Yesterday I watched with pride, my former organ student, Joey Fala, give a tour and recital on the carillon at Duke University. It was part of a series of events for RSCM America—that stands for Royal School of Church Music. Luckily the video is available on YouTube so you can watch it too. (the whole… Read More Organists as carillonneurs
I mostly associate the term “Christmas in July” as a retail event, when stores advertise Christmas merchandise in an effort to boost lagging sales. There’s even a Wikipedia entry for this: Christmas in July or Christmas in Summer is a second Christmas celebration held around the summer season, mainly during July. It is centered around Christmas-themed activities and entertainment,… Read More Christmas in July
Matchmaker, Matchmaker,Make me a match,Find me a find,catch me a catchMatchmaker, MatchmakerLook through your book,And make me a perfect match. (From Fiddler on the Roof, by Michele Marsh, Neva Small, and Rosalind Harris) Out of all my activities as an organist and organ teacher in Hawaii, I think my part in playing “matchmaker” is definitely… Read More Matchmaker
In my last post, I wrote that in many previous summers, I would be traveling, listening to organ recitals, perhaps playing fabulous organs in Europe, or going to museums. Even Facebook reminded me that it was only three years ago that I was in Austria with the Hawaii Masterworks Festival Chorus, playing the Melk Abbey… Read More An afternoon with Van Gogh
For much of my adult life, if it was summer, I would be taking the opportunities to gather with my colleagues at an organists convention (American Guild of Organists = AGO) or church musicians conference (Association of Lutheran Church Musicians = ALCM). I’ve also attended conventions of the Royal College of Canadian Organists (RCCO) and… Read More Beauty endures
I usually get a draft of the service order a few weeks ahead where I find out what the hymns and other musical parts of the service are going to be. I submit titles of my organ voluntaries for the prelude, introit and postlude on Mondays for the following Sundays. I then get a draft… Read More Like catching fastballs
Two years ago, on April 15, 2019, the world watched in horror at the tragic fire at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, France. At that time, organists all over the world breathed a sigh of relief when the fire did not reach the historic Cathedral organ. Last August, work began to dismantle and… Read More Devastating fire
Maybe you saw the Washington Post opinion piece today, “It’s hard to sell a piano these days. It’s even harder to contemplate junking one.” Author John Ficarra, who was the editor of Mad magazine from 1985-2018, was lucky and ended up using it as a trade-in for a new instrument. Ficarra wrote: It hasn’t been… Read More Rescuing the unwanted
If you have been reading this blog since November 2020, you may remember the post I wrote about my husband’s fortepiano, “The fortepiano returns!” You may recall that my husband, Carl, was the recipient of a Philip Belt fortepiano upon the death of his college piano teacher, Else Geissmar. Then when Carl died, he bequeathed… Read More A new home for Else!
If this had been a normal year, I would have been in Boston now, attending the biennial Boston Early Music Festival as I have done five or six times before. I would be fighting off jet lag and trying to keep my eyes open during the opening opera, “Le Carnaval de Venise,” although dazzled by… Read More Virtual BEMF