As I was listening to my former student Joey Fala play Choral Vespers at Duke University tonight, I thought he must surely be in hog heaven!
I thought back to a day sixteen years ago when I first met Joey at Iolani School, who used to always come to chapel to hear me practice. His classmates would not be at all surprised to learn that Joey is now the Organ Scholar here at Duke, and he is living out his dream—playing fabulous organs in this gorgeous building with fabulous acoustics and a choir to die for … what more could you want?!
For the prelude, Joey played “Tierce en taille” by François Couperin from the Mass for the Convents on the Flentrop organ in the back. The organ looked so beautiful in the ambiant afternoon light, I took another picture of it.
For the postlude Joey played Marcel Dupré’s “Antiphon V, How pleasant and fair art thou,” on the Aeolian organ in the front. It is a piece I myself have so many times used as a postlude.
The choir was conducted by Dr. Philip Cave whom when I met him, said that Duke should thank me for teaching Joey how to play the organ! They sang “Tantum ergo” by Déodar de Séverac and “Nos Austen” by Alfred Desenclos plus “Jubilemus exultemus” by Couperin which Joey accompanied on a small continuo organ. I took a picture of the choir and Joey during their rehearsal.
In these fantastic acoustics, I would call the choir ‘a dream’—And Joey is surely living out his dream here—he must be in pure hog heaven! He recently learned that he will be here for another year—how lucky!
It was close to midnight when I finally fell asleep last night after the Tallis Scholars concert, which was so amazing considering I had not slept since leaving Honolulu on Tuesday afternoon. When I opened my eyes and looked at the clock on my phone, it said 5:38 am! Guess I am too excited to be here that I couldn’t sleep! My jet lag caught up with me, though, because I succumbed to a nap after breakfast.
The afternoon was spent at the Nasher Museum of Art and I was all prepared to ask for my senior discount when I was told that today there was free admission! Yay, for Thursday!
The museum had a fascinating collection of African artifacts, as well as some from ancient Mexico, and abstracts. I also enjoyed a large exhibit in which the photographer took pictures of basketball hoops all over the world.
