Last Saturday night, I attended the Oahu Choral Society’s 20th Annual “Vivace” fundraiser and was I ever surprised to find myself seated at the head table! To my immediate right was Karen Kennedy, a choral directing legend in this town, and next to her was Wanda Gereben, and next to her was Nola Nahulu of… Read More In with the bigwigs
In a recent post, I wrote about the constant deadlines of a musician — well, this musician, anyway, where there was always a service or concert to practice for. Even when I retired from my church job and no longer had the constant obligation to play organ voluntaries, hymns and to accompany choral music every… Read More Music is fun?
Being a musician is somewhat akin to being an accountant — there are always deadlines which keep on coming, and they never end, like taxes. No sooner do you finish one task and then there’s the next one right behind it. And right now I have the looming deadline of the next Early Music Hawaii concerts, which… Read More Out of my comfort zone
Last night I attended a fiftieth birthday concert for composer Donald Reid Womack, which made me appreciate the cultural and especially the musical diversity of our life in Honolulu. Last night’s program showcased Don’s work from the past ten years in which he explored the fantastic instruments of East Asia. When I read in the program… Read More Musical fusion
If your household was like mine last night, along with millions of other Downton Abbey addicts, we had our televisions tuned to the last episode of Season Six and hung on every word written by series creator, Julian Fellowes, who related this incident with a woman he met in California: I’m always very touched by… Read More Lady Edith’s wedding music
All this political talk of “low energy” is in sharp contrast to the weekend we had with organist Greg Zelek — definitely high energy! On Friday night, I invited the members of the AGO Executive Board for a “meet and greet” party and luckily I had nearly the whole day to prepare for it. The… Read More High energy Greg Zelek!
Itʻs time for one of my favorite concerts of the year — the 10th Annual Childrenʻs Benefit Concert on Saturday, March 5th at 4:00 pm by the Sunday School children of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. It was ten years ago that young Mitchell Gorman came up with the brilliant idea that the kids of… Read More 10th Annual Childrenʻs Benefit Concert
In the movie business, it’s the Academy Awards. In the recording industry, it’s the Grammy Awards, and for Broadway shows, it’s the Tony Awards. Yes, this is award season, and it seems like there are awards for all kinds of businesses and industries. Yesterday when I opened up my Facebook page, I gasped when I saw this video… Read More The Big Reveal: 20 under 30
Once a year, the Hawaii Chapter of the American Guild of Organists brings a “rising star” organist to play a concert in our island state. This coming Sunday, March 6 at 2:00 pm, we will hear Greg Zelek play on the 4-manual Aeolian-Skinner organ at Central Union Church, 1660 South Beretania Street, Honolulu. Here’s what we… Read More Rising star, Greg Zelek
“More terrifying than performing naked” — this was the caption that former student Joey Fala posted today on Facebook about his February 6th concert performance of Bach’s Trio Sonata No. 5 which I attended in New Haven, CT. It was the first time Joey had performed a Bach trio sonata in public — and I’ve always maintained that… Read More “More terrifying than performing naked”