We were graciously invited to a pre-concert reception at the home of Lorraine Brugh, a short distance from the Valporaiso campus. Alas, we missed the turn and Carl insisted on driving all the way back to the hotel and starting over! So unfortunately we were a little more than fashionably late.

Lorraine had invited about a dozen or more people who are “bigwigs” in Lutheran circles. We all introduced ourselves and said something about ourselves and the positions we hold. Lorraine herself is the National President of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, in addition to being the University Organist of Valporaiso University. Cheryl Dieter, the Executive Director of ALCM, was also a guest here.

We also got re-acquainted with Bill Beermann, an organist and church musician and Craig Mueller, a Lutheran pastor in Chicago, whom we first met in Leipzig at the Bach Festival in 2007. Bill was a classmate of Allen Bauchle’s at Valporaiso.

We also met and talked to Yuko Maruyama, who is the organist of Bethany Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. She said that she became a Christian all because of the music of Bach.

I would have liked to have visited with all these people longer, but we all had to get ourselves to the concert which was to start at 7:30 pm. How generous it was of Lorraine Brugh to put this all together.