My shuttle to Logan airport came 15 minutes early so in my haste to pick up my luggage, I left my fleece jacket at Edith Ho’s. In the lost and found department I have been hopeless on this trip. After leaving my glasses in the Newark Airport last week, I was overjoyed to have a new pair ready and waiting for me when I called the Boston LensCrafters store an hour later.
Alas, I lost the new pair just two days later, and after retracing my steps, I gave up and just ordered another pair (ouch! No fun starting your vacation $600 in the hole! )
We went back to First Church for another concert, and Lo and behold, there were there was the first pair in the lost and found! I subsequently lost the hardcover case and ended up buying a new one! Plus I left my fleece jacket at Edith Ho’s house!
After a two hour wait at Logan, I then had a three hour layover in Newark before joining up with the rest of the tour group from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Of course I didn’t sleep a wink before we landed in Berlin, only to get onto a two-hour bus ride to Leipzig.
Now we are finally here, and as some of our tour members said when they introduced themselves at dinner tonight, it is a destination every Bach lover wants to put on the bucket list, the church where Bach spent 27 years of his career.
We attended the 3:00 pm Motette, which included Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue, Schütz “Ich danke dem Herrn Von ganzem Herzen”, Bach motet no. 1, Singet dem Herrn, Brahms “Schaffer in Mir, Gott”, a hymn, sermon, and Cantata 124, “Ein ungefârbt Gemüte,” performed by Amici Musicae Chor & Orchester Leipzig.
Guess who we saw at St. Thomas?! Bruce Bengtson! (Bruce is the organist/director of Luther Memorial Church in Madison, WI whose Alleluia settings were sung at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu)
[…] As I mentioned earlier, last night I had a delightful dinner with Bruce Bengtson and his sister and brother-in-law, who are visiting Hawaii on vacation. Bruce is a long-time friend and colleague whom we met through the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, and my husband, Carl, spent part of his sabbatical at Bruce’s church, Luther Memorial in Madison, WI, where Bruce has been the organist and director of music since 1978. Bruce was also a graduate of Valparaiso University, where he knew our former assistant, Allen Bauchle. You might remember that I ran into Bruce unexpectedly last summer in Leipzig! Check out my post “Mecca for Bach Pilgrims.” […]
[…] Bruce’s sister, Katherine and her husband, Herbert, have been renting a Kailua duplex right on the beachfront every January for the last 25 years, and Bruce has joined them several times. It was good to catch up on Bruce’s doings since he has retired (Read the newspaper article about Bruce’s retirement “40 years!“) You may remember that I saw him quite by accident in Leipzig when I was on a Bach and Luther pilgrimage tour in 2015! (check out my post “Mecca for Bach pilgrims“) […]