I left Los Angeles on the Fourth of July, just missing the first of two earthquakes by less than an hour! My shuttle picked me up at 5:45 am, and my flight took off at 9:00 am from LAX—and the first earthquake struck at 9:36 am. I understand from Fred Merchant that there was pandemonium at the Hotel Irvine because the elevators were shut down when the earthquake hit, when many people were trying to check out. My daughter-in-law said my two-year-old grandson cried when the 7.1 earthquake hit.

In addition to hearing fabulous performances at the Orange County American Guild of Organists convention, I think what I enjoyed most is meeting new people and having reunions with long-time friends.

It’s been 46 years since I saw John Romeri and Karen McAlister: all three of us were graduate students at Westminster Choir College pursuing our master’s degrees. We were in the first class of graduate students since Westminster resurrected the masters program—I think there were 12 of us. All of us studied organ with different teachers, though: I took lessons with Joan Lippincott, John studied with John Weaver and Karen had lessons with William Hays.

Since then, John and Karen have married and have two children and four grandchildren. They have spent their careers in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and since 2015 John has been the Director of Music Ministries and Organist at Christ Cathedral (the former Crystal Cathedral). You can read John’s complete bio here.

We had a wonderful time sitting in close proximity at the Segerstrom Concert Hall for Paul Jacobs’ masterful concert.

I also reconnected with Frederick Swann, formerly the national president of the AGO, who was given an honorary degree of Fellow of the American Guild of Organists. He said he remembered coming to Hawaii and meeting Joey Fala when he was a little boy.

Annie Spink was an organist I met on the Historic Organ Study Tour to Italy and she was one of the brave souls who played in the masterclass at the convention.

I also met for the first time Sharon Chan Sung, an anesthesiologist who has taken up the organ in retirement. When I found out she used to live in Loma Linda, it turns out she knows my good friend, Edith Ho from the Church of the Advent in Boston, because Edith’s brother used to live in the area. In a case of “Small World Indeed,” she was very good friends with Dr. Paul and Thelma Hwang (Thelma was my father’s cousin!) who lived in Loma Linda and used to spend Christmases with them.

And of course, I spent a lot of time with my former student, Joey Fala. Here’s a picture of our last night together at the convention, before he gets married on July 26.