Last weekend was the 50th anniversary of the dedicatory concerts by McNeil Robinson at the Beckerath organ of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, which in itself is an auspicious occasion — but whatʻs REALLY SCARY is that I was there in person, fifty years ago! Yikes! There were two dedication concerts, but since so much… Read More Fifty years later
Amidst the joy of performing Bach’s Mass in B Minor this past weekend was the somber news I received the day before about my former teacher, Joan Lippincott (12/25/35–5/31/25). I must say that I wasn’t surprised—my colleague, Clarence Cloak, had messaged me a few days before, to let me know that she was in hospice,… Read More Legendary Joan Lippincott
That’s how I felt about this afternoon’s performance of the Bach Mass in B minor by the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble under the baton of Timothy Carney — it was so exhilarating to play Bach in that acoustically live and beautiful space! And the choir, orchestra and soloists certainly rose to the occasion in performing… Read More Pure exhilaration and joy!
Ever since Easter, I have been beyond busy and have been juggling so many balls in the air that this is the first time in many weeks that I’m able to sit down and write this post. By far, the project that has consumed more than 60 hours (and counting!) of my time has been… Read More Beyond busy …
Today is May 6, and it’s been more than two weeks since Holy Week and Easter. For many church musicians, it’s the busiest week of the year. I played for seven services starting with three on Palm Sunday, one on Maundy Thursday, a two-and-a-half hour Easter Vigil service on Holy Saturday, and two grand Easter… Read More Survivor … but?!
It’s Holy Week — the busiest week of the year for church musicians. My late husband, Carl Crosier, used to call this “Holy H— Week,” because in addition to conducting nine services of music during the week, typing a complicated bulletin containing all the services and music of the Triduum, rehearsing the brass and choir… Read More The Holy Week marathon begins
My worlds collided this past week when I had two house guests, both visitors who performed in concerts this past weekend. I’m happy to report that both events were resounding successes! You may recall from my last post that Egija Claire, a friend of Scott Fikse from the Master’s program in Choral Conducting at the University… Read More Big weekend!
It’s Day 10 after returning from Iceland, and I’ve been so incredibly busy that I can hardly keep up with myself! This is Concert Week — on Saturday, there’s an Early Music Hawaii concert called “The Musical Journey: From New England to Honolulu,” with director Scott Fikse conducting music described as: The Early Music Hawaii… Read More Hitting the ground running!
In researching the types of experiences one might have in Iceland, I noticed that eating an Icelandic hot dog was on the “must do” list. Here’s what I found: Icelandic hot dogs are mainly made of hormone-free, grass-fed Icelandic lamb, mixed with beef and pork. There are more sheep on the island nation than humans, and… Read More Icelandic hot dogs, Rainbow Street and more
Today we are in west Iceland where we encountered a magical world of snow and ice on Langjökull— Iceland’s second largest glacier. In order to prepare ourselves to walk in the ice cave, we had to put on overshoes — shoes that fit over our existing boots— so that our feet wouldn’t get wet. We… Read More In the glacier