I have just come from the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, CA, where I had the great fortune of playing the Letourneau organ … and I have to say it is absolutely one of the greatest and most thrilling experiences of my life! Oh, I have played many beautiful organs in beautiful… Read More Absolutely the greatest … !
This morning I attended the 10:00 am service at St. Mark’s Episcopal in Berkeley, CA where I am helping to organize the music director’s office. George Emblom introduced me to the choir after the warmup and related the conversation I had with him on my visit here two years ago. In looking at the state… Read More Free for the taking
As you know, yesterday was Bach’s birthday (March 21) and Google created an artificial intelligence-powered Google doodle that lets you compose your own music in the style of J. S. Bach. Did you try it? You could put in a single line melody and the Google doodle would harmonize it in four parts, in the… Read More Bach on BART
Last week I was copied on an email message from a woman who is a former graduate student at the University of Oklahoma. It so happens that she is a former student of Adam Pajan, who stayed with me as my houseguest while he is on a 3-island Hawaii concert tour. She was trying to… Read More I knew I had it somewhere!
One constant in our Hawai’i Chapter American Guild of Organist concerts is the “spiel” given by Karl Bachman at intermission to encourage people to give offerings. I always look forward to hearing these little “sermonettes” — filled with humor, and sometimes I’ve gotten a shout-out. Here is an excerpt from yesterday’s concert with Adam Pajan:… Read More A HUGE leap of faith!
Do you know what a “palindrome” is? It’s a word or phrase that reads the same backwards or forwards. Some single word examples are redivider, deified, civic, radar, level, rotor, kayak, reviver, racecar, redder, madam, and refer. Here are some famous palindromic phrases: Eva, Can I Stab Bats In A Cave? A Man, A Plan,… Read More Madam, I’m Adam
In my last post, “A leap of faith,” I wrote about the beginnings of our Annual Organ Concert series, and how it all started with the concert with Paul Jacobs in 2006. Since then we have hosted twelve more annual organ concerts of “rising stars” — you can see a list of the artists here.… Read More Meet Adam Pajan
Fourteen years ago, our Hawai’i Chapter of the American Guild of Organists took a leap of faith when it decided to present organist Paul Jacobs for a concert. I had been absolutely wowed by Paul’s performance at St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City and vowed to have him come to Hawaii for a concert.… Read More A leap of faith
Are you sure you didn’t mean Buxtehude’s Passacaglia in D minor? Everyone knows Bach’s monumental Passacaglia is in C minor — in fact I know the piece so well because I played it on my master’s recital. So yesterday when I went to Dan Werning‘s organ recital at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church yesterday, my ears perked… Read More Bach’s Passacaglia in D minor?!
Today I filled in for organist Gloria Faltstrom at Waiokeola Congregational Church. When I came to practice last Tuesday, I was given enlarged photocopies of the hymns. Smaller versions were also printed in the Sunday bulletin which I picked up this morning before the service. The last hymn was not familiar to me—at least I… Read More Familiarity breeds … confusion!