Today is April 2nd, and before the coronavirus crisis was upon us, I would have been packing my suitcase and getting ready to get on an airplane to Atlanta, and then to St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia. Now, my tour has been rescheduled to 2021, and I’m trying hard not to feel badly about spending… Read More Grounded!
Yesterday Mark Boyle, who formerly sang tenor in the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, tagged me in this photo of an altarpiece by Matthias Grunenwald: In Mark’s post, he wrote: The basic idea is to take over Facebook with art, in order to disrupt, for a moment, negative news. Anyone who likes this post will be… Read More When life gives you lemons…
One of the events that got cancelled last week was a wedding I was supposed to play. You may recall that officials at first suggested no crowds bigger than 250, then the number was reduced to 100, then further reduced to 50. Finally, the magic number was limited to 10 people, which eliminated most church… Read More How great thou art
Throughout this coronavirus pandemic, the true heroes have turned out to be the unlikely: grocery clerks, gas station attendants, delivery drivers and others who you wouldn’t normally consider as people saving the world. But an organist? More specifically, an organist turned carillonneur, in the person of Joey Fala, my former student? In the March 24th,… Read More Unlikely hero
My friend from the Three Choirs Festival, Rich Arenschieldt, after reading my last post about being grateful to have an organ at home to play, observed that musicians are posting videos of themselves playing at home and sharing them on the Internet: “I love how much music is taking place and how supportive musicians are… Read More In quiet joy
It has now been one week of self-isolation and it being a beautiful day, I decided to escape the confines of my apartment to take a walk. As I walked past St. Andrew’s Cathedral, I was struck by the sight of absolutely no cars in the parking lot, something I have never seen before, especially… Read More Sunday morning and COVID-19
The next two Sundays, March 22 and 29, I was supposed to play the organ for services at Waiokeola Congregational Church … CANCELLED. I was contracted to play organ continuo for a performance of the Mozart Requiem by the Oahu Choral Society on April 4 … CANCELLED. Tom Poole at Calvary by the Sea Lutheran… Read More In the midst of a shutdown …
It happened last week, when Mark Wong came to play the service for the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, and there seemed to be a cipher (a note which sounds without being pushed down). A further investigation by Roy Helms, a member of the choir who once worked with organbuilder Paul Fritts, resulted in the discovery… Read More EEK! I smell a rat!
While the numbers of people were few, the enthusiasm was unmistakable of those who were brave enough to come out to a concert in these frightening times of the coronavirus pandemic. There was no problem keeping a “social distance” from other audience members in the large sanctuary. I’m speaking about yesterday’s absolutely phenomenal organ recital… Read More WOW! Absolutely phenomenal!
Organist Monica Czausz is in Hawaii this weekend (and is my delightful houseguest!) and when she arrived at the airport, she was greeted not only with a flower lei but also a comprehensive schedule of her time here, accounting for all of her practice time but also who was taking and picking her up from… Read More “That’s what we do”