Whenever I run into people I haven’t seen in awhile, their first question to me is “How is retired life?” And I have to answer, “Oh, I’m not really retired yet.”
Look at my schedule this weekend:
Saturday
9:45 am. Teach organ lesson at Lutheran Church of Honolulu
11:00 am. Play funeral at St. Alban’s Chapel, Iolani School
1:00 pm. Teach organ lesson at Lutheran Church of Honolulu
2:30 pm. Teach organ lesson at Lutheran Church of Honolulu
4:00 pm. Play wedding at Thurston Memorial Chapel, Punahou School
Sunday
9:30 am. Rehearsal with cantor, St. Mark’s Episcopal
10:00 am. Play High Mass at St. Mark’s Episcopal
Let’s not even get into what kind of week I’ve had at my day job, coordinating a “state” funeral for a former choir director and local musical theatre star, which included counseling with the family, scheduling the rooms, arranging for parking, numerous contacts with the Altar Guild, kitchen crew, getting keys to various people, getting the piano tuned, air conditioning fixed, coordinating rehearsal space for the musicians, typing and duplicating the 12-page program, even getting the paper towel and toilet paper dispensers filled for four bathrooms! Yowza!
So I really wouldn’t call this a “retired” life, would you? And as you can see, there will be NO time for practicing for my August Bach concerts!
If you look carefully, I will be sitting at four different organ consoles over the next 24 hours. One of the challenges I will be facing, especially at the organ at Punahou School, is to choose my registrations quickly. Even though the organ over there is identical to the one at Iolani, I will probably only have about five minutes to set up my stops for the prelude, entrance procession and exit procession. How I’ve done this over these many years is to basically use the same stop combinations on the same numbered pistons no matter what the instrument. For example, I’ll set up foundations 8′ and 4′ on General 1, foundations 8′ 4′ and 2′ on General 2, principal chorus on General 3, and so forth.
So I’m off to join the rat race!