It all started on Friday, with my alarm set for 5:00 am so I could get to the airport on time for an early morning flight to Kaua‘i — this after an intense rehearsal with the St. Mark’s Episcopal choir the night before. It’s now been four years since I have been flying monthly to Lihu’e to give organ lessons at All Saints Episcopal Church in Kapa‘a. My organ student, Daniel Welch, flew back to Honolulu with me in the afternoon so we could prepare for a potluck meeting of the American Guild of Organists in the recreation facility of my building.

Daniel helped me make my two contributions to the potluck: a baked ziti with three kinds of cheese: ricotta, Parmesan and mozzarella; and a melon-grape-blueberry-and-lychee fruit salad.

Over twenty members and guests came to the potluck — and we took time to introduce ourselves, since many people were new. When I said that I was asked to sing in the upcoming St. Mark’s concert, there was a gasp. Thank goodness, it’s not a solo! But I have to tell you that a couple of weeks ago, I had a nightmare in which I was asked to sing a solo in the tenor range! That would really be a nightmare (!) especially since I’m a first soprano.

I think some people were also surprised that I’ll be performing music by Hans Zimmer, a German composer who writes music for movies like Rain Man, The Last Emperor, The Lion King, The Thin Red Line, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, The Da Vinci Code, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight, The Amazing Spider Man, among others. I don’t just play music by Bach! I think his music for the Netflix series, The Crown, was what drew my attention to him.

The highlight of the meeting, however, was the assembly of a two-rank, two octave, real pipe organ called Orgelkids, designed to introduce the pipe organ to children. Here’s what Wikipedia offers on the subject:

Orgelkids

Orgelkids (Dutch, “organkids”) is an educational project meant to familiarize and educate children with the pipe organ musical instrument. The project was initiated in the Netherlands in 2009 by Lydia Vroegindeweij and is directed towards cultural legacy and music education. Initially the project consisted of a website with educational tips and lesson suggestions to organize, among other projects, an excursion to a large pipe organ. Since 2013, Orgelkids has at its disposal a specially developed educational organ assembly kit. A complete, craftsman-built organ, in unassembled component parts, is contained in a lesson box. The instrument can be assembled and subsequently played.

It was finally up and playing! Much laughter ensued as partygoers tried it out. The laughter was the result of wrong pipes inserted into the rack board resulting in some very humorous musical passages!

We had so much food leftover and I ended up with more food than I contributed — I won’t need to cook for a week!

Bad news, though — while we were cooking the pasta dish, Daniel noticed a huge puddle of water underneath my kitchen sink and discovered the leak was coming from the faucet. The plumber was already scheduled to come on another matter anyway — but we ended up washing the dishes in my bathroom sink.

The next morning, I took Daniel to the airport for him to return home, then I went off to practice the organ at St. Mark’s, followed by teaching an organ lesson at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. I returned back to St. Mark’s for a Saturday afternoon choir rehearsal.

The next day, Sunday, I played my usual — three services including a 9:00 am at Nuuanu Congregational, and an 11:00 am High Mass and 4:00 pm Vespers at St. Mark’s.

But my day wasn’t over yet! I was one of an elite group invited to the Lutheran Church of Honolulu for a special dinner and presentation on the 50th anniversary of the Beckerath organ. A few tables and chairs were set up in the nave where we were served a scrumptious dinner by Chef and Pastor Jeff Lilley and crew, and entertained with harp music.

Barry Wenger, the director of music, explained some basics about organ construction and why they want to add a salicional stop to the Swell division, and an 8′ trumpet stop in the Pedal.

It’s hard to believe that I was one of only two at the dinner who was there 50 years ago at the Beckerath’s installation. In fact, I heard and played the first installed stop, the 8′ Rohrflöte on the Great division, and knew it was going to be a beautiful instrument from the get-go. It made me a little sad, however, to think of all the people who were responsible for this instrument are now gone — Carl Crosier, Joe Hansen, John and Cancy Hanley — only Pastor Don Johnson is still here.

So — that was my weekend! Now I have approximately 10 days to pull my concert music together.