After the Early Music Hawaii concert on Friday night, my FaceBook account kept beeping me with ‘Like’ notifications and comments. I was “tagged” in several of the posts, and so my computer beeped every time someone pressed “Like” or wrote a comment. If you can believe it, there were over 160 Likes and 13 comments on FaceBook posts in the hour following the concert!
Amazing, amazing concert put on by Early Music Hawaii. All women composers from the 9th (specifically Hildegard von Bingen) to the 17th centuries (Barbara Strozzi, Francesca Caccia, among others), in the beautifully acoustic Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa. Beautiful job to all involved. Brava! (J. W.)
It was amazing to hear such a variety of styles among both the vocal and instrumental works. Great concert and excellent singing. (D.A.)
Naomi, I loved your Caccini solo! Bravi, tutti! Gorgeous singing, Georgine, Mihoko, Naomi, Emily, Jennifer, and Diane. Beautifully conducted, Jennifer! (T.C.)
You were all Great! (M. T.)
You, your musical community and Carl are wonders to behold. I thank God. (M.M.)
Congratulations on a great job well done. Carl is smiling at you. (M.A.)
Here’s what Jennifer Lane, guest conductor, wrote: Several people MUST be thanked for the incredible amount of work they did for this concert. They are Ian and Jeannette Capps, Esha Neogy, Allen Bauchle and, of course, Katherine Crosier. Ian took on the lion’s share by coordinating and distributing all the music for the singers and players, collecting notes from Carl, handling all the union requirements, budget, publicity, and much more. What a wonderful colleague! Jeannette managed all the logistics and mailings, Esha helped enormously with the continuo parts, Allen made the supplementary scores and parts, and Kathy designed the program and promotional materials. Thanks, all of you!
Ian wrote back: Thank you all again for your splendid performances on Friday night. The standing ovation at the end, rapturous applause at the intermission and spontaneous applause after Georgine’s solo, understandably ignoring the program’s admonition to wait until the end of each half, were richly deserved. The reaction online has also been wonderful. I believe Carl would have been very pleased and proud.
You have given another tremendous boost to Early Music Hawaii’s reputation for excellence in performance by both locally produced and visiting ensembles.
One of the more unusual pieces of the concert was titled “O eterne Deus” and was none other than by our own Carl Crosier (1945-2014), dated November 1998. (Oops, that piece was the one exception to the concert billed as music by all-women composers!) To be honest, I had no recollection of Carl writing that piece, although I’m guessing that he wrote it for the Hildegard concert which we performed in December of 1998. Based on Hildegard’s Antiphon for God the Father, the piece was an immediate hit and begins in unison, quickly dissolving into numerous tone clusters. To me, the challenging triplet section sounded like angels’ wings flapping! Some people have suggested that I publish it so that more people could hear it.
It was a winner, as well as the entire concert.