My worlds collided this past week when I had two house guests, both visitors who performed in concerts this past weekend. I’m happy to report that both events were resounding successes! You may recall from my last post that Egija Claire, a friend of Scott Fikse from the Master’s program in Choral Conducting at the University… Read More Big weekend!
It’s Day 10 after returning from Iceland, and I’ve been so incredibly busy that I can hardly keep up with myself! This is Concert Week — on Saturday, there’s an Early Music Hawaii concert called “The Musical Journey: From New England to Honolulu,” with director Scott Fikse conducting music described as: The Early Music Hawaii… Read More Hitting the ground running!
In researching the types of experiences one might have in Iceland, I noticed that eating an Icelandic hot dog was on the “must do” list. Here’s what I found: Icelandic hot dogs are mainly made of hormone-free, grass-fed Icelandic lamb, mixed with beef and pork. There are more sheep on the island nation than humans, and… Read More Icelandic hot dogs, Rainbow Street and more
Today we are in west Iceland where we encountered a magical world of snow and ice on Langjökull— Iceland’s second largest glacier. In order to prepare ourselves to walk in the ice cave, we had to put on overshoes — shoes that fit over our existing boots— so that our feet wouldn’t get wet. We… Read More In the glacier
BONK! That was the sound of my head hitting the front of the bus as I caught myself slipping in the slushy ice. The wind was so fierce that it knocked me into the bus just as I stepped out and rounded the corner to take a picture of the spectacular view. Did you lose… Read More The Icelandic wind
Today’s all-day outing to Iceland’s Golden Circle included three major stops: The Gullfoss, one of Iceland’s most famous waterfalls. I have photos of it when I was here in 2016 and the big difference is that today the perimeter was covered with snow. The Geysir, which is a geyser has been active for 10,000 years.… Read More Iceland’s Golden Circle
It’s our third day in Iceland and our city tour began with the sights of downtown Reykjavik, a visit to a stunning concert hall, return to the Hallsgrimkirkja church, and a walk along the lake. The Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Center is home to a national opera and symphony. It is stunning honeycomb building… Read More From a city tour to a lava tunnel
Yesterday was Sunday and eleven of us in our tour group were sitting in the pews at Hallgrímskirkja, the iconic Lutheran church in Reykjavik. Of course I quickly scanned the bulletin to see that the organist was playing two works by J. S. Bach: Wenn wir in Höchsten Nöten sein from the Orgelbüchkein for the… Read More The church universal, except for …
I left my apartment in Honolulu on Thursday night to take the 8:45 pm flight to Denver where I met up with my friend from Cada Día Spanish, Marsha Walker. We then took the 10:25 am flight to Washington, D. C. and to our dismay, picked up our luggage in baggage claim only to find… Read More Two redeyes to Reykjavík
I went to the Vivaldi Four Seasons concert last night as part of the First Mondays Concerts at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, and the work absolutely sizzled under violinist Darel Stark, who played from memory and held us on the edge of our seats with breathless tempos and a stunning display of virtuosity and… Read More Stunningly sizzling!