In my last posting about Jeremy Wong, Naomi Castro, Karol Nowicki, Michal Nowicki and Keane Ishii leaving Hawaii, I didn’t include several other key people in the choral music community who are also moving away. I certainly knew about these other people and the omission certainly wasn’t deliberate on my part —but it’s simply not possible for me to keep up with “all things music in Hawaii!” Besides, it gives me an excuse to write another post!

Simon Crookall and Stephen Strugnell have moved back to England to care for aging parents after being in Hawaii for five years. Simon not only was the Executive Director of Hawaii Opera Theater—he sang bass at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Lutheran Church of Honolulu and for Early Music Hawaii.

Stephen was for a time Executive Director for Chamber Music Hawaii, but also played the organ for St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Aiea. He was a member of the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists and came to several of our meetings. You might recall that last summer I met Stephen unexpectedly at the Three Choirs Festival in Worcester, England!

Miguel Felipe and Aaron Gould will be moving to Tucson, Arizona, where Miguel will become Director of Choral Activities at the University of Arizona and Aaron has secured a teaching position at St. Michael’s School. Miguel was the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Hawaii. He was Scott Fikse’s immediate predecessor at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, where Aaron sang bass in the choir. Aaron also was a teacher at Waialae Elementary Charter School in Hawaii and an amazing photographer.

River Kim, for whom I am subbing at St. Clement’s Episcopal this Sunday, will be going away to medical school mid-summer, so they will be looking for an organist, as will Punahou School as they try to fill the Chapel Organist position held by Beebe Freitas for three decades.

Which means …

Think of all the choral music and church positions that will be opened up by all these departures! I won’t even try to list them all—but it seems we will be meeting a lot of new people come fall. If you are interested in moving to Hawaii, try reading my post “Flying the coop” for some of the positions being vacated by people moving on.

And who knows? Maybe you’ll have a chance meeting with one or more of the scores of people I’ve written about on the blog. Why, just yesterday I got a surprise picture from my former student, Joey Fala, who is now the Organ Scholar at Duke University.

Joey was pictured with Mel Butler, retired from St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle, visiting Duke University with his wife, Mary!

It’s a small world we live in, right?