Tonight was the opening event of the 2019 American Guild of Organists West Region Convention in Irvine, CA. It was billed as the Opening Service in the convention program, but as a concert in the app. [Things have certainly gone high tech at AGO conventions!] This being a worship service, we were admonished not to applaud except after the organ postlude.

I have spent the last 5 days with my family, and trying to adjust to the 9 hour time difference between Greece and California.

I had booked a shuttle from Burbank to Orange County several months ago, and even received a confirmation from the shuttle company yesterday. However at 6 am this morning I received a text saying that my ride had been cancelled because I had booked incorrectly by not specifying the street address of Hollywood Burbank Airport (the starting point) even though I had chosen it from a drop down menu! My sister ended up driving me 50 miles to the Hotel Irvine in busy traffic despite it being a Sunday.

Tonight’s concert/service was held at St. John’s Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod), a large parish of 4000 people whose music mailings I have received for years. They have a Bach cantata series so I was a little surprised to see that they have a large 5-manual instrument in a rather acoustically dead room.

The music started with three pieces played by the St. John’s Handbell Choir, whose excellent technique and virtuosity was impressive. After my six years as a handbell conductor, I can appreciate how much hard work goes into this. The choir had thirteen people and played five octaves of handbells. They later played with the choir and on the hymns.

Thereafter followed choral music by Ned Rorem, K. Lee Scott, Judith Weir, Philip Stopford, Charles H. H. Parry, and Grayston Ives. We also sang two hymns, one by John Rutter, and the other by Christian Guebert, the handbell choir director. Both of these were unfamiliar to me. The choir was excellent and only had 16 singers. They were conducted by Christopher Gravis.

Charles F. Raasch was the postlude organist, and the rest of the service was accompanied by organist Patricia Murphy Lamb.

I was disappointed by the dry acoustics as usually at these conventions of church musicians, they can raise the roof with their singing. That didn’t happen —not because the hymns were unfamiliar, but because of the dead acoustics.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow when we visit the revamped Crystal Cathedral (now called Christ Cathedral) and we’ll hear my former student, Joey Fala, play.