This morning we woke up in Lourdes—but tonight we’ll be sleeping in Zaragoza, Spain. I don’t know why I decided to wear this particular T-shirt, but at breakfast, I challenged my sisters to identify the music. My sister Margo correctly identified the composer as Bach. I was sure that my organist companions knew what the… Read More On the road to Spain
As we were leaving the service this morning at the Basilica of Immaculate Conception here in Lourdes, France, I made a remark to my sister, “if Carl were here, he’d be in hog heaven!” referring to my late husband who was a church musician extraordinaire. I’m sure that his influence on me STILL is why… Read More Hog heaven!
We left our Toulouse hotel yesterday morning and drove 2-1/2 hours to the town of Lourdes, made famous by the apparitions of Mary, mother of Jesus, seen by a 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubirous, also known as Saint Bernadette of Lourdes. According to Wikipedia, “she was the firstborn daughter of a miller from Lourdes (Lorda in Occitan), in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées in… Read More The Lourdes experience
GoAhead Tours describes the “Marian Shrines and the Way of St. James” tour as: Trace the route devout pilgrims have walked since the middle ages. Follow in the footsteps of medieval pilgrims as you make your way through France, Spain, and Portugal on this immersive tour. As you go, admire some of the holiest sites… Read More Wine, dine and shrine!
It’s been a LONG time since I left Honolulu on Sunday night where I flew first to Ka’anapali, Mau’i, for a couple hours, then on to San Francisco, and then to Burbank, California, where I had dinner with my son and his family. Then in spite of leaving early at 7:00 am for an 11:00… Read More C’est magnifique!
And a race to the finish! That pretty much typifies the last week before a trip… but this week things seem particularly frantic. Within the past few days, along with baritone Keane Ishii and Early Music Hawaii President, Ian Capps, we gave a demonstration of early music to over 60 first graders at Pearl City… Read More A flurry of activity
Yesterday’s opening number in the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra’s first concert of the season was “Raise the Roof” by Michael Daugherty, featuring the orchestra’s principal timpanist, Brad Davis. This was certainly a new one for me, and perhaps I’m showing off my musical ignorance by saying that I had never heard of a timpani concerto before.… Read More A timpani “tour de force”
A couple of weeks ago, Tim Carney of the Hawai’i Vocal Arts Ensemble wrote me: Organist for Luigi Gatti Creation? Hi Kathy, HVAE is singing this fascinating Mass based on music from Haydn’s Creation…Gatti was one of many composers who adapted Haydn’s music for a Mass setting in the early 18th century. It has an… Read More Wishful thinking
What’s a group of dinosaurs called? This is what I found after a Google search: It is generally considered safe to refer to a group of hunting predators, such as Velociraptors, as a pack and a large group of herbivores, such as sauropods, as a herd. Yet, on Quora, I found this: Depends on the type… Read More A pack or a herd?
You’ll never guess what I’m practicing now … a piano version of “Let it go,” from the Disney movie, “Frozen”which I’m adapting to play on the harpsichord. It’s generally not the type of music I play, but it’s all to prepare for a school presentation for Early Music Hawaii in a couple of weeks. The… Read More The fastest way to learn