Maybe you saw these photos and stories about organ music being played Salisbury Cathedral as people were receiving vaccinations. It was reported on a number of news outlets such as CNN. The Telegraph, The Guardian and the BBC. Here’s what was reported by The Guardian: Graham Turner, 88, a chaplain at Salisbury Cathedral, wore his… Read More Organ music and the vaccine
We know that the pandemic has changed our lifestyles in many ways, but none so more as in our ways of worship and entertainment. Church services have gone virtual, as have all concerts, it seems. What made me sit up and take notice, though, was this recent Washington Post headline which read: “The pandemic forced… Read More Gamechanger
It’s December 26th, the second day of Christmas and a rainy day here in Hawaii, but I wanted to share something fun for you. Who says that organ music is dull and boring?! EastWestOrganists is a group of ten organ colleagues who seek out individual concert engagements and have collaborated on one other video, Bach’s… Read More The 12 Days of Christmas
If you are a Facebook user, from time to time you will be reminded by your past in a feature called “On this day.” I was reminded of Christmas 2009 when this post from 11 years ago popped up: And just for fun, I called up the music list of all the music we performed… Read More Remembrance of Christmas past
[This post has been updated with additional information.] I just received this sad news: Preston Larson, former American Guild of Organists Hawaii Chapter member, passed away on December 15, 2020 in Phoenix AZ. He was born March 18, 1942 and was Emeritus Professor of Music at Brigham Young University Hawaii, where he taught organ performance… Read More RIP Preston Larson 1942-2020
Everyone knows that this Christmas is going to be different — all because of the pandemic. For one thing, this will be the first time in eight years that I will not be leaving Hawaii at Christmas. Yes, it’s true, since 2012 I have spent all my Christmases in California (except for three years ago,… Read More A different kind of Christmas
FDR. JFK. MLK. We love reducing these people’s names down to three letters as evidenced by these representations of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. Here are some more: LBJ. RBG. AOC. I bet you got real excited when you saw the title of this blog post, though, eh? Your first… Read More AOC at LCH
Until the year 2013, if it was the first Sunday in Advent, you could 100% count on hearing me play “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” Johann Sebastian Bach’s transcription of the fourth movement of Cantata 140 for organ. It is also known as the opening piece in the collection known as the Schübler chorales.… Read More It’s Advent, already!
Last Saturday night I had been watching TV and then got up to get a drink of water when I saw the trail of blood, coming out from the refrigerator! If this had been a horror movie, the presence of blood dripping out meant that there was a body inside! Drip, drip, drip… the blood… Read More A tale of two turkeys
Last night was the official debut of the Estonia piano at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, which culminated in a Facebook Live event featuring Maika’i Nash and Mark Wong. They performed music for two pianos in a concert called Taevamuusika, which is Estonian for “music of the heavens.” You can refresh your memory on the… Read More Taevamuusika