Several of my organ students have been in the news lately, and I have never been more proud! Oh, they weren’t in the news because of their organ playing—and that’s perfectly okay. But the fact that they also happen to play the organ makes them special in my eyes.
Today was the March for our Lives rally in Washington DC and in 800 other cities in the United States and major cities around the world, protesting gun violence in our schools. There was even a march in Honolulu even though it was pouring rain most of the day.
But there was a small contingent of Hawaii students in Washington DC and among them was Naomi Yuen-Schat, from Honolulu and my organ student since she was in first grade. She is now a senior at Maryknoll School and plans to go to college on the East Coast with the goal of going to law school one day.
She spoke to a reporter from Honolulu Civil Beat:
“It’s definitely a great opportunity to march here in D.C. because we had the opportunity to meet with our representatives and senators of Hawaii and to talk with them about this issue,” said Yuen-Schat, speaking by phone from a double-decker tour bus to view the Washington monuments.
Earlier the students met with representatives from Hawaii, Senator Mazie Hirono and Representative Tulsi Gabbard, as shown in the photos below.
The other organ student in the news was Sophia Stark, who is currently appearing in season 6 of the TV cooking competition show, MasterChef Junior and had a feature article in MidWeek as shown below. (Click the picture to enlarge it).
The article went on to say that Sophia is entering the Miss Hawaii Outstanding Teen competition, but didn’t mention that Sophia is now learning Bach’s famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor! Yes, the fugue too—which is more difficult than the Toccata!
In the article you’ll read that brother Raphael Stark (who also takes organ!) will be the solo boy soprano in the April performance of Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms on April 5th—the whole family will be performing that night with dad, Darel, in the orchestra, and mom and sister, Georgine and Sophia, in the chorus!
So proud of my organ students!