Today a number of people at church mentioned that they had seen my name in yesterday’s newspaper. In a story about the newly-formed Hawaii Sacred Choir, I was listed as the organist for this group which will debut next Saturday, December 11th, in their 3pm concert at St. Theresa’s Cathedral. Yes, it’s true, and I will have my first rehearsals with them this week.

Next Saturday, December 11th at 11:30 am is also the LCH Choir’s annual Christmas concert at the Hawaii State Library. Carl calls this historic building the Honolulu equivalent of San Marco because of its reverberant acoustics.

The fact of life is that most church musicians today have to cobble together several jobs in order to be financially self-sufficient. I think the busiest period I ever went through was a few years ago when I was holding down SIX part-time jobs concurrently! Now I’m down to four! In case you didn’t know, my four jobs are:

1. Organist at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu.
2. Chapel organist at Iolani School. I play daily chapel services during the school year, with different grade levels meeting every day.
3. Half-time Parish Administrator for St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church.
4. Private organ teacher. This semester I have “only” 16 organ students (last spring, I taught 23!)

In addition, I do the invoicing and billing for our internet music publishing business, Ionian Arts; manage the newsletter and website for the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists; type the 10:30 am Sunday bulletins for LCH; and put together all the publicity and graphics for the LCH musical programs. It seems like a lot, but really, no different from other church musicians who have multiple employers in order to pay the bills.

I wish I had more time to practice . . .