The biggest story in the local media this weekend has been the Hawaii visit of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu who is here at the invitation of The Very Rev. Walter Brownridge of St. Andrew’s Cathedral. The airwaves and print media have been flooded with stories about this special visitor and it seems everyone… Read More Music, food and Desmond Tutu
Last week we were sitting in a restaurant and the cell phone rang. It was Eric Becklin, a former LCH chorister who used to be on the faculty of the University of Hawaii Astronomy Department! What was so amazing was that it was only a few days before that someone had come up to us at… Read More Reconnecting after decades
If your household is like ours, our television has stayed on one station since July 27th — whether it’s summer or winter, when the Olympics are on, we’re riveted to our television. Since the United States has won so many gold medals, we’ve heard “The Star Spangled Banner” played quite a number of times and… Read More The national anthem
One week ago we were in attendance at the Region 4 Conference of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians and Dr. Joy Berg, president, came up to me with an important question: “Kathy, will you play for the choral reading session? This is one detail which slipped through the cracks.” It was about 8:45 in… Read More Music sightreading
“50% Head, 50% Heart” was one of the pearls of wisdom I took away from the ALCM Region 4 Conference this past week. It was René Clausen who said in his keynote address that performing music is “50% Head, 50% Heart” and I couldn’t agree with him more. Clausen has served as conductor of the Concordia… Read More 50% Head, 50% Heart
Earlier in the week, we have been at the Region 4 conference of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM) held at California Lutheran University in cool Thousand Oaks, CA. The theme of the conference was “Behold I Tell You a Mystery: Telling God’s Story in the 21st Century.” In case you don’t know, going… Read More Day One: ALCM Thousand Oaks
Thirty-five years ago today Carl Crosier and I stood before the altar at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu and pledged our love and commitment to each other. Today is our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary and it seems hardly possible that so many years have gone by, so many musical productions, so many notes! Yesterday I played… Read More 35 years of blessings
Way back in April, I wrote a post called “An embarrassment of riches” and described the musical treasures at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu— its two Beckerath organs, two harpsichords, two sets of handbells, Grotrien grand piano, etc. — but that its greatest resource was its people. Over the years we have been blessed to… Read More A joyful reunion
We’ve scarcely been home for a couple of days, and trying to adjust to the 12-hour time difference between Hawaii and Europe, and we’ll soon have to think about traveling again. As Vice President of Region 4 of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, I have been on the committee to plan the regional conference,… Read More A family affair
Absolutely the highlight of our Milan tour was the viewing of Leonard da Vinci’s “Last Supper.” We have all seen countless reproductions of the image but to see the painting in person is truly breathtaking. Up close the colors look quite faded and subtle, but the further back you stand, the colors become more and… Read More Da Vinci’s Last Supper