ working.
"And the smell of the leather - it had a certain musk. It was something of old age and it smelt wonderful."
Sensing his intrigue in the organ, his grandmother asked the organist if he could try playing the grand old instrument.
The organist said no, and Mr Curley said he returned home disappointed.
"But that night, I broke out the window of the Fellowship Hall and made my way through the church to the organ.
"I found the switch, and played for about 20 minutes. But I cut myself when I broke the window and I bled all over the keys.
"It cost my family a couple of hundred dollars to get the organ professionally cleaned, and my grandfather convinced me with the belt hanging on the back of the front door that breaking into the church wasn't a fragrant idea."
Although Mr Curley agreed in hindsight it was not a good idea, he said his actions got the desired attention.
His family paid for organ lessons, and he has since become one of the world's finest organists.
He was the first classical organist to perform a solo organ recital at the White House and has played for several European heads of state.
His charismatic personality inevitably finds its way on to television and radio, and he has appeared on television networks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan.
When not touring the world giving concert performances, he has spent many hours recording much of the classical organ repertoire and is involved in organ design and construction for clients, including the Melbourne City Council in Australia and the Cube, in Shiroishi, Japan.
Mr Curley was at St Paul's Cathedral in Dunedin last night to give the final performance of his 13-concert tour of New Zealand.
He will return to Europe tomorrow, where his busy concert schedule will continue with 14 concerts in Sweden, Russia and the United Kingdom before Christmas.
