Last night we attended LCH parishioner Mark Russell’s piano recital at the church, which began with a set of variations by local pianist Whitney Thrall (b. 1922). Whitney, my former colleague at the University of Hawaii, was in the audience and is remarkably sharp for being over 90 years old! The rest of the… Read More Colored Glass
“Bach is not for amateurs!” This was one of the first statements Carl made at his lecture yesterday for the Oahu Choral Society, held at the Kokokahi YWCA. The choir will be preparing Bach’s Mass in B Minor for a performance on May 16th, under the direction of Esther Yoo, and she invited Carl to… Read More Bach is not for amateurs!
Today Naomi Castro posted this photo of bass Keane Ishii on her FaceBook page with the news that he has accepted the position of choir director of Holy Nativity Episcopal Church. She wrote: Bittersweet times this rehearsal. Saying goodbye to my long-time LCH brother, Keane Ishii, who is going on to do great things as choral director… Read More New beginnings
I’ve written posts about the vanishing organist before — the fact that there are fewer and fewer organists around the world. Some of this may be due to changing worship styles where the organ is no longer in a place of prominence. Some of this may be due to the fact that it takes many… Read More The vanishing organist
Around the Crosier household, you never know when there will be an impromptu concert. Such was the case last night, as we invited our neighbor, Kelly, to pick up some leftover beef stew, and my husband Carl was showing our houseguests, Sylvia Rhyne and Eric Redlinger (“Asteria”), our fortepiano. They then responded by giving us… Read More Impromptu concert
This weekend I’m going to two, count ’em, two vocal and instrumental concerts at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, featuring two performers who are husband-and-wife teams. The first will be Friday night at 7:30pm and will be presented by Early Music Hawaii. The concert by Asteria, called “Flower of Passion — Thorn of Despair,” featuring Sylvia Rhyne,… Read More Duo duos
Last week, my sister posted a link to an article on the NPR website titled, “Want Perfect Pitch? You Might Be Able to Pop A Pill For That.” In case you don’t know, having perfect pitch or absolute pitch means that you are able to identify or recreate a musical note without having a reference tone.… Read More A blessing or a curse?
One of the blogs I follow religiously is the one written by Dr. Noa Kageyama, a sports psychologist who is on the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music. His blog, The Bulletproof Musician, addresses performing strategies for musicians so that they can overcome stage fright and performance anxiety. I really liked reading today’s post,… Read More The next performance?
Ordinarily what I’m going to write about today I wouldn’t consider within the confines of this blog. That is to say, in this particular blog I mostly restrict myself to writing about music, my travels as they relate to music, and musical events. But when I ended my nearly 35-year tenure as Organist of the… Read More Guilty pleasure
Shivers of delight ran up and down my spine yesterday as I was listening to the concert by former student, Joey Fala, at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. I was in amazement at his musical maturity, and the ease with which he played extremely difficult passages — the music just oozed out! Here was Joey’s bio in… Read More Beautiful concert, beautiful playing