A story in today’s newspaper reminded me about today’s organ concert, the 24th Annual Midsummer Afternoon Organ Concert, which will take place at Central Union Church at 3:00 pm.

When I saw the headline, Island doctor has traveled the globe to help people see, I wondered whether the story was about Dr. Steve Miller, a long-time parishioner at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, and when I clicked on the link of the on-line edition, I was right!  The article, written by our journalist friend Steven Mark, says: For the past 20 years, Miller, a retired eye surgeon at Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center, has been traveling to remote areas of Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East to teach cataract surgery and hospital administration. Through his work with the Seva Foundation, a Berkeley, Calif.-based organization, he’s played a key role in restoring and saving the sight of hundreds of thousands of people.

The reason the story reminded me of today’s organ concert, is that Steve Miller’s grandson, Azure, is my organ student whom he brings to his organ lesson every week! And Azure is a recipient of the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organist scholarship program. The concert today is a benefit for the Hawaii AGO’s scholarship program, which has contributed monies for organ lessons over 60 people in Hawaii, ensuring the continuance of organ playing in Hawaii. The fund was begun some twenty years ago by AGO member, Don Conover, who celebrated a milestone birthday and designated gifts for the scholarship.

You’re right, in the initial publicity, I was supposed to be playing in the concert, but with our trip and its subsequent cancellation, and especially with my husband Carl in the hospital, I withdrew. Please join the other fine organists who will be performing, Karl Bachman, Nyle Hallman, Margaret Lloyd, Brian McCarthy, John Renke and Mark Wong. And please come cheer for my organ student, Christopher, who will be playing Bach’s Gigue Fugue.