It’s now only ten days away from the memorial concert for Carl Crosier in which the Lutheran Church of Honolulu Choir and the Hawai’i Vocal Arts Ensemble will join forces to sing Maurice Duruflé’s beloved Requiem on Sunday, November 1st at 7:00 pm. Many people have called the church office asking about this performance and the advice… Read More Just following orders!
I used to hear people say that after they retired they were were busier than ever before, and don’t know how they used to fit work in! When I so-called “retired” on September 30, I honestly didn’t know how I’d fill my days. I knew that I was going to keep teaching and playing the… Read More Be careful what you wish for!
Maybe you’ve seen this picture shared around the internet lately, with the question, “Have you ever just stopped and realized that if you hadn’t met a certain person, your entire life would be completely different?” For sure, when I met Carl Crosier, my musical repertoire became much more focused on the works of Bach, as… Read More Continuing the tradition
I recently overheard someone was looking forward to hearing the upcoming Duruflé Requiem but wasn’t so excited about hearing a new work by American composer Frank Ferko (born 1950) which is on the first half of the program. This person was perhaps thinking of the stereotype of “modern music” which is highly dissonant, with no… Read More Not bug music!
Today Vreni Griffith and I spent the day addressing the postcards for Carl Crosier’s Memorial Concert on November 1st — and for the fourth day in a row I didn’t read the morning paper until after dinner! In fact, as I write this post, it’s after 10:00 pm and I still haven’t gotten to today’s… Read More By the numbers
When I walked into the choir room at St. Andrew’s Cathedral this morning, and someone asked me how I was doing (presumably because I am supposedly “retired,”) I answered, “Scrambling . . . Not scrambled, like eggs, or my brain, but scrambling.” That’s because it was only Thursday afternoon that I received all the choral… Read More Scrambling
In yesterday’s post, I described only the daytime of my first day of “retirement” — I didn’t tell you about my activity last night when I spent several hours creating a “playbook” for this weekend’s services at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. Back in the days when I was the organist at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu,… Read More The playbook
“No, no, NO!” When I woke up this morning, the first day of my “retirement,” I opened my eyes and looked at the clock. It read “3:51” (a.m.) I always thought retired people could throw away their alarm clocks — and I actually haven’t turned on my alarm clock since I came back from vacation… Read More Retired . . . NOT!
September is the traditional month for starting the school year. (However, in Hawaii, as in other locations, school has been starting earlier and earlier, and in fact started in July this summer!) September is also the month in which musical seasons begin— for example, the opening concert of Early Music Hawaii, Musica Poetica, last weekend which I… Read More Beginnings and endings
By this time next week, I will have collected my last paycheck and will officially join the ranks of the retired! Can you believe it — I never thought this day would come! but yes, there are only four more business days until October 1st when I will start collecting Social Security! (In case you’re wondering, I’m… Read More The REAL retirement is four days away!