On Saturday, we received a text message from choirmaster Mike Dupre:

Tomorrow is Laetare Sunday! Anyone want to wear Rose/pink tomorrow?

According to Wikipedia, Laetare Sunday is the fourth Sunday in the season of Lent, in the Western Christian liturgical calendar. Traditionally, this Sunday has been a day of celebration within the austere period of Lent. This Sunday gets its name from the first few words (incipit) of the traditional Latin entrance verse (Introit) for the Massof the day. “Laetare Jerusalem”(“Rejoice, O Jerusalem”) is Latin from Isaiah 66:10.

In Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Old Catholic churches flowers may appear on the high altarand the organ may be played as a solo instrument. Priests are given the option to wear rose-colored vestments at Mass held on this day in place of the violet vestments normally worn during Lent. The term “rose” is used to describe this lighter shade of the color violet in the Roman Rite.

In his sermon, Father Paul Lillie said that churches boast of their pink vestments, so here is the one from St. Mark’s, taken from the livestream.

Here is a picture of the choir in pink, including me!

The choir sang and I accompanied them on Gerald Near’s Missa Orbis Factor, based on the plainchant we have sung as the Ordinary for the Sundays in Lent.

On Leap Year Day, February 29, Mike Dupré declared it Cool/Crazy Hat Day and invited all the choir members to wear a funny hat to rehearsal.

See what I mean when I call this the Happy Choir?! Photos were taken by Yoko Kokuni Kessner, our local “Queen of the Selfies!”

At last week’s rehearsal, Mike asked to the choir to turn their backs on one another, so they could neither watch the conductor nor look at each other — all in order to focus on listening.

And while the choir was singing the chants from Maurice Duruflé’s “Ubi caritas,” they were told to wave their arms above their heads and “float.” The technique worked to make the music sound free and effortless!

It has been a super busy week—on Monday I put organist James Kealey on the plane to Kauai, and went to the First Mondays concert with guest director Scott Fikse. I had just seen him in Seattle!

Thursday night I had choir rehearsal, and Friday night I played for Stations of the Cross. No sooner had I gotten home from the service when my houseguests arrived, Aki Nishiguchi and Jason Yoshida of Ciaramella, an outstanding early music ensemble which performed Saturday night for Early Music Hawaii

. The shawms, were a tad loud in the intimate acoustics of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, but thankfully there was a good mix in the program with recorders, vihuela, percussion, and even bagpipes which were sweet and gentle. All four players were virtuosos in their own right yet their ensemble was incredible.

Yesterday, Sunday afternoon, I went to the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, a concert version of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which turned out to be a grand success in terms of artistic and musical achievements.

It’s been quite a week! Next week, though, I’ll be playing FIVE services: Friday (Stations of the Cross), Sunday (Nuuanu Congregational, St. Mark’s Solemn Mass, St. Mark’s Vespers and Benediction) and Tuesday (St. Joseph’s Day).