Yesterday we were in Tacoma, WA, and took in an all-Bach organ recital at Christ Episcopal Church, where we heard Tomoko Miyamoto from Ferris University in Yokohama, Japan, play selections from Bach’s Clavierübung III, the German organ mass. The tracker organ is by John Brombaugh and is in a lovely acoustic.

We found out about the concert through our long-time friend and colleague, David Dahl, retired organ professor of Pacific Lutheran University and former organist/choirmaster of Christ Church. You might remember that years ago, David spent part of his sabbatical in Hawaii. He played an organ recital at LCH and gave a workshop for the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists on the then newly-discovered Neumeister chorales of Bach. And it was through David’s invitation in the late 80s that we became members of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM). Anyway, David was on vacation in Hawaii last week and stopped by to visit.

Tomoko Miyamoto opened the program with Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten seine from the Orgelbüchlein then played all the Kyries, Glorias and the Credos from the German organ mass, beautifully sensitive with colorful registrations. It was obvious she was comfortable with the tracker organ and the flat pedalboard. We talked to her afterwards and found out that she was a classmate of Masaaki Suzuki of the Bach Collegium Japan.

After the concert we had a lovely lunch with David Dahl on the Tacoma waterfront, then we drove to the home of Evangeline Rimbach , former editor of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians quarterly newsletter. Actually Carl has known Evangeline since his childhood days in Port Angeles, WA where her father was the pastor of the local Missouri Synod Lutheran church, St. Mattew’s. She did her doctoral dissertation on the works of Johann Kuhnau, J. S. Bach’s immediate predecessor at St. Thomas, Leipzig.

After a light supper with the Rimbach sisters, we headed towards Seattle for lots more Bach — the St. Matthew Passion!