This past weekend two significant events took place at LCH, and unfortunately, because of my mother’s funeral, I was unable to attend. The first event was PipeWorks, the educational outreach program of the Hawaii Chapter, American Guild of Organists, which was led ably by former organ student, Joey Fala. Over 40 people attended this program which began at LCH, moved to neighboring St. Clement’s and concluded at Central Union Church.

There were demonstrations of the different pipe organ sounds and on the mechanics of how a pipe organ works. They started with the continuo organ, then moved to the larger instrument.

Students had the opportunity of not only playing the organ, many for the first time, but also crawling inside the pipe chambers. That meant climbing up the ladder at LCH — which made the adults more apprehensive than the kids! This aspect of PipeWorks seemed to make the biggest impression.

Since only three people at a time were allowed to climb the ladder to the pipe chambers, others were in the Board Room watching organ videos.

A delicious lunch was served in the courtyard by Patsy Fala, Joey’s mom, before everyone walked over to St. Clement’s, home of a recently-restored Austin organ. People enjoyed sitting inside the pipe chambers while the organ was being played.

Deborah Zuercher, organist of St. Clement’s (and briefly, pianist-leader at LCH) welcomed everyone.

The group then moved on to visit the Aeolian-Skinner organ at Central Union Church. Thanks to Bill Potter who took these photos in my absence!

The second event of the weekend was the visit by Miguel Felipe, newly-appointed professor of choral music at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and candidate for the Director of Music and Liturgy position at LCH. By all accounts, his visit was most positive from the point of the musicians and singers, as well as the congregation. We spoke to him this morning, and he made a point to say that people at LCH were above all, welcoming in every respect, and obviously very proud of the music program.