It’s not often that there are organ recitals in Hawaii. The Hawaii Chapter of the American Guild of Organists sponsors one recitalist per year, and that person plays a concert in Honolulu and another concert on a neighbor island.

But this week, there will be TWO organ recitals on Oahu! Tomorrow night, the new organist of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, Barry Wenger, will play the First Monday Concert. Admission is free but there is a $20 suggested donation.

The second organ concert will be next Saturday afternoon at 5:00 pm at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Kailua. John Dixon, who is a national officer of the American Guild of Organists, will be playing his compositions, of which he has more than 900, some of them published.

Born in England in 1957, John Dixon learned to play the pipe organ at his high school which, to this day, has a two manual organ in the assembly hall. This was only some 60 miles from the workshop of J.W. Walker and Sons, the firm that built the organ now gracing the sanctuary of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Kailua, almost 7,500 miles further west.

He was not active as an organist when he moved to America in 1988. However, he filled the organ bench at his church, Providence Presbyterian Church in Virginia Beach, during an emergency in 1998 — and has now been organist there for twenty five years.

He has been composing seriously since 1990 and has more than 900 compositions to his credit, many of them published. His entire concert will consist of his own compositions.

John’s current project is to share his own music in person in all 50 states between his 60th and 70th birthdays – the 50-60-70 project. Hawaii is his 27th state.

In 2003 John was appointed executive director of the Academy of Music, a non- profit community music school headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, a position he still holds.

And it’s not too early to mark your calendars for the Hawaii Chapter AGO’s Annual Organ Concert Series. Dr. Caroline Robinson will give two concerts: one at All Saints Episcopal in Kapa’a, Kaua’i on March 16th at 6:00 pm, and at Central Union Church on March 19th at 2:00 pm.

Concert organist Dr. Caroline Robinson has performed at many distinguished venues across the U.S.A and abroad.  She currently holds the post of Organist and Associate Choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta, GA. There, under the direction of Canon Dale Adelmann, she shares organ playing and accompanying responsibilities with Artist-in-Residence Jack Mitchener, and she leads the RSCM-based Chorister program. She is also an active continuo player with early music ensembles, having performed at the Rochester Early Music Festival, San Francisco’s American Bach Soloists Academy, and now regularly with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra.

I understand that Caroline recently consulted with my former organ student, Joey Fala, about the Central Union organ!