When I used to work in a CPA office, the one thing we could never escape was deadlines— that is, deadlines to file taxes, deadlines to pay estimated taxes, deadlines for payroll, etc. — the deadlines never stopped. No sooner would you file taxes for yourself or for a client, and you’d be faced with another monthly or quarterly filing date looming.

You could say the same for being a church musician — there’s always music to be learned for next Easter, for next Christmas, but of course, for next Sunday … the Sundays never stop! Right now I’m learning two new pieces for Easter: “Trumpet Tune” by Andrew Carter for the prelude, and “Transformations” by Jessica French for the postlude.

Why don’t I just play pieces that I already know?!

Ah, that is the great mystery of life. I suppose that I need to keep challenging myself, and keeping my brain active, in addition to finding music that is appropriate for the lectionary. In the year and a half since I started working at St. Mark’s and had to play a lot of repertoire every week, I’ve only repeated a couple of pieces!

The challenge to keep my brain engaged is the reason that I continue to work on practicing Spanish through the Duolingo app at least an hour daily, by taking an online class in addition to speaking Spanish every day with friends.

For the last month or so, I’ve also tried to resurrect my long-dormant French which I learned in high school but I certainly didn’t achieve the level of fluency I’ve worked for with Spanish. To my great surprise, my listening skills have returned with even greater comprehension than before! Although I have not yet attained fluidity in my French speaking skills, I’m learning new vocabulary and am very pleased with my progress. All of these efforts will hopefully help me in my upcoming summer trip to France.

My next deadline is in early March when I leave for eight days in Iceland, hopefully to see the Northern Lights! Until my departure, I cannot leave until these immediate tasks (outside my normal teaching and practicing) are completed:

1. To design a promotional postcard for the next Early Music Hawaii concert, in addition to setting up the ticketing system and updating the Early Music Hawaii website. The concert will feature early Hawaiian music from the missionary era and is scheduled for March 29th at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. I will also be hosting one of the singers who is coming from Seattle to sing with director Scott Fikse.
2. To address and distribute postcards for the upcoming American Guild of Organists annual organ recitalist, Lukas Hasler, on March 30th at Central Union Church. I designed the postcard at the beginning of the week, and it will arrive from the printer sometime today.
3. To begin to compile stories for a memory book to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. I volunteered to work on this project after being asked by Carol Langner and Randy Castello of the 125th Anniversary committee. To this end I am helping to contact people who were part of the music program or who were interns.
4. To create a book of selected songs for my neighbor’s ministry conference in March. This is a subset of the larger book of songs which I worked on for four years. (FINISHED YESTERDAY).
5. To get the annual safety inspection done on my car. It expires the last day of February.
6. To get my yearly mammogram (DONE TODAY!)
7. To finish my income taxes to drop off to my CPA before the trip.
8. To write a set of last-minute instructions to all people in my Iceland group regarding ATMs, airport transfer to the hotel, early check-in to the hotel, etc. (I am the Group Leader!)

Rising star, Lukas Hasler is currently a doctoral student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He will be giving two concerts in Hawaii: On March 27th at 6:00 pm at All Saints Episcopal Church in Kapa‘a, and on March 30th at 2 pm at Central Union Church.

Born in Austria, Lukas has a thriving international concert career, which has already taken him to Europe, Asia, and Australia as well as to some of the largest cathedrals in the United States. With more than 80,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, Lukas is one of the most successful organists on social media.

He will be playing a concert with music by Mendelssohn, Saint-Säens, Buxtehude, Mozart, Beethoven and Bach.

Yowsers! It will be a race to the finish!