Today was Bill Potter’s birthday and our tour director, Sonia, called for everyone on the bus to sing “Happy Birthday,” which turned out to be more of a monotone rather than the typical multiple-tonal version performed by non-musicians. Our day started with a tour of City Hall, where the annual Nobel Prize banquet is held… Read More City Hall, Vikings and Uppsala
While researching possibilities for our free time in Sweden, naturally I Googled “pipe organs in Stockholm” and one instrument whose photo intrigued me from the beginning is located in Uppenbarelsekyrkan, Hägersten. When I found out the organ was built in 2022 by Gerhard Grenzing, I was delighted, having visited the Gerhard Grenzing pipe organ factory… Read More A stunning instrument in a stunning building
It’s just a few minutes after midnight in Stockholm and I’ve just crawled into bed at our hotel! Our plane left Honolulu on time Sunday morning at 7:00 am, so Jieun Newland and I decided to pick up Bill Potter at 5:30 am, meaning that I set my alarm for 4:30 am and we would… Read More 26+ hours to Stockholm!
organist superhero noun organist su·per·he·ro ˈsü-pər-ˌhir-(ˌ)ō -ˌhē-(ˌ)rō : someone able to play the organ for church services: a fictional hero having extraordinary or superhuman powers, namely playing organ voluntaries such as preludes and postlude; accompanying congregational hymns and chant by cantors; improvising as necessary to connect various parts of the services; providing music during distribution of Holy Communion; also : an exceptionally… Read More Organist superhero!
As I was leaving the Marriott Marquis Hotel in San Francisco this morning, I received a text alert on my phone: I was already in Group 1 to board the plane, and after only a few minutes of stowing my luggage in the overhead bin and strapping on my seat belt, I saw the United… Read More Status 1K! Woo hoo!
The first event of the morning for me was Choral Matins in Grace Cathedral. You must know that this whole convention was about choices — in addition to Matins, you could also elect to go to an African-American worship service in a Baptist church or an organ and violin concert by a Chinese organist. There… Read More Last day of the convention
Since I arrived in San Francisco early on Monday morning, I can honestly say that I haven’t stopped moving except to catch a few winks before getting up early and doing it all over again. For example, yesterday after Joey Fala’s concert, I boarded the bus to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley to hear… Read More Wall-to-wall activities
One of the best programs of the convention so far…Powerful performance …Strong sense of driving rhythm …My favorite concert of the convention! These were some of the comments I heard from audience members after former student Joey Fala’s performance at the First Church of Christ Scientist in Berkeley today. And all day, people from the… Read More Joey’s Day!
Tonight’s concert featured two superstars of the organ world, Olivier Latry of Notre Dame cathedral of Paris, and his wife, Shin-Young Lee, who to me previously was unknown, but certainly as deserving as her husband the moniker of “superstar.” The concert took place at St. Ignatius Church, with a new organ by Hupalo & Repasky… Read More Twenty fingers, four feet!
No question, the performances at organists’ conventions are the best of the best, AND these performers are at the top of their game. We heard two of best this afternoon, Ken Cowan from Rice University and Peter Sykes from Juilliard and Boston University. Ken Cowan played a gorgeous E. M. Skinner organ (1925/1928) at Trinity… Read More Connections