When last week the Lutheran Church of Honolulu brought a candidate to Hawaii to audition for the job of Music Director and Organist, I thought back to the three church jobs I’ve had since moving here:

Church of the Holy Nativity, 1973-1976
Lutheran Church of Honolulu, 1978-2012
Nuuanu Congregational Church, 2020-present

Would you believe that I never had to audition for any of the above positions?

Some things to consider are: What kind of educational background does the applicant have: does he/she have a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or doctoral degree in organ? What kind of church experience does the applicant have? What kind of repertoire does the applicant need to demonstrate: Baroque, romantic, or contemporary repertoire?

Typically a couple things happen in an audition for a church organist, as part of the transition from one organist to another.

1) The applicant is invited to play for a committee and possibly for a service and/or a choir rehearsal. Many auditions include a sight reading, hymn playing, or choral accompaniment as part of the research into an applicant’s qualifications.

2) The applicant is interviewed by the pastor and/or a small committee.

Hey, I even found a book called “The Organist’s Audition” by Dennis Johnson which is described as a “hilarious story [which] describes what happens as a church auditions several organists to fill the open position. “

In the case of Holy Nativity I was contacted by the Rev. Charles Crane while I was still in graduate school in Princeton, New Jersey. Of course in those days there was no such thing as the internet or email, so I’m pretty sure he communicated with me by snail mail. When I arrived in Honolulu I may have played for Fr. Crane but it was very informal, just a session for me to try out the organ. After that the job was mine.

At LCH, when the job came open, I also was just told that the job was mine. That was maybe because they had remembered hearing me play at a Bach cantata previously. Of course it may have helped that my wedding to Carl Crosier, the previous organist, was at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu in 1977 and I played the organ during the communion!

At Nuuanu Congregational Church my immediate predecessor was my dear friend, Jieun Kim Newland. When she and her husband moved to Texas, the church contacted me to advertise the position to the American Guild of Organists. I had been freelancing ever since I played my last service in 2012 and decided it would be nice to have something more stable, so I offered to take the position.

I jokingly asked Scott Fikse if I would have passed the sight reading portion of the audition. Easily!

Speaking of church organist auditions, I found a hilarious Family Guy episode on this very subject! Enjoy!

Last Wednesday Early Music Hawaii had a special goodbye luncheon at Assaggio’s Italian Restaurant for Scott Fikse and Marcus, where Scott was given a koa box.