A high school senior recital is a culminating solo concert where a graduating student performs an extended set of music—usually on an instrument or in voice—to celebrate years of private training. It typically lasts 30 to 60 minutes and acts as a capstone event before the student heads to college.

In my organ teaching career I’ve only had a handful of students who gave senior recitals before they went to college. That is because giving a solo recital takes years of lessons — and either students lose interest, they move away or they are preoccupied with too many scheduling conflicts and have to drop. So it is perhaps a miracle that one of those senior recitals happened yesterday.

What was unusual is that the student played not only on organ, she also played on piano and the oboe. And I understand that in the fall, she will join the University of Hawaii marching band playing the tenor saxophone! And she plays the violin as well! A true musical polyglot.

Here was her program:

Sonata in E Minor (Florence Price) – piano duet
Gigue Fugue in F Major, BWV 577 (J. S. Bach) – organ solo
Hungarian Dance No.5 in F# Minor (Johannes Brahms) – piano duet
Seasons of Love (from the Musical “Rent”) – oboe and bassoon duet
Fugue in G Minor, BWV 578 (J. S. Bach) – organ solo
Hymne a l’amour (Edith Piaf) – oboe and piano
Poco Vivace No.6 (Hermann Schroeder) – organ solo

In several of the pieces, she played duets with her brother who played the piano and the bassoon.

As you can see, the program is hardly a piece of cake, and especially to start (on the organ) with the “Gigue” Fugue of Bach, one of his most difficult works!

I also admire her for being able to switch instruments with every single piece. I had suggested that it might be easier to play all the piano pieces together, all the organ pieces together, etc. but no, she wanted to meet the challenge, which she did admirably.

I first met her when she was 14 years old, and for her birthday, she asked for organ lessons! Her father contacted me and the rest is history.

Since she will be staying in Hawaii for college, happily she wants to continue organ lessons.

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As one organist emerges, another is lost. Last week we learned about the death of my organist friend, Samuel Lam, who died at the age of 86 sometime in April. Apparently he didn’t show up for breakfast or lunch at the assisted living home he lived in, and the staff went to check on him, only to find that he had passed away. Sam served ably as the treasurer of the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists for many years and will be greatly missed.

I’ll never forget his performance of the Liszt B-A-C-H which he played from memory on a chapter membership recital. He obtained a doctorate in organ with Marilyn Mason at the University of Michigan.

I took this photo of Sam on the day he retired (Sept. 25, 2016) as organist from St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, a position that I now hold.