This weekend are the Hawaii Opera Theatre’s performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Benjamin Britten. And to no one’s surprise, three of four Stark family members will be performing — Darel in the orchestra pit playing violin, and the two kids on stage in the chorus. Georgine will be theatre mom in the audience this time, but last season, all four Starks were in The Magic Flute, with Darel in the orchestra and everyone else on stage in the chorus.

Someone else noticed this family phenomenon, and this week’s issue of MidWeek had a full-length feature article on this amazing and talented family.

Darel Stark and Georgine Duncan were next-door neighbors in graduate school at the Peabody Institute. We met them when they first moved to Hawaii almost 22 years ago in 1994. Out of the blue, Georgine called up my late husband, Carl Crosier, and asked to audition. When that Christmas all the sopranos were either out of town or sick, guess who Carl called! That first Christmas, Carl and Georgine sang Silent Night as a lovely duet.

Scores and scores of Bach and other concert performances later, music making by the Starks, both adults and kids, at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu are a delight! And as you will read in the article above, yes, both children are taking organ lessons with me. Last week Raphael told his mother that “he LOVED the organ!” In the article above, Sophia told the interviewer that she liked its power. The “wow” factor has struck again! (You play any chord on full organ and your reaction is “WOW!”) Both of them have told me, “Oh, playing the organ is so much easier than playing the violin because you don’t have to worry about intonation!” They both performed on organ at LCH’s Christmas Eve service and I have been told they were amazing! (Unfortunately I was in California with my family.)

Here is a video of Darel, Sophia and Raphael performing Darel’s composition, Daydreams & Nightmares (2015) on violin.

Last December, Georgine, Sophia and Raphael performed God rest you merry, gentlemen.

The two kids will be performing on the organ (as well as other instruments) at LCH’s annual Children’s Benefit Concert on Saturday, March 5th at 4:00 pm. Mark your calendars now for a delightful afternoon of music.