We know that the pandemic has changed our lifestyles in many ways, but none so more as in our ways of worship and entertainment. Church services have gone virtual, as have all concerts, it seems. What made me sit up and take notice, though, was this recent Washington Post headline which read: “The pandemic forced… Read More Gamechanger
Uh oh, I said to myself, you are straying into dangerous territory here as I typed the title of this post. Isn’t this blog about music, and more specifically, about organs and organists? Haven’t we always been told to never bring up the subject of either religion or politics in polite company? Well, in spite… Read More Mixing religion and politics
It’s December 26th, the second day of Christmas and a rainy day here in Hawaii, but I wanted to share something fun for you. Who says that organ music is dull and boring?! EastWestOrganists is a group of ten organ colleagues who seek out individual concert engagements and have collaborated on one other video, Bach’s… Read More The 12 Days of Christmas
If you are a Facebook user, from time to time you will be reminded by your past in a feature called “On this day.” I was reminded of Christmas 2009 when this post from 11 years ago popped up: And just for fun, I called up the music list of all the music we performed… Read More Remembrance of Christmas past
[This post has been updated with additional information.] I just received this sad news: Preston Larson, former American Guild of Organists Hawaii Chapter member, passed away on December 15, 2020 in Phoenix AZ. He was born March 18, 1942 and was Emeritus Professor of Music at Brigham Young University Hawaii, where he taught organ performance… Read More RIP Preston Larson 1942-2020
Everyone knows that this Christmas is going to be different — all because of the pandemic. For one thing, this will be the first time in eight years that I will not be leaving Hawaii at Christmas. Yes, it’s true, since 2012 I have spent all my Christmases in California (except for three years ago,… Read More A different kind of Christmas
Of all the questions people have asked me, “Do you still play the organ?” is one of the most remarkable that I can remember. We had just arrived in Paris and immediately set off to find the house of my former teacher, Marcel Dupré. The house is now owned by another family, but the owner… Read More Do you still play the organ?
My Advent Organ Chorales concert was over just about an hour ago, and I have breathed a HUGE sigh of relief that there were no disasters! Being that it was a Facebook Live event, it means that there was no stopping allowed, no do overs, no “Wait, can we try that again.” I have to… Read More Whew! No disasters!
FDR. JFK. MLK. We love reducing these people’s names down to three letters as evidenced by these representations of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. Here are some more: LBJ. RBG. AOC. I bet you got real excited when you saw the title of this blog post, though, eh? Your first… Read More AOC at LCH
Until the year 2013, if it was the first Sunday in Advent, you could 100% count on hearing me play “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” Johann Sebastian Bach’s transcription of the fourth movement of Cantata 140 for organ. It is also known as the opening piece in the collection known as the Schübler chorales.… Read More It’s Advent, already!