About two years ago I started watching the television show, “Doc Martin,” and vowed that one day I would try to visit village of Port Isaac, which features prominently in the storylines of the grumpy Doc, his beautiful love interest, Louisa Glasson, and a colorful cast of characters. We left early Sunday morning, expecting to… Read More In love with Cornwall
The organ world is mourning the passing of longtime organist and teacher, Marilyn Mason, who died on April 4th at the age of 93. You can read her complete obituary here, but now I will share an anecdote of her trip to Hawaii in 2007 which I’ve never told before. For those who don’t know,… Read More RIP Marilyn Mason 1925-2019
If the late Carl Crosier would have come to the concert I went to tonight, he might have described it as “four German chocolate cakes and two triple fudge sundaes!”—all in one sitting! That is because the program was called “A Celebration of J. S. Bach,” and consisted of four Bach motets and two cello… Read More Four German chocolate cakes+
In last night’s Voces8 concert, the director, Barnaby Smith, told us they were studying the demographics of their audience worldwide, and learned the biggest group of fans were women aged over 60! That’s us! Cadogan Hall looked completely sold out to us. One of the pieces we really enjoyed was Jonathan Dove’s “In Beauty May… Read More Women over 60
It’s now 10:04 pm on Thursday London time and I have been awake since 2:30 am Wednesday Hawai’i time and I’m so excited that I have heard (and seen) the a cappella Choral group Voces8 live in Cadogan Hall. The large room was acoustically as dead as a doornail, requiring the group to be perfectly… Read More Effortless perfection
Oh, it felt good to be back in my own bed in Honolulu last night, but it will be a short visit. I have approximately 36 hours in Honolulu before getting on the plane (again) and flying to London. I arrived last night about 7 pm and will be taking the 7 am flight to… Read More 36 hours in Honolulu
The people standing, the Celebrant says Arrrgh! Alleluia, Christ, he be risen! People Arrrgh! The Lord, he be risen indeed. Alleluia! The Celebrant says to the people The Lord be with ye. People And also with ye. Celebrant Let us pray. The Celebrant says the Collect. (use the Pirate Translator) People Aye, aye. Among some… Read More The Pirate Eucharist
Over two years ago when I came to play an all-Bach recital at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, their music director and organist, George Emblom, reluctantly showed me his office. My reaction to the chaos was, “But George, how do you get any work done in there?!” Another thing I remember telling him was that the… Read More Transformation
On my way to the Cathedral of the Christ of Light, I got a text from John Renke: The cathedral Rector had a massive heart attack after the Saturday evening mass and died last night. You’re coming to a very interesting Sunday here! I heard more of the story at the announcement to the parish… Read More A day at the Cathedral
I can’t say enough how much I fell in love with the Letourneau organ at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland. Over and over, as John Renke demonstrated the various stops, I couldn’t stop saying, “absolutely gorgeous!” The principals, flutes, strings, and reeds were all separately beautiful and the ensemble was well blended,… Read More Pure deliciousness!