Whether it’s picking the Grammy or the Oscar award winners, or even guessing how many jelly beans are in a bowl, some people have all the luck in knowing which movie is going to get Best Picture, or guessing the correct number on “The Price is Right” in order to win a dream vacation.
You might not know that our Hawaii Chapter of the American Guild of Organists has consistently picked winners for our Annual Organ Concert series. Starting in 2006, we took a chance and invited Paul Jacobs, chair of the Juilliard School organ department, to play a concert in Hawaii. It was a leap of faith for a small chapter, to sign a big name artist but who might not be known in Hawaii. Go back and read my original post here, “A Leap of Faith.”
I later wrote an article for The American Organist magazine:
The 41 members of the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists took a leap of faith when they signed a contract for a famous organist and waited for the fruits of their labors. It was their Dean, Katherine Crosier, who had heard Paul Jacobs the previous summer at the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians conference in New York and convinced the Executive Board that they ought to bring the artist to Hawaii.
Previous experiences with visiting performers made the chapter leery of committing large sums of money for artist fees and expenses. The Hawaii audience frequently turns out for local performers whom they know and support, but not for out-of-town guests, even those with international reputations. For example, when singer Marilyn Horne gave a recital a few years back, the house was only half full. Another example of Hawaii’s unpredictable concert turnout was for the Roger Wagner Chorale which performed to a half –empty house.
That “leap of faith” grew into an Annual Organ Concert series, and we have successfully hosted fifteen organists ever since. We like to call our artists “Rising Stars” because the organists whom we have picked have primarily been under the age of 30, and have gone on to stellar careers.
In case you want to see a list of all the “winners” we have had play in Hawaii, click here to read about the Rising Stars who have made their mark on the organ world.
Last year, when we hosted Adam Pajan, I wrote:
We in the Hawaii Chapter of the American Guild of Organists pride ourselves on “picking winners” and showing aloha to our guest organists. That means not only greeting them at the airport with a lei, providing a comfortable homestay and transportation to the concert venue for a guaranteed 15 hours of practice, and furnishing all their meals during their stay.
This year’s artist is Monica Czausz, (pronounced Chows) whom I heard play a phenomenal recital in 2006 at the Organ Historical Society convention in Springfield, MA, and a year later at OHS in Philadelphia. Yes, she will be staying with me as a houseguest from Thursday. (Somehow, I always get picked to be a homestay host! Oh, wait, didn’t I volunteer?!)
She will be giving three concerts in Hawaii: Sunday, March 15 at Central Union Church, 1660 So. Beretania St. at 2:00 pm; Tuesday, March 17 at Makawao Union Church in Maui, 7:00 pm; and Friday night, March 20 at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Hilo, 7:00 pm. Her program will include works by Bach, Brahms, Hakim, Schumann, Karg-Elert, and Dvorak, including several of her own transcriptions.
Monica is one of America’s leading young concert organists and I am positive we have picked another “winner!” She’s already won a bunch of national prizes, and is slated to perform at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA and the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in Spivey Hall, Morrow, GA. Here’s her complete bio.
I found some great pictures of Monica on her website:
Hope to see you at one of Monica’s recitals in Hawaii. You WON’T be disappointed!