Meet Chapel Hill’s horse-mask-wearing organist

I was walking down Franklin Street last Friday when I stumbled upon a Snapchat-worthy sight: someone wearing a poncho and a horse mask was playing an organ in the middle of the street.

As ethereal music filled the air, one question popped into my mind: why? Is this horse mask meme coming back? Did we replace Ken Bone already (if so, thank god)? Or is this some performance art piece put on by the vegan lobby?

While I contemplated these questions, groups of people all around me stopped, smiling and laughing at the absurdity of this surprisingly skilled horse-masked organist. Many took pictures and videos.

First-year J.P. Rickabaugh from Newport, N.C. and two of his friends stopped alongside me. I asked him why he paused.

“Usually when you see buskers, it’s drums or guitars, but you legitimately never see organs,” Rickabaugh said.

Cathy Fort, a Chapel Hill native, stood with her husband, cheering on the performer.

“He clearly has talent,” she said. “And a head that’s just a bit unusual.”

During a break, I managed to meet the man behind the mask. His name is Xanthippus Essig and he is a 19-year-old from Baltimore, Maryland.

Essig first picked up the organ his senior year of high school and fell in love with the instrument. He said he has always been a virtuoso: his interest in classical music dates all the way back to the first grade.

In addition to the organ, Essig also plays the cello, the ukulele and the harp. Last year, he studied the organ at Appalachian State University but is currently taking a sabbatical and living in Carrboro.

A friend gifted Essig the horse mask for his birthday two years ago, and Essig wears it while performing because he feels like the mask is absurd and recognizable in pop culture.

“There’s just something stupid about a horse’s face that makes people laugh,” he said.

He added the poncho to his look after someone posted a picture of him wearing it along with his horse mask to the UNC campus Snapchat story.

“At that point, (the poncho) just became part of my signature,” he said. “It was a good luck charm.”

Essig says he feels comfortable about wearing the horse mask and poncho. It gives him a sense of anonymity.

Some people calm their nerves while performing in front of crowds by looking past the audience or imagining them in their underwear. In part, Essig wears the mask for this very reason — so he won’t get nervous. Through the mask he can’t see his audience members at all.

He also feels the mask draws people into the music he plays. Essig is a big fan of classical music but feels most younger people tend to write off the genre.

“Usually what a lot of people think of when they think about classical music is that all of it is slow and relaxing,” he said. “But I want people to hear the bombastic and exhilarating music of the genre. The mask gives people more of a reason to stop and listen.”

Oct. 14 marked Essig’s first time playing the organ on Franklin Street. Normally, he breaks out his cello, but this time he took a chance on the organ, rolling the instrument on a dolly from his house in Carrboro to Franklin Street.

He plans on starting to perform once a week when possible as he’s really enjoyed the reaction he’s received so far.

“Next time I might set up a lamp and some Halloween lights,” Essig said. “Get seasonal with it.”

And as long as he doesn’t celebrate October by switching up his horse mask for a killer clown mask, I’m very okay with this.

@noni_ski

swerve@dailytarheel.com