Today is May 6, and it’s been more than two weeks since Holy Week and Easter. For many church musicians, it’s the busiest week of the year. I played for seven services starting with three on Palm Sunday, one on Maundy Thursday, a two-and-a-half hour Easter Vigil service on Holy Saturday, and two grand Easter services, including music for organ and three trumpets at Nu‘uanu Congregational Church and a sung high mass at St. Mark’s, with Charles V. Stanford’s “Ye choirs of new Jerusalem” for the anthem, several hymn descants, and ending with Jessica French’s “Transformations” for organ solo. It was a huge heap of music!

I raced home after the High Mass where my guests were already waiting for me in the lobby!

But you thought Holy Week was busy?! These two weeks after Easter seem like they’re TWICE as busy. For one thing, every single week since Easter, I’ve had an additional midweek service plus my usual three Sunday services. Three days after Easter I played a funeral for a parishioner at Nuuanu Congregational Church. Last Wednesday I played a high mass for our patron saint, Saint Mark; then this coming Saturday, there will be a Solemn High Mass for patrons of Hawai’i, Saints Damien and Marianne of Moloka’i.

After Easter I added two new organ students to my studio which now numbers 12. It’s always a challenge for me to find the right music to spark the student’s interest. I’m particularly excited, however, to have new student, Louise South, who was my son’s piano teacher nearly forty years ago!

I have also been conscripted to help with my condo’s Summer Social, which may have up to 400 people in attendance! For the last 9 years I’ve chaired the building’s Christmas party committee, so I guess the committee thought I might provide some pointers.

Tim Carney, director of the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble, called me to play continuo for their performance of the Bach B Minor Mass on June 1st.

This Friday is an Early Music Hawaii concert, for which I designed the postcard and laid out the program. Oh, and did I mention that I’m also providing a homestay for one of the artists? Lumina is a professional women’s ensemble which will be singing medieval music by women composers.

But the biggest project I’ve gotten myself involved with is a graphic design project — a memory book for the Lutheran Church of Honolulu in celebration of their 125th anniversary. It contains essays and photos of former pastors, interns, candidates, musicians, and other parishioners with their memories of the church and its people. So far I’ve laid out over 60 pages and the end is not yet in sight! Many of the photos I took myself over my nearly 35 years as the organist.

The death of Pope Francis the day after Easter brought back memories of my trip to the Vatican in 2015. I was fortunate to have the Popemobile stop right in front of where I was sitting in St. Peter’s Square so I could snap these pictures.

I’ve just finished booking business class tickets for Bill Potter and myself for our next European trip—we leave June 30th for three weeks in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Chechia and France. I’m especially looking forward to the France part of the trip—we’ll be attending the Saintes Festival in the Abbaye aux Dames monastery where we’ll hear much early music, then I’m determined to go to the Sunday mass at Notre Dame Cathedral to hear the organ and to look at the rebuilt cathedral. I’ve been amassing credit card points for the last year and finally was able to cash them in for luxurious seats on the plane! Can’t wait!