When I opened the newspaper today, I was stunned to find the obituary for C. Robert Clarke, who died April 5, 2020, surrounded by his family. Chances are, most of our church music friends and colleagues won’t have heard of or known this kind and generous man, but he was a very important person and… Read More RIP C. Robert Clarke, 1926-2020
April 27, 2014 was the day our business partner and friend of 38 years, composer and church musician Peter R. Hallock passed from this life to the next. I invite you to reread the posts I wrote six years ago to mourn his passing: In paradisum, Peter Hallock: Announcement of his death on April 27,… Read More Six years ago today
It was just about a month ago that I dragged out my sewing machine and started making cloth face masks—an activity which has consumed me 10-12 hours a day for the last few weeks. The motivation for sewing masks came from my son and daughter-in-law, who complained that the Los Angeles mayor had mandated the… Read More From Honolulu with love …
A couple of weeks ago I joined in a Zoom meeting of Deans in the American Guild of Organists. The Dean of the AGO Chapter is like the local president, and I am completing my second year. I think this is at least my third, and maybe even my fourth (!) stint as Dean of… Read More Just called to say ‘Hello’
In the years that I was in church music, Holy Week was known as Holy Hell Week in our household, in that we had nine choral services to perform in the time between Palm Sunday and Easter Day. None of the services was identical; each had its special chants, hymns, anthems and motets—the choir probably… Read More An Easter weekend like no other
Our local newspaper, the Star-Advertiser, runs a feature photo on Sundays titled “Back in the day.” Last Sunday, when I opened up my paper, I was so surprised to see this! Unfortunately, it’s not only the tradition of theater music that’s dying… it’s organ music in general. There are simply fewer organists to go around… Read More Back in the day
Yes, that was me standing in front of Fabric Mart this morning, waiting outside for almost THREE HOURS to buy fabric to make face masks. It was because Mayor Kirk Caldwell had mandated that Honolulu residents wear face masks when going outside. I also had talked to my daughter-in-law the night before and heard that… Read More Three hours!
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