Organists and Organ Playing

Tributes

Carl's final service, Aug. 21, 2011
Carl’s final service, Aug. 21, 2011

Bill Potter, the LCH webmaster, recently posted a tribute to me and my tenure as organist. If you haven’t found it already, here are the links describing Carl’s and my many years at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu:

Carl Crosier, Cantor, 1972-2011

Katherine Crosier, Organist, 1978-2012

You will read that Carl was originally hired as organist in December 1972 — and he was the organist when the Beckerath organ was installed in May 1975. Earlier that month, though, the choir presented a Bach cantata vespers and because Carl was busy practicing for the organ dedication service, he asked me to play the continuo organ. That turned out to be the first service I played at LCH (for which I was paid $25!)

At that time I taught organ at the University of Hawaii and I was very eager to play a faculty recital on the new organ that fall. So I started coming to practice every day, which coincided with a group of people from the church who were always around because they were busy sewing new green paraments (“Wheat and grapes”) for a Reformation Day mass, a reconstruction of Martin Luther’s Formula Missae. I took an interest in what they were doing since I knew how to use a sewing machine. Some months later, Carl Crosier was thinking of starting up a Compline service and asked me to sew one of the white cottas for the choir vestments, which came in kit form.

This was my final Sunday service.
This was my final Sunday service.

“Sure, I’ll do it.” I finished the one so fast, that he asked me if I would be willing to do another, and another, and another, until finally I ended up sewing 12 of them, in time for the debut of Compline on Aug. 1, 1976.

As a ‘thank you,’ he invited me to dinner, a whirlwind romance ensued and the rest is history. We were married on July 15, 1977.

When the organist position became open in May 1978, I was asked if I would take it. Would you be surprised to learn that I never even played an audition or submitted a resumé?!

Carl always said I could play the organ better than he could!