Last night I hosted a dinner party for Scott Fikse, the new Director of Music and Liturgy at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, his spouse Marcus, Randy and Jeanne Castello, and their daughter, Marisa. It’s “what Carl Crosier would have done,” to show aloha for his successor at the church. Randy has been in the… Read More WWCD – What would Carl do?
I’ve been preparing music for the upcoming Early Music Hawaii concert which will be on Saturday, September 19 at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, and have chosen organ music by Heinrich Scheidemann (1595-1663). He is one of three “Sch” early German Baroque composers — the other ones are Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) and Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672).… Read More Stiff requirement
You may remember from my recent post, “A mighty fortress,” that I was startled to learn about Bach’s exhumation in the 1950s, when his body was moved from St. John’s Cemetery in Leipzig to St. Thomas Church, in front of the altar. “Apparently Bach was buried in a pauper’s grave with two other people. He then… Read More Occupational hazard?!
People have asked me about my “vacation,” and I feel like saying, “I need a vacation from my vacation!” or “I need to come back to work to relax!” In a nutshell, during my 30 nights away from Hawaii: At the Boston Early Music Festival, I attended two Monteverdi operas, the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610,… Read More Digging out from under
I wouldn’t ordinarily write about such a personal experience, but today as I sat in the waiting room of the Kapiolani Women’s Center, I would bet you a million bucks that the other ladies didn’t have a clue as to what was playing as background music. But I the organist did, and the irony of it… Read More Bach in the waiting room
Over the years I daresay that we have invited hundreds of people to dinner, and those of you who have come, know that I politely ask everyone to sign the guest book. (I’m now on volume 7!) This was a tradition we started with the guest book from our wedding in 1977 and even though Carl is now… Read More What are the odds?
It was another adventure coming home from the Organ Historical Society convention 2015, and because my flight was leaving Boston early in the morning, I decided to leave one day before the convention ended. Lucky for me, I was able to watch the OHS live-webcast of the final concert by Nathan Laube on the organs… Read More Home at last!
This was the first time I have attended an Organ Historical Society (OHS) convention and I have asked a number of the attendees how they perceived it is different from the conventions of the American Guild of Organists (AGO). Over and over I was told that “at AGO it’s about the personalities, and at OHS… Read More Personalities vs. Organs
Yesterday was Day Four at the Organ Historical Society and we again went to six musical events starting with an outstanding recital by Monica Czausz at the Wesley United Methodist Church. She had just won the AGO/Quimby Regional Competition for Young Organists in Fort Worth, TX and gotten home at 1 am this morning. And here she played… Read More Day Four at OHS 2015
Certainly one of the highlights of this convention was last night’s performance of Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” by Peter Sykes, who transcribed the orchestral score for organ. Apparently this was the 21st anniversary of Sykes’ first performance of this work, also for the Organ Historical Society. I was able to find a YouTube video of… Read More Planets “Tour de force”