Our last night in Prague was spent together at a farewell dinner. The room was noisy with excited conversation and laughter, happiness in meeting new friends and a shared travel experience with long-time friends. Christel Yount made presentations and expressed appreciation to all the soloists, conductors and accompanists. She was also the mastermind of a… Read More Farewell to Prague
One thing I will remember about this Prague trip will certainly be the music making by the Hawaii Masterworks Chorus in beautiful churches with acoustically ambient spaces. Last night’s concert was such a highlight for performers and audience alike. So many people came out smiling and thanking us as they left the church. There is… Read More Music and motorcycles
Tonight was the last concert of the tour, and took place in San Salvator Church—the tour directors only figured out this afternoon that there were TWO San Salvator churches which were having concerts tonight, and they had to scramble to let everyone know that we were in the OTHER San Salvator Church! We were also… Read More Standing ovation in Prague
En route to Prague from Salzburg, we stopped at the Augustinian monastery and chapel at St. Florian, where composer Anton Bruckner grew up as a choirboy and became organist. We began with a 45-minute tour of the monastery and I was impressed with two major rooms: the library, which houses about 130,000 books and manuscripts;… Read More St. Florian
As I have written before, the vocal a cappella ensemble, Karol’s Karolers has joined the Hawaii Masterworks Chorus in its tour of Eastern Europe. They have also been invited to sing a piece separate from the larger group, and because their repertoire has not been widely publicized, it’s always a delightful surprise when they break… Read More He is still with us
We had the morning free so I chose to go back to Salzburg Cathedral (the Dom) where I had gone to the World Choral Fest 2018 concert last night. It was a program of music by Mozart and American composer, Dan Forrest, who happened to be in the audience last night. The 100+ singers were… Read More 5 organs in Salzburg Cathedral
Today we were reminded that the 1965 movie, The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, was filmed here in Salzburg, Austria. Since the film was in English and the local population speaks German, the film is not very well known here. However there is a whole industry built up for tourists who… Read More The Sound of Music
It was already time to say goodbye to Vienna so after breakfast we loaded our luggage into a trailer attached to our double decker bus. It was only about halfway to our destination that the Hawaii Masterworks Chorus director, Tim Carney, came to tell me that the Abbey had given me permission to play the… Read More Melk Abbey
Guess what, Queen Liliuokalani was at the Bergkirche this morning! Well, actually it was her composition, “The Queen’s Prayer,” that was sung by the Hawaii Masterworks Chorus at the Bergkirche at the offertory in today’s service. I am quite confident that this was the first time Hawaiian music was sung at this church where Joseph… Read More Queen Liliuokalani at the Bergkirche
You may remember that it was last year when I visited Eisenstadt, where composer Josef Haydn lived and is now buried in the Bergkirche, the “Hill” church. Go back and read my post, “Mission to Eisenstadt,” to refresh your memory. It was here that Haydn played the organ and premiered several of his mass settings.… Read More The miracle of Bergkirche