The hard fact about living in Hawaii is having to always say goodbye or aloha to people whom we have grown to treat like family. This summer I’ll have to say goodbye to several musicians—ALL of whom have studied organ with me. I’ve already said goodbye to my former student, Marie Wang, who was the organist at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church for over fifteen years, as she moved back to Taiwan in May. When Fr. David Gierlach asked me for phone numbers of available organists, I gave him the contact information for Tim Cubero. Fr. David wrote back to me: “Thank you so very much for recommending Tim to us. We have hired him and he is absolutely wonderful!”

Another organ student who left Hawaii in May is Angie Delight Carr, who was formerly at Church of the Crossroads and then at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church. Apparently she used to bring her little dog to church who walked across the organ pedals! Former student, Miki Yamamoto had been subbing there but didn’t want the permanent position. Lo and behold, on the day I was contacted about the opening, Leigh “Jane” Johansen-Oishi has moved back to town—St. Timothy’s was her former position.

On July 24th, the parish of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church will honor their organist, Steven Richardson Severin and his wife, Erin, as they relocate to the mainland for Erin’s studies at the School of Theology at Sewanee, Tennessee. From the church newsletter: “Erin and Steven are both beloved by the St. Mark’s community , and the church has been richly blessed by their presence and respective ministries. Please join us for their final Sunday at St. Mark’s on July 24. The aloha hour after the solemn mass will be celebrated in their honor.” Steven was my organ student from 2016-2019.

This means, of course, that St. Mark’s is looking for a new organist! A complete job description may be found here.

On July 31st, the Lutheran Church of Honolulu will have a Farewell and Celebration Potluck for Scott Fikse, their Director of Music and Liturgy, as he is headed to the University of Washington for graduate study in choral conducting. I gave Scott a couple years of organ lessons when he first came to Hawaii.

On that day, I’ll play the 9:00 am service at Nu’uanu Congregational Church but I’ll leave right after the hymn following the sermon, with my former student, Daryl Akamichi, finishing out the closing hymn and postlude. I’ll make it over to LCH in time to play the opening hymn.

Today I had a farewell luncheon with Sachi Hirakouji, another former organ student with whom I had many collaborations. Sachi already has a doctoral degree in piano so it was a just a matter of teaching her how to use the pedals.

At the restaurant we had a FaceTime session with our dear friend, Jieun Kim Newland, who lives in El Paso Texas. Who can forget our “Organists 1-2-3” concert which featured three organists on three pipe organs?! Below is my Facebook post from 2018, showing myself with Jieun Kim Newland (center) and Sachi Hirakouji (on the right).

If you’d like to refresh your memory about that fun concert, check out my post “Whoever thought.” {By the way, I had to update this post when I discovered that the pictures had disappeared! I also added in a video snippet.)

Sachi leaves behind her positions at Punahou School Chapel and First Christian Scientist Church as she will be moving back to Japan where she is engaged to Masahiro Miura, who grew up in the same area of the country.

Marie Wang, Angie Delight Carr, Steven Severin, Scott Fikse and Sachi Hirakouji were all recipients of the scholarship program of the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists, which pays for HALF the cost of organ lessons for three years, up to $1,200 per student. If you know of any students who might be deserving of this generous scholarship, please have them apply! Go to the Hawaii Chapter AGO website by clicking here. The deadline for applications is August 31.

Do you see a pattern here? This town is FULL of my former organ students!