I’ve got 72 hours in Honolulu! No sooner did I unpack my suitcase and wash my clothes, I’m going on the road again and packing for my departure tomorrow. However, I wanted to share some of the photos and videos of events I attended in Seattle so that you can enjoy them too.

At first, I was thinking to myself, “Why did I come all this way just to watch TV?” I guess I was hoping that the Peter Hallock Symposium would be partly in-person but because of the ongoing pandemic, the major events were online.

The first event was a keynote address by Jason Anderson, director of the Hallock Institute and II Director of the Compline Choir. I was somewhat surprised (and pleased!) to see our names and the name of our company, Ionian Arts, in the PowerPoint presentation which you can view here.

The second event was a panel discussion of Peter Hallock’s music with Jason Anderson, Mel Butler, Jonathan Dimmock, George Emblom, Jeremy Filsell, David Ouzts, and Kevin Siegfried, all church musicians, four of whom I know personally. Unfortunately Jason was unable to secure the participation of any female choral conductors who program Peter Hallock’s music. He did ask four women to be on the panel but all of them politely declined.

Mel Butler, Peter Hallock’s immediate successor at St. Mark’s Cathedral, was filmed from Peter Hallock’s former home, Chez Hallock, which is now his home along with his wife, Mary.

Right in the beginning, as Jason was introducing the members of the panel, George Emblom was mentioned as having a perpetually messy office! (Oh NO! Read my post about George’s office here, “Transformation“) However, George was shown in his home rather than his church office which I helped to organize.

The discussion included how each person came to know of Peter’s music, sound clips of selected compositions, and the Flentrop organ which was installed in 1965. They also discussed some of the challenges in preparing these works. I found the discussion about Peter’s many innovations among the most interesting topics: the controversy over installing a tracker organ in an American cathedral, the use of handbells, the Compline service, singing countertenor, and the use of brass instruments at Easter.

I next attended the Sunday morning service in St. Mark’s Cathedral, which I discussed in my post, “At St. Mark’s.” The music of Peter Hallock was featured during the service.

The next item on the agenda was a choral reading session of Peter Hallock’s music, nearly all of which has been newly-published by the Hallock Institute. One piece was published by my company, Ionian Arts, “I will magnify your name, O God.” The music chosen was especially appropriate for modest choirs, in unison only or in two parts.

Here is a video of the 65th Anniversary Compline service. If you have never attended this service at St. Mark’s, this will give you a glimpse as to why the phenomenon of Compline has endured for 65 years and is still continuing. When it started, there were only a few people in the congregation, but during the 60s, the “flower children” discovered it, and people started coming in droves. Those “flower children” brought their children, and now their grandchildren! The Compline service has the biggest attendance of all the services at St. Mark’s.

It was a great weekend! Thank you, Jason Anderson, for all your work on this project.