Yesterday’s text message from organist Dan Werning, now living in Bangkok, Thailand, introduced us to Okey Okafor, Nigerian organist at Christ Church. I was so fascinated by Okey’s story that Dan encouraged me to write to him! My musical journey started started when I was a kid. My father was an organist in a church… Read More Easter in Bangkok
Today is Easter Day 2021, and we took a step towards normalcy. Oh, this doesn’t mean I played for church as normal as I didn’t play a single note on the organ today, since I recorded my organ voluntaries and the hymns over two weeks ago! What seemed almost “normal” was to see my long-time… Read More A step towards normal?!
Maybe you saw the recent article about dropping church membership: “U.S. Church Membership Down Sharply in Past Two Decades.” The study revealed that half of Americans are church members, down from 70% in 1999. Most of the decline is attributable to increase in percentage with no religion and membership has fallen nine points among those… Read More Grateful, but …
Apparently a number of my friends were unaware that our mutual friend, Preston Larson, died last December of Covid. The post I wrote, “RIP Preston Larson 1942-2020” somehow got overlooked in the busy Advent/Christmas season. So if you’d like to read his obituary, you can click the link. I guess I must have been pretty… Read More A really good friend
The following post in the Facebook Organists Association page elicited many responses: Anthony Williams wrote: I have a question for the church musicians. Are you using brass for Easter? Usually, we have a brass quartet, however, with the pandemic we are deciding tonight whether or not to use brass. Any thoughts or suggestions would be… Read More Brass on Easter?
Even though Easter is not until April 4, this morning I recorded the music for Easter—trumpeter Russell Ishida and I are joining forces to perform John Stanley’s Trumpet Voluntary, three verses of EASTER HYMN with a descant on the last verse by Dale Wood, and a trumpet and organ arrangement of Rigaudon by Andre Campra.… Read More Early Easter?!
From time to time I have written about the pipe organ project at All Saints Episcopal Church in Kapa’a, Kaua’i. Check out my post, “Good news for a change!” for photos of the instrument in huge crates. The instrument actually arrived on the island in October 2020, and because of the pandemic, there have been… Read More A pipe organ for Kaua’i
I guess you could call me a morning person. This morning I woke up about 4:00 am, read all my emails and practiced my Spanish, then I decided to drive to the church and play the organ. As you may recall, usually every Friday I record all the music for the Sunday in the week… Read More Like the old days
Next week Early Music Hawaii will present another delightful concert in its virtual season, the Diderot String Quartet with Harry Bicket in a program of 17th c. string music, called “Journey through Baroque Europe.” The program will include music by Castello, Biber, Muffatt, Krieger, and Durante. The premiere will take place next Friday, March 12th… Read More Period string quartet
We’re still not having in-person services at my church job, Nu‘uanu Congregational Church, but since restrictions in Hawaii are loosening, I thought I’d better get the organ checked out since I last played it on the first Sunday in August. Everything seemed to be okay when I played on the Great, with the Swell manual… Read More Uninvited guests