Now I know why my mother, after she retired at age 83, bought a second grand piano. To play duets! Being a pianist or organist can be somewhat lonely, as you really don’t need other people to create music. However when you have the opportunity to make music with others, it’s SOOOO much fun! Hence,… Read More Four hands, four feet
Last Sunday I celebrated my birthday with my family in California. This is the second row in a year that I’ve decided to indulge myself for my birthday, so I flew to San Francisco a week ago on my way to the Burbank airport, which is only 15 minutes away from my son’s home. Alas,… Read More Indulgences
I’ve got 72 hours in Honolulu! No sooner did I unpack my suitcase and wash my clothes, I’m going on the road again and packing for my departure tomorrow. However, I wanted to share some of the photos and videos of events I attended in Seattle so that you can enjoy them too. At first,… Read More Sights and sounds
I am in Seattle this weekend because the Compline Choir is celebrating a streak of 65 unbroken years of Sunday nights singing the last monastic office of the day. I felt special to be included in the festivities, starting with a buffet dinner on Saturday at “Chez Hallock,” the former home of Peter Hallock, now… Read More 65 years of Compline
This morning I was at St. Mark’s Cathedral Seattle where the worship service was in-person but a little different from the usual. When you enter, you see this sign: Upon entering on the left, a person spritzes your hands with hand sanitizer and on the right, another person will hand you the service bulletin. I’m… Read More At St. Mark’s Seattle
At Thursday’s Zoom session, frequent mention was made about St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New York City and we were led to believe that Hauptwerk (the digital organ sampling program) was used as their primary instrument. However, as you will read below, it was only used as a temporary instrument in the nave and now… Read More Just the facts, ma‘am
Let me tell you —It’s been a rough week! I’m writing this in the lobby of United Airlines at Honolulu International Airport as I wait for my flight to Seattle. I have always been a lousy sleeper but this week takes the cake. The pseudo-jet lag is like when I’ve just come back from Europe,… Read More Sleepless in Honolulu
Yesterday I had a most fascinating conversation with Dr. Jim Holt, as pictured below. He is a otolaryngologist (ears, nose, throat specialist) who has taken up the study of organ and music theory in his retirement. This was the starting point of our discussion, when he wrote in an email: There are two related topics… Read More Musical fluency
For some reason, I felt like saying this in Latin, “de profundis.” I feel like I’ve been to the abyss and back. However, it’s not because of any “sorrow or anguish” on my part. Why? On Tuesday I had my Covid booster shot and although I had been warned that some people were more deeply… Read More De profundis
You probably know that I’ve been struggling to learn Spanish over the last three years, spending two hours per day with Duolingo, listening to Spanish podcasts, attending online classes, having daily Zoom tutoring sessions and watching Spanish telenovelas every night. And yet … I consider myself an intermediate student with only a moderate fluency. Sure,… Read More It’s not fair!