I LOVED IT! SUPER COOL! It was like Legos. I liked putting it together because we used teamwork to put it together. We all did something together. I liked the pumping the best!

These were the uncensored, honest-to-goodness reactions to Orgelkids, the pipe organ kit which Miki Yamamoto and I took to Waimanalo Elementary and Intermediate School yesterday. These were the reactions of the fifth and sixth graders who came in three separate classes and assembled then disassembled the organ kit which was purchased by the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists. The fact that the children built a real pipe organ together caught the attention of several faculty members and even the principal stopped by to see what the hubbub was all about.

The sixth grade met the first period of the day, and had the longest class period, so they were given the assignment of putting the frame together. Even though the parts are color-coded, it is sometimes a little tricky to know which parts go together. Still, the children had the organ completely constructed in about 25 minutes, including attaching the rubber trackers, which is probably the most delicate and difficult operation of the project.

For the fifth grade classes, because the class period was shorter, we had the kids only put in the keys, the pipes and the trackers. We were still able to construct the Orgelkids in record time and had time to let the kids play and pump the bellows.

My role was secondary, just helping and guiding the kids to put the various parts together. I did play a couple of songs at the end and Miki told me it was their first experience at meeting and hearing an organist. When she introduced me, she said something which was a little incredible: that she had known me practically all her life! I taught her older cousin Cindy Matsuura for seven years before Miki ever started at I believe age thirteen. Whatever … she said most of her life she knew “Mrs. Crosier” as playing the organ.

No doubt about it, the enthusiasm of the kids for Orgelkids was amazing—we definitely made an impression and some new friends for the organ! Miki is thinking of bringing Orgelkids to the school every quarter and maybe next time I think I’ll teach them a song to play.

On Sunday afternoon, I was back in my old haunts, Iolani School’s St. Alban’s Chapel, to play for a funeral then I rushed to Neil Blaisdell Concert Hall to hear incredible violinist Sandy Cameron play Danny Elfman’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (Eleven Eleven), in its debut performance in Hawaii. It’s no wonder it sounded like movie music to me—Elfman has composed the film scores for a number of movies as you will read below.

Here was the hype for the concert, taken from Nick Dobreff of the Colorado Symphony:

“I’m not out to prove anything to anybody. I’m just out to challenge myself.”

Such was Danny Elfman’s mentality when the composer was approached about writing a violin concerto in 2014. The resulting work — Elfman’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, (Eleven Eleven) — makes its Hawaii debut with your HSO September 20-21, 2019 at Blaisdell Concert Hall.

At the time, Elfman’s music had already been firmly embedded in the public consciousness through numerous iconic film scores across four decades including Tim Burton’s Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and The Nightmare Before Christmas as well as the Academy Award nominated score to Good Will Hunting —  even the enduring opening theme from The Simpsons.

But how these past experiences would translate to classical composition was anybody’s guess. However, distinguished and decorated conductor John Mauceri — who would eventually lead the world premiere performance of Elfman’s creation — saw greatness early in the compositional process.

Along with Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, it made for quite an afternoon of music. As Michael Stern, guest conductor, said to the audience, “You are so incredibly fortunate to have this orchestra here!”

Amen to that!

I would say the same about Sandy Cameron that the Waimanalo kids said about Orgelkids:

I LOVED IT! SUPER COOL!