“You love life in the fast lane, don’t you” was a text message I received from my sister last night as I was sitting in Neal Blaisdell Center Concert Hall, waiting for the Beethoven Ninth concert to begin. I had just gotten off the plane from 9 days on the mainland with my family in… Read More Life in the fast lane
If you’re guessing that I spent yesterday morning playing the organ at Kawaiaha’o Church, you guessed right! On Friday, I got a call from Nola Nahulu, the director, saying that the organist, Buddy, had pneumonia and wouldn’t be able to make it on Sunday. Oh, and by the way, she was going to send me… Read More Quick study
Tonight was the Iolani School’s Winter Concert for the Hokuloa Singers and Chorus, and we had a closed circuit television set up on the organ console so I could see the conductor, John Alexander. It consists of a video camera connected to a television monitor and it has worked extremely well in the past—there is no delay in… Read More Technology – BAH, HUMBUG!
As you may remember from my recent post, “An early Christmas miracle,” I served as the co-chair for my building’s holiday party which happened on Monday. In the morning, in spite of getting lost and spending a half hour needlessly driving in circles, I picked up 28 tablecloths from a party rental business. I had the… Read More Loaves and fishes
I was already awake and had eaten my breakfast when I went to retrieve my phone messages about 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning. Apparently a phone call had came in at 6:10 am and I saw that choral director, Nola Nahulu, had left me a voicemail. Good morning, Kathy. It’s Nola, 6:10 already. Buddy is really, really sick and… Read More All in a day’s work
I changed my Facebook cover photo as you can see above, and a number of people made comments about my Christmas tablescape, which is different every year. In the years that my husband and I were in church music, in addition to making the music, we also gave a lot of parties. In fact, the first… Read More An early Christmas miracle
It’s a musician’s worst nightmare… being in the middle of a concert and the lights go completely black! Yes, it happened in Kona last night, right after the Kona Choral Society had performed the Hallelujah Chorus, and we were in the middle of “Worthy is the lamb.” All of a sudden, the house lights started to… Read More …and then the lights went OUT!
I’m soon to get on the plane to Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii, almost 170 miles away from Honolulu, to perform with the Kona Choral Society on their annual Handel Messiah concert, Sunday, December 4th at the Sheraton Kona Resort. This will be my fourth year performing with this group On the first… Read More Bach in Kona
Flabbergasted! Okay, even though I know what it means, it’s not a word that I use in ordinary conversation. The term originated in 1772, and was mentioned (with bored) in a magazine article as a new vogue word, likely an arbitrary formation from flabby or flapper and aghast. Dictionary.com defines the word flabbergasted as an adjective, “to overcome with surprise… Read More Flabbergasted!
Here’s a live Facebook video of Stanford’s Magnificat. I wasn’t even looking over in the direction of the choir, but as soon as she opened her mouth, I knew that voice. It was Sophia Stark, super-talented daughter of Georgine and Darel Stark, themselves super-talented parents! The piece was Charles Villiers Stanford’s Magnificat, and it was performed at… Read More Already a star!