It worked! Ironing my music for the Fauré Requiem did the trick! (See my previous post “Desperate measures needed” for enlightenment on this comment.)

Everything yesterday afternoon at the second performance of the Hawaii Masterworks Festival went extremely well — my music stayed flat, the choir, orchestra and soloists sounded fantastic and I asked Eric Schank, the pianist in the first half, to turn pages for In paradisum, the last movement. This is the 13th year of the Masterworks Festival and I don’t think the Festival chorus ever sounded better — the tone of the choir was light and airy, not like many huge choruses where the singers are belting it. The sopranos especially just floated like a cloud for In paradisum in the reverberant acoustics of the Mystic Rose Oratory.

My problem with the sticking B-flat key on the Swell manual did not go away, however, but I became more aware of when I absolutely had to play it, and left it out occasionally. (I missed my sensitivity to this note when it was noted A-sharp, however, and the key stuck down!) I also heard when it started to stick, looking down at the keyboard to see the height of the key slightly lower than the others, and quickly pulled it up.

After the concert was over, the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble singers gathered around Ella Edwards, who moved to South Carolina a number of years ago. My husband and I knew Ella for decades and she even sang with the Bach Chamber Choir on occasion.  She formerly was a singer in the HVAE, the Hawaii Opera Theater chorus, and St. Andrew’s Cathedral, and came back to Hawaii to scatter her husband’s ashes. As a surprise to Ella, the HVAE sang one of her favorite songs, Sanoe.

I recently found out that we shared the same retina specialist, Dr. John Drouilhet!

See you in Ireland, HVAE!