Organists and Organ Playing

Red or blue?

Emily Haswell, Georgine Sark and Naomi Castro in red vestments, 6:30 pm
Emily Haswell, Georgine Stark and Naomi Castro in red vestments, 6:30 pm

Okay, I admit it — I’m a political junkie and am always trying to catch up with the latest polls and the pundits, red states, blue states and battleground states. So yesterday I couldn’t resist taking a picture of several LCH choristers as they joined St. Andrew’s Cathedral choir in an evensong service in memory of a former Dean, Ann McElligott. After the Gabrieli concert in September, John Renke asked Carl Crosier to join the Cathedral choir on Sundays, so in addition to Carl there were a number of LCH voices singing in the choir at Evensong, including Georgine Stark, Naomi Castro and Keane Ishii. In fact, John Renke make a joke about it at rehearsal and said to the St. Andrew’s regulars, “thank you for joining the LCH choir.”

But just an hour later, Emily Haswell and Karol Nowicki of the St. Andrew’s Cathedral choir joined the LCH choir in singing All Saints Vespers, meaning that five people did double duty last night—at 6:30 pm they were just taking off the red cassocks of St. Andrew’s, and at 7:30 pm they were all in blue vestments at LCH.

Emily, Georgine and Naomi in blue, 7:30 pm
Emily, Georgine and Naomi in blue, 7:30 pm

Guess what — a cameraman from KITV (Channel 4) came to the All Saints Vespers service last night and put part of the Heinrich Schütz Psalm 150 for choir, congregation and orchestra on the 10 pm news. Yes, you saw me playing the organ, but of course, all you could see was my back! There was a great view of the choir.

A view of the congregation from the vantage point at the organ console.
A view of the congregation from the vantage point of the organ console.
The choir as seen from the organ console.
The choir as seen from the organ console.

P.S. I was one of the earlybirds and went to vote on the very first day of early voting in Hawaii.