Edith Ho, 1932-2021. We brought a lei for Edith as she was honored in 2007 at her retirement from the Church of the Advent, Boston. Luckily she had a blouse to match! Edith Ho wasn’t more than five feet tall yet she was a giant in the field of church music. In one of the… Read More A giant in church music
(My new companion, C.P.E. Bach!) Since the pandemic, my daily life has started with a 2-1/2 mile walk (during which I listened to Spanish podcasts), 45 minutes of Spanish practice with Duolingo, a one-hour online Spanish class “Cada Dia Spanish”, a 45-minute Zoom conversation in Spanish with Vreni Griffith and/or Cindy Scheinert, two local friends,… Read More My life changed … with one phone call
Yesterday I watched with pride, my former organ student, Joey Fala, give a tour and recital on the carillon at Duke University. It was part of a series of events for RSCM America—that stands for Royal School of Church Music. Luckily the video is available on YouTube so you can watch it too. (the whole… Read More Organists as carillonneurs
I mostly associate the term “Christmas in July” as a retail event, when stores advertise Christmas merchandise in an effort to boost lagging sales. There’s even a Wikipedia entry for this: Christmas in July or Christmas in Summer is a second Christmas celebration held around the summer season, mainly during July. It is centered around Christmas-themed activities and entertainment,… Read More Christmas in July
Matchmaker, Matchmaker,Make me a match,Find me a find,catch me a catchMatchmaker, MatchmakerLook through your book,And make me a perfect match. (From Fiddler on the Roof, by Michele Marsh, Neva Small, and Rosalind Harris) Out of all my activities as an organist and organ teacher in Hawaii, I think my part in playing “matchmaker” is definitely… Read More Matchmaker
In my last post, I wrote that in many previous summers, I would be traveling, listening to organ recitals, perhaps playing fabulous organs in Europe, or going to museums. Even Facebook reminded me that it was only three years ago that I was in Austria with the Hawaii Masterworks Festival Chorus, playing the Melk Abbey… Read More An afternoon with Van Gogh
For much of my adult life, if it was summer, I would be taking the opportunities to gather with my colleagues at an organists convention (American Guild of Organists = AGO) or church musicians conference (Association of Lutheran Church Musicians = ALCM). I’ve also attended conventions of the Royal College of Canadian Organists (RCCO) and… Read More Beauty endures
I usually get a draft of the service order a few weeks ahead where I find out what the hymns and other musical parts of the service are going to be. I submit titles of my organ voluntaries for the prelude, introit and postlude on Mondays for the following Sundays. I then get a draft… Read More Like catching fastballs
Two years ago, on April 15, 2019, the world watched in horror at the tragic fire at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, France. At that time, organists all over the world breathed a sigh of relief when the fire did not reach the historic Cathedral organ. Last August, work began to dismantle and… Read More Devastating fire
Maybe you saw the Washington Post opinion piece today, “It’s hard to sell a piano these days. It’s even harder to contemplate junking one.” Author John Ficarra, who was the editor of Mad magazine from 1985-2018, was lucky and ended up using it as a trade-in for a new instrument. Ficarra wrote: It hasn’t been… Read More Rescuing the unwanted