Yesterday’s concert with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra was one of those times when you leave the hall with a lighter spring in your step, and the adrenaline is rushing through your veins. Much of that was due to the exciting conducting of Rei Hotoda, who made her HSO debut yesterday. What I found so mesmerizing… Read More Dynamo guest-conducts HSO
Yesterday I attended the spring benefit event, Kupu A‘e 2019, for the Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus at the Dole Cannery, which included a buffet lunch, silent auction and entertainment by the HYOC and guests. The Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus is Hawaii’s oldest and most advanced community youth choir, offering a full spectrum of music education… Read More 58 years of teaching kids
I have been home for less than two days—it’s 2:25 am and can’t sleep. Ah jet lag, my old friend, what’s new?! In looking over my photos, I realized I took a bunch more which I haven’t posted yet from our trip to Port Isaac, the real life village of Doc Martin. On our walking… Read More Churches in Port Isaac
I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming: There’s the lifeboat station, oh, and over there is where Doc Martin buys his fish. Look, there’s Mrs Tishell’s pharmacy and here’s the restaurant where Martin has lunch with his friend. Oh, and over there I see Doc Martin’s surgery! About two years ago,… Read More Portwenn: A dream come true
For the last part of our tour of Cornwall, we stopped at Jamaica Inn which was built as a coaching inn in 1750, and had an association with smuggling. It was the setting for Daphne du Maurier’s 1936 novel Jamaica Inn, which was made into the film Jamaica Inn in 1939 by Alfred Hitchcock. We… Read More Jamaica Inn, Padstow and Doyden Castle
St. Nonna’s Church of Altarnun is known as the “Cathedral of the Moors.” St. Nonna was the mother of St. David and left her native Wales around the year 527. She was one of many Celtic missionaries who passed through Cornwall on their way to Europe in the 6th and 7th centuries. Our driver, Jon,… Read More St. Nonna’s Church, Altarnun
A hearty farmhouse breakfast After a HUGE breakfast at the Tregellist Farm, we were picked up by Jon of Cornwall Tours for a scheduled eight hours-long custom tour of the Cornwall countryside. But first—we ran into a Cornwall traffic jam! Our first stop was Port Isaac aka Portwenn, the fictional village in the television show,… Read More Spectacular scenery in Cornwall
About two years ago I started watching the television show, “Doc Martin,” and vowed that one day I would try to visit village of Port Isaac, which features prominently in the storylines of the grumpy Doc, his beautiful love interest, Louisa Glasson, and a colorful cast of characters. We left early Sunday morning, expecting to… Read More In love with Cornwall
The organ world is mourning the passing of longtime organist and teacher, Marilyn Mason, who died on April 4th at the age of 93. You can read her complete obituary here, but now I will share an anecdote of her trip to Hawaii in 2007 which I’ve never told before. For those who don’t know,… Read More RIP Marilyn Mason 1925-2019
If the late Carl Crosier would have come to the concert I went to tonight, he might have described it as “four German chocolate cakes and two triple fudge sundaes!”—all in one sitting! That is because the program was called “A Celebration of J. S. Bach,” and consisted of four Bach motets and two cello… Read More Four German chocolate cakes+