This morning I was contacted by Linda Borecki, the editor of In Tempo, the quarterly journal of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. She asked if I might contribute an article in a new series called “Fiasco! The Worst Musical Debacles and Lessons Learned from Great Musicians.”

Apparently she had found this blog and wrote: “I perused your blog and notice the humor and heart you bring to your musical vocation and I’m thinking you might have a story to share of church music or an organ concert gone wrong—and how in surviving to rise and risk again you have some truth or insight to share with church musicians of many backgrounds and levels of expertise.”

Of course, my life seems to be one misadventure after another, so I finally settled on a few key occasions in which things did not go as planned. In looking over my old Christmas letters I recalled a performance with the Honolulu Symphony which I don’t believe I’ve written about before.

In November 2001 Kathy was contracted to perform Saint-Saëns “Organ Symphony” with the Honolulu Symphony, and although she had played the organ for Gustav Mahler’s “Resurrection Symphony” and Gustav Holst’s “The Planets,” with them last season, this was her first solo.

The second movement ends with the organ alone, on a very soft chord. Remembering Maestro Samuel Wong’s instructions that he would hold out the last chord “for a very long time,” she waited for a cutoff. He gradually drew his left hand closer to his chest, all the while holding the stick straight and in his right hand, so Kathy gradually closed the swell box and got softer and softer. But then he made three little circles with the baton, and Kathy was unsure whether that was her cue to cutoff. So, she kept holding on. Finally Maestro Wong dropped both hands and she then let go.

Before the next performance she cornered him saying, “I need to know what you’re going to give me for a cutoff!” He then said, “I promise to be a good boy and not be so subtle!”

And indeed he gave a definite cutoff gesture so there was no doubt in Kathy’s mind how long to hold the last chord.

But then he surprised her at the fourth movement when the organ is supposed to enter with a very loud and sustained chord. All during the rehearsals and even in the first concert, he had given a huge gesture to indicate her entrance, but during the final concert, he merely crooked his index finger. Kathy didn’t know what that meant until he did it again. She thought to herself, “Well I guess I’d better play the chord!

So much for Kathy’s experience with the Honolulu Symphony!

In a subsequent concert review in the newspaper, reviewer Gregory Shepherd called Kathy’s playing “flawless.” If only he knew what was going through my mind!

For the ALCM article I am limited to a column of 500-700 words, and unfortunately there were sooooo many incidents in which I had egg on my face. Like the time I misread the hymn number in the bulletin and Pastor Johnson stopped me after the introduction, “Kathy, what hymn are you playing?”

Another time I started to introduce the wrong hymn, during which my dear husband, Carl, came running up, hymnal in hand, opened to the correct number.  I was able to launch right into the correct first verse after the wrong introduction. Luckily both hymns were in the same key of F major! (Funny, I don’t remember what hymns they were, but I remember that both were in F major!)

And what about the time I mistakenly gave the wrong pitch for the pastor’s intonation and had to transpose the Kyrie and all the responses instantly on the spot! Yikes! the key of C# major!

It’s all in a day’s work!