An encore is an extra piece that is played at the end a performance. It is not on the program, although the performer may have secretly planned it. A performer will play an encore if the audience claps a lot. Sometimes the audience shout “encore!” when they want an encore. The word “encore” is the French word for “again”. An encore is usually a… Read More Encore
You probably guessed it, when I say “Half and half” I’m not referring to a beverage that we in the United States call that liquid which is half milk and half cream. I’m instead referring to how I’m going to play Bach’s Great Eighteen Chorales on August 18 and 25. A number of people have… Read More Half and half
One of my favorite commercials on TV goes something like this: Whenever I hear those iconic words, “O say can you see…” I always say to myself, “Not that good!” So many times people whom I haven’t seen in awhile come up to me and say, “How are your eyes? How’s your vision?” usually I… Read More ‘Oh, say can you see’
I wanted to tell you a little about the Bach Chamber Choir which is the ensemble joining me in my upcoming Great Eighteen Chorales concerts. Here is a description of the group as printed in the program: The Bach Chamber Choir is a professional ensemble consisting of some of Honolulu’s finest choral artists, many of whom are… Read More The Bach Chamber Choir
When I woke up this morning, my husband said to me, “I heard you talking in your sleep!” I told him I had just dreamt of playing a service on the Beckerath organ, except that the big problem was that I wasn’t sitting in the middle of the organ bench like I am supposed to–I… Read More Recurring nightmare
This week I’m back at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church to play their High Mass, and if I do say so myself, everything went fine last Sunday except for one teeny-tiny glitch in the Gospel Acclamation. The assembly sang “Laudate dominum” by Jacques Berthier from Taizé which had a first and second ending. (You might be… Read More Don’t mind if I do!
Today is July 28th, and it was 263 years ago that the great Johann Sebastian Bach, departed this life in the year 1750. According to Christoph Wolff, Bach was healthy for most of his life except for the last year. His eyesight was failing, perhaps due to cataracts as well as untreated diabetes. The obituary… Read More 263 years ago today
Whenever I run into people I haven’t seen in awhile, their first question to me is “How is retired life?” And I have to answer, “Oh, I’m not really retired yet.” Look at my schedule this weekend: Saturday 9:45 am. Teach organ lesson at Lutheran Church of Honolulu 11:00 am. Play funeral at St. Alban’s… Read More Retired? Hardly!
I’ve been busy in the last few days — I feel like I’ve been stuck to my computer as I have been doing research and writing up program notes for my upcoming Bach Great Eighteen Chorales concerts on August 18 and 25. I have also worked on creating choral music editions of the four-part chorales (also done on… Read More Coming up for air
No, I’m not talking about the color of one’s skin, which seems to dominate the news these days. I’m talking about what color a performer wears! In fact, there was an article recently by Dr. Noa Kageyama, a sports psychologist who works with music students at the Juilliard School, who writes a great blog called… Read More Does color matter?