On Facebook, Steve Iverson of Seattle has been posting historic photos of composer and church musician, Peter Hallock (the Crosiers’ former business partner) in honor of the fourth anniversary of Peter’s death, April 28, 2014. I can’t believe it has been four years already! Some of these pictures are new to me, even though you can… Read More Four years already
In spite of only coming back to Hawaii on Tuesday, I’ve had to hit the ground running and will be playing several different organs within the week. Next weekend will especially be busy because of a Friday night rehearsal and Sunday concert at St. John Vianney, playing the prelude for Pastor Fritz Fritschel‘s funeral service… Read More Planning ahead for a busy week
I have been home scarcely two days and jet lag has hit me hard—as it always does. There’s no problem going east in spite of having no sleep on the plane, but coming home is a different story! I arrived in Honolulu about 3:30 pm on Tuesday, with a 3 hour stop in San Francisco… Read More John Alexander’s Requiem
Of course, I could not come all the way to North Carolina without stopping to see Linden Doescher, who moved to Asheville with her late husband, Eric Doescher, in 2009. The Doeschers were our program folding experts in those days before the Lutheran Church of Honolulu got a color copier, and before it had the… Read More The Biltmore experience
Imagine setting your alarm for 3:40 am, only to have an ear worm stuck in your head and stay up all night anyway. You hear the church bells in the distance faintly ring 11 times, and after awhile, 12, then 1, then 2, then finally 3 times indicating it’s now 3:00 am. Imagine arranging for… Read More Catastrophic Kathy
Okay. The real reason I came to Amsterdam? That was to see the tulips! Oh, I’ve been to Amsterdam three times before, but every single time, it was been in the winter— raining, cold and miserable. In fact, what I remembered about Amsterdam was that there were two things on the street: dog poop and… Read More Springtime in Amsterdam
Well, I saved the best for last—my visit to St. Nicholas Basilica all came about because of Joe Pettit, former Honolulu resident, organist and choirmaster. When he found out that I was going to Amsterdam, he fixed me up with Michael Hedley, who with his wife, Colleen, moved to Amsterdam in the 80s. Joe called it “hands… Read More St. Nicolas Basilica, Amsterdam
,,, and probably just another concert for members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, but for me, a magical night of music! What made it so extraordinary was hearing a world-class orchestra in these extraordinary acoustics—it made all the difference. I didn’t realize I had booked a ticket SO CLOSE—even though my ticket was listed at… Read More A night at the Concertgebouw
When I was growing up, one of my father’s favorite activity was gardening—he cultivated cymbidium orchids and had a hothouse in the back yard full of them and of all varieties. He also loved going to nurseries and botanic gardens. All of my growing up years when he would say, “Let’s go see some flowers!”… Read More Boring … NOT!
This afternoon I reconnected with Diane Amidon, who lives in nearby Raleigh, NC. She and I first became acquainted when we were both freshmen at USC School of Music—she was a soprano voice major, and I knew her then as Diane Rose. I lost track of her after sophomore year and didn’t find out that… Read More Reminiscing and reconnecting