A couple of days ago I was surprised to get more than 60 “Likes” when I posted this photo of the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists after our Annual Dinner Meeting at the Mandalay Restaurant. I’m guessing that people were surprised to see so many people in the picture! Oh, not everyone pictured here is an organist—some were guests of organists.

Altogether there were twenty members present, representing (in no particular order) the parishes of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Church of the Crossroads, Lutheran Church of Honolulu, Waiokeola Congregational Church, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Epiphany Episcopal Church, Calvary by the Sea Lutheran Church, St. Ann R. C. Church, St. Patrick R. C. Church, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Kilohana Methodist Church, and St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church. Of our fourteen guests, four of them were current or past recipients of our Scholarship program, meaning that they play the organ too.

The mission statement of the American Guild of Organists was recently revised to read:

The mission of the American Guild of Organists is to foster a thriving community of musicians who share their knowledge and inspire passion for the organ.

The problem, though, is that so often the pipe organ is hidden away in places that people never go, namely, churches. So the Hawaii Chapter (along with a number of other AGO chapters), has decided to purchase a portable pipe organ kit, which supposedly can be assembled in under an hour by children and can play real music! At the meeting, the most exciting discussion was about the Orgelkids organ arriving sometime in July, next month! It is our hope that we can take it to public places such as Ala Moana, or Kahala Mall or Windward Mall, and introduce many people to what the pipe organ is and how it can be assembled by kids! You gotta start ’em young! We are also hoping to obtain grants to take the organ on the road, namely the neighbor islands.

Speaking of young organ students, my former student, Christopher Lindsay, who started playing the organ at age six and has just finished his freshman year in college, was recently featured in Intel ISEF 2017 (Society for Science and the Public) where he talked about deciding between studying science or organ performance. He was quoted as saying, “Hitting things relives stress” (!) Christopher was also the Amazing Kid of the Month by Amazing Kids magazine. Click the link to read the article.

Another important announcement was the artist for the 2018 Annual Organ Concert will be Yuri McCoy, the former Organ Scholar at St. Andrew’s Cathedral who is now continuing his organ studies at Rice University in Houston. Yuri’s recital will be Sunday, February 25, 2018 at Central Union Church, 2:00 pm.