Edith Ho, 1932-2021. We brought a lei for Edith as she was honored in 2007 at her retirement from the Church of the Advent, Boston. Luckily she had a blouse to match!

Edith Ho wasn’t more than five feet tall yet she was a giant in the field of church music. In one of the earliest posts on this blog (“Edith Ho, Musical Mentor“), I wrote:

We first heard the name Edith Ho when a friend played us a recording of the Church of the Advent Choir. We were stunned to hear the gorgeous tone of the sopranos in this choir and wondered who the director was.

It was not until 1991 that we made a trip to Boston and heard the choir live. The choir was even more beautiful in person than the recordings, owing to the high ceiling and wonderful acoustics of the building. But at that time, we left the service without introducing ourselves.

When Carl was granted the sabbatical in 1992, one of the places he wanted to revisit was Church of the Advent. He wrote to Edith and enclosed our CD of Compline for Christmas Day. When she found out that one of the selections was Carl singing a solo, she not only invited him to stay at her house, but also to join the choir for Holy Week and Easter. Later she telephoned him to sing alto on the choir’s 10-day tour of Venezuela, following Easter. I have to smile now, because Carl said to her, “I have to ask my wife first!” and I told him, “You call her back right now and say ‘YES!'”

Carl took a redeye flight from Honolulu, arriving in Boston in the early afternoon on the Thursday before Palm Sunday. Tired from lack of sleep, and having to struggle with rolling his luggage  over Boston’s cobblestone streets, he got to the rehearsal and thought “What am I doing here?!” as the choir is seated in quartets. That means that you are not sitting next to anyone singing the same part.

Carl found that Edith is completely committed to the craft of church music. The rehearsals are planned to the minute, and there is no wasted time. Her expectations are that choristers know the music before they come to rehearsal. Her precise conducting leaves no doubt as to entrances, cutoffs and shapes of the musical phrases. Edith records every rehearsal and reviews them at home, making notes in the score as to weaknesses and areas needing further rehearsal. Every service is also recorded, and she makes notes in the score for the next time the work is performed. She constantly listens to recordings and learns new music.

Upon returning home, Carl adopted many of the same rehearsal techniques and strategies he learned from Edith. We have since visited Boston more than a dozen times and Carl has sung with the Advent Choir every time. Edith has become a dear, close friend and even visited us twice in Hawaii, staying in our home.

Once, while on our many visits to Boston where we stayed in her home, I heard Edith receive a phone call. “I can’t talk now, because my family is visiting me!” It surprised me a little, because it was obvious that we were more than just professional colleagues!

It was more than three years ago, on June 26, 2018, that I received this email from Edith:

I’m trying to get ready since no one knows when one’s last day will be.  A healthy friend of mine in Baltimore died suddenly while working on her garden!

and with it, a copy of her obituary as she wanted it to read. I immediately wrote back:

“Oh my goodness, Edith, I hope we don’t read this for a long, long time!
But I guess it will save someone else the burden of writing this for you.”

This morning, it finally happened, and Edith Ho passed from this life to the next, joining the choir of angels. Here is her obituary as SHE wrote it: [I inserted the dates]

Edith Ho, 88 years old, date of death July 30, 2021 (born August 16, 1932) has died of natural causes.  Born in China and raised in Hong Kong and Singapore, she received the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in organ performance under Arthur Howes at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland.  She undertook further organ studies in Germany with Heinz Wunderlich and Helmut Walcha, and choral conducting in California with Sir David Willcocks.  In 1994 she received the Doctor of Music degree, honoris causa, from Nashotah Theological Seminary in Wisconsin.  Just before she retired in 2007, she was given the Distinguished Alumni Award by the Peabody Conservatory.

She held teaching positions at the Peabody Conservatory, Gettysburg College, and Dickinson College.  As a concert artist she performed on both sides of the Atlantic.

After holding church positions in Baltimore and New Haven, she enjoyed a 30-year tenure at the Church of the Advent (Episcopal), Boston.  At the Advent she had an all-professional choir of 18 singers who performed a choral Mass setting and 2 anthems besides a body of chants each Sunday, specializing in Renaissance polyphony.  But her repertoire is truly catholic in scope in that it included Gregorian chant, Medieval and Renaissance polyphony, Baroque and Classical music with a professional orchestra, the 19^th- and 20^th-century Anglican music, and world premieres.

During her tenure at the Advent, she and the Advent Choir produced 13 commercial recordings, mostly of rarely heard Renaissance composers, to critical acclaim.  Her music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and WGBH.

She was a member of the American Guild of Organists and the Association of Anglican Musicians.

For 18 very happy years she was married to Paul Van Ocken of Belgium until his passing in 1990.  She is survived by a sister, several nieces and nephews as well as great nieces and nephews.  A memorial Requiem Mass will be held at the Church of the Advent. May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, by the mercy of God, rest in peace.