Okay, I can just hear my late husband, Carl, saying: Kathy, why don’t you check these things instead of being in such a hurry?! You’re in too much of a rush and aren’t careful!”

What I’m referring to was my last post about the All Saints Day memorial concert, November 1, 2015 at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. When I first published the post, the time listed was at 5:00 pm. This is wrong! The time of the concert will be 7:00 pm. We actually had great difficulty in scheduling the concert and the variables were based on the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra schedule, the Hawaii Opera Theater schedule, and the availability of Jonathan Dimmock, the organist who will be flying in from San Francisco.

When Carl suggested the possibility of the Duruflé Requiem, he said, “Why don’t you invite Jonathan Dimmock to come play the organ?” Jonathan happened to be in Seattle when we were there in 2014 and Carl told him about his pancreatic cancer. Jonathan was planning a trip to Australia in early October 2015, and we thought it would be perfect if the concert could be scheduled the same weekend as his return to the U.S. Alas, that weekend would have conflicted with Hawaii Opera Theater’s performances of The Magic Flute, and it would be nigh impossible to squeeze in a performance and rehearsals the same week, affecting both singers and instrumentalists.

I then approached John Renke about having the concert at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, since the Aeolian-Skinner organ would be more suited to the Duruflé Requiem rather than the Beckerath organ at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. After all, it was at the Cathedral that Carl himself conducted the Duruflé in the early 90s. Alas, the Cathedral organ will be undergoing a major restoration and will be out of commission. I told a parishioner when I played there recently that I felt like Forrest Gump: Push a piston and you never know what you’ll get, referring to the unreliability of the combination action. Also that building is quite possibly the hottest church in Honolulu as it has no air conditioning and is facing the wrong direction to catch the tradewinds. The poor singers and instrumentalists would have wilted in the heat of the afternoon.

So we went with the air-conditioned Lutheran Church of Honolulu, where after all, Carl Crosier spent 38 years of his musical career. I remembered that Jonathan Dimmock had played a recital there a few years back and I swear he made that organ sound like a Cavaillé-Coll!

Then we came up with the idea of the weekend of October 30-November 1st and initially planned to have the concert on Saturday afternoon, October 31st. But having a memorial concert on Halloween sounded too ghoulish, so then when we found out that the Hawaii Symphony would have an early concert on Sunday, November 1st instead of their usual 4:00 pm, , we set the concert at 5:00 pm, thinking that it would be over by the time the Lutheran Church of Honolulu would have its semi-monthly Evening Prayer service.

But when I told John Renke, he reminded me that the 5:00 pm time would conflict with weekly Evensong at the Cathedral, and many singers who would have liked to participate or attend, couldn’t at 5:00 pm — AND when Scott Fikse, the choral director at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu told me that Pastor Jeff Lilley was okay with cancelling Evening Prayer that night — we went with 7:00 pm. (Whew!) 

See why I was confused when I wrote in the blog that the concert was at 5:00 pm, and several people pointed out that the poster stated the correct time of 7:00 pm?

Also, I would like to repeat that the concert is FREE — no admission charge, nada. Yes, I know that there is no such thing as a free lunch, but in fact, you will not have to pay anything to enter the building and find a seat. I will be working on a souvenir program book, and we’ll have nice refreshments at intermission — all at no charge. Let’s just say that “it will be taken care of.”

I would like to share what Naomi Castro wrote on my Facebook wall today: (N.B. Naomi and Carl shared the same birthday, and Carl became her accompanist when Naomi was hired as choral director at St. Andrew’s Priory. She, her sister Karyn, mother Olivia Castro and father Jimmy Castro, sung in Carl’s choirs for years. I even played for Olivia and Jimmy’s wedding some thirty years ago!)

I still think about him all the time. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about how blessed I am to have been under the Crosiers’ musical care and mentorship. There are many things I miss about Carl and often wonder how he would do things, whether it’s arranging a rehearsal, communicating, difficult information, drinking his martini, thinking about voicing, style, interpretation.. I always hope that we are making music to his standards. I loved that he’d never let the choir get away with mediocre singing. I find that I hold myself and those around me (whether they like it or not) to those same standards. I miss him, we all do. Thank you for the tribute and the pictures. It’s great to see his face again.

We will do our best to honor him at the concert on All Saints Day (the day I was baptized, btw!). The Ferko mass is just beyond beautiful. I’m thankful that it’s challenging enough that I have to concentrate and not cry my way through it. I wouldn’t be much help, ha! I’ll also be trying to channel Carl as much as I can during the next few weeks with EMH coming up. He really knew his stuff.

Thank you for you, Kathy, and your ability to write such words that would be difficult for the rest of us. You are a strong woman. Peace, comfort, and love be with you.