Last night we had dinner with Michael Kleinschmidt and Marc Aubertin. We were introduced to Michael many years ago at St. Thomas Church, New York City, where he was the Organ Scholar, then re-introduced in Boston when Michael was the Organist/Choirmaster of Trinity Church, Copley Square. It also happens that Marc sang with the Church of the Advent Choir, where Carl spent two sabbaticals singing in the choir with Edith Ho.

Now though, they live in Portland, OR where Michael is the Organist/Choirmaster of Trinity Cathedral, succeeding John Strege. From the church’s website, you can read that “Trinity Cathedral is home to the Rosales Organ, Opus 11, one of the finest pipe organs in America. This 54-stop tracker organ was dedicated in 1987 and has gained a national reputation through recitals and recordings by a number of the world’s most prominent organists including David Craighead, David Hill, Catharine Crozier, Kimberly Marshall, George Baker, Simon Preston, Olivier Latry, James O‘Donnell and John Scott. 

Michael is one of the few organists I know whose audition for a church job was reviewed in the local newspaper, which you can read by clicking here. Can you imagine — that the importance of the job was so great so as to have been described in the newspaper?! I can’t imagine it happening in a town like Honolulu!

Trinity also has a unit organ in their chapel built by G. Donald Harrison which was built for Catharine Crozier and Harold Gleason, which was left to the Cathedral in a generous bequest. If you check out my post about famous organists, you can read all about (the Real) Catharine Crozier.

Just last week Michael and Marc had lunch with our friend, Dana Marsh, who was in Portland to conduct a concert. As my husband, Carl, wrote:  “It always amazes us how many people we continue to have in common. As I told Peter Hallock and Dana Marsh many years ago when I introduced them to Edith Ho, ‘the good people need to know each other.’ Kathy and I have been so blessed to have been in a professional musical situation where we have been able to meet so many colleagues.”

Guess what! Former LCHers Greg and Janet Dubay, attend Trinity Cathedral, Portland, and in fact, Greg’s twin brother and sister-in-law sing in the choir. Greg’s dad is a frequent communion assistant.