The Early Music Hawaii concert, “Rome 1600,” is now over, and here are my thoughts:

When I saw the words “Singers Circle” on the rehearsal schedule for our pre-concert warmup, I had no idea what it was, never having heard this term before. Most of us performers met in Isenberg Hall just prior to entering the stage, and stood in a circle, all dressed in our concert black. Director Scott Fikse asked everyone present if there was someone you’d like to give a “shout out” to if you had received any special help from him/her or someone you appreciated as being in this concert.

Scott immediately recognized Jason Nomura, guitarist, for learning how to play continuo especially for this concert. Even though he has a master’s degree in guitar from the University of Hawaii, he never had a class in learning to play this style of accompaniment and Jason did a fantastic job!

Keane Ishii mentioned the presence, willingness and enthusiasm of the Brigham Young University-Hawaii students, for whom this was a first exposure to early music. The six students were excellent in their execution of the difficult music. After the concert, there was a text message exchange with said students and their professor, Dr. Erica Glenn:

And of course, we need to credit our fearless leader, Scott Fikse, for all the research, time and hard work he put into making this concert a success: Bravo, Scott!

A truly “feel good” moment!

If you didn’t already see it, here was a short video promo of the concert, which includes some audio clips:

Here’s what one concertgoer, Linda Muller, posted on Facebook: Bravo to Early Music Hawaii and Scott Fikse for the exquisite concert performance yesterday. Rome 1600 The Glories of Italian Baroque. You’ve assembled the most amazing music masters of voice and instruments to bring ancient music to life. What was evident was the amount of work, dedication and love of music by each person. Pictured Scott Fikse (conductor) with Darel Stark (violin) and Georgine Stark (soprano). More pictures to follow later. #magnificenttalent #giftedsouls

It was a really BIG weekend for me, it being Pentecost—I played Maurice Duruflé’s “Choral varie sur ‘Veni Creator'” at St. Mark’s—the first four movements for the prelude, and the toccata for the postlude. Thankfully all went well because it’s been at least 12 years since I last played that piece!

I also went to the Hawaii Symphony concert, and there were two pieces which stood out for me: Margaret Bonds’ powerful “The Montgomery Variations (1964)” which depicts the first decade of the civil rights movement, including the Baptist Church bombing that killed 4 schoolgirls; and Florence Price’s “Piano Concerto in One Movement (1634)” played by pianist Michelle Cann. Wow! She was incredible — she had so much power in her fingers and her accuracy was perfect!