To be truthful, by this time in my trip I am getting a little antsy. After all, I left home on June 8 and today is July 3, meaning that I’ve been on the road for 26 days now. And I’m not just sitting in the hotel or lying by the pool—I’m on the go day and night. So if I’m being honest, I have to admit that I’m a little tired.

So I really didn’t feel like getting up to go to a morning workshop called “Mid-Career Survival Skills.” It turned out to be a validation of my lifestyle in my so-called retirement.

Gregory Norton, West Region Coordinator for Professional Development, was the facilitator and put up this slide:

The second half of a person’s life is made up of nothing but the habits acquired during the first half. —Fyodor Dostoevsky

He encouraged those of us in the second half of our lives to develop new habits:

For us musicians that means we should perhaps learn new repertoire, take up a new instrument, or maybe join an ensemble.

On the non-musical side, perhaps this means getting involved with a new group (like a meetup), learning a new language, volunteering, and doing physical exercise. But be cognizant of and accept your limitations [sorry, I will never be able to learn Jehan Alain’s Trois Danses!]

Hey, I’m learning new pieces (Bach transcriptions for two organs), working on learning Spanish, traveling solo, and walking every day when I’m home. I’m trying!

After a plated brunch and the regional meeting, we boarded the buses to Los Altos United Methodist Church to hear Carole Terry from the University of Washington.

The organ dates from 1852 and was built by William D. Simmons. It was shipped to the Howard Street Presbyterian Church in San Francisco where it survived the 1906 earthquake. It was sold to the Los Altos church in 1976 and had additions by Manuel Rosales and George Bozeman. Since the organ is entirely mechanical, Carole Terry used two registrants (see photo below).

She played music by Bach (the 9/8), Mendelssohn, Brahms and Reger. I thought her program was well-played and sounded well-suited to this instrument.

We then went back to St. John’s Lutheran where we had been for the opening concert. I decided to sit in another location from the other night to see if the acoustics of the room would sound any better.

Jaebon Hwang, organist of the First United Methodist Church of San Diego is a fantastic player! I really enjoyed her clean performance of the Bach Passacaglia and her own composition, “Fanfare on Psalm 150,” which was commissioned by the Convention. And I absolutely loved the Virgil Fox transcription of the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony Cantabile movement.

She ended the program with a thrilling performance of the Duruflé “Prelude and Fugue in the name of ALAIN,” a piece I know well because I played it on my senior recital.

I would definitely want to hear this organist again!