Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
Make me a match,
Find me a find,
catch me a catch
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Look through your book,
And make me a perfect match.
(From Fiddler on the Roof, by Michele Marsh, Neva Small, and Rosalind Harris)

Out of all my activities as an organist and organ teacher in Hawaii, I think my part in playing “matchmaker” is definitely one of the most satisfying. Oh, it’s not what you’re thinking … I’m not a person who arranges relationships and marriages between others! The types of matchmaking I’ve done is with people who need to get rid of an organ with those students who need a practice instrument. As I have written before, I have “rescued” over 20 homeless organs from going to the city dump to new homes with students who were not able to secure practice times in a church. All this matchmaking is done on a “free” basis, with the only cost being the cost of moving.

A couple of weeks ago, I did another “match” between people and instruments when I shipped off my husband Carl’s fortepiano to its new owner, my former student Joey Fala, now living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The more I think about it, the more pleased I am that the instrument will be going to a good home, where it will be loved and appreciated. Go back and read my post, “A new home for Else.”

Last night, however, we celebrated another of my “matches” — that between my long-time friend, fellow lover of early music, and Spanish tutor, Vreni Griffith and fellow organist and new real estate agent, Karl Bachman. You see, it was only a few months ago that Vreni asked me if I knew anyone who could sell her apartment before she moved back to Switzerland. What a coincidence it was when I remembered that Karl had just graduated from real estate school. Vreni’s apartment turned out to be his very first listing and his very first sale! By the time of the first and only open house, Vreni already had three firm bids in hand.

By the way, it was a conversation at the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians conference in Richmond, Virginia, 1999, that I met Karl Bachman in the first place. When I found out he spoke Japanese, having spent three years in Japan at a Lutheran church there, I invited him to move to Hawaii and help out in our Japanese wedding business. A month later, he did exactly that!

Last night, Karl invited Vreni and me out to dinner at Roy’s Hawaii Kai to celebrate this milestone and to say ‘thank you.’ Here are some of the pictures from the dinner. The food was just exquisite and the company even better!