I am soooo sorry that we English speakers have such inadequate words to express ourselves! Maybe it would be better if I said it in Spanish instead! ¡GUAU GUAU GUAU! This afternoon was Caroline Robinson’s organ concert at Central Union Church and right off the bat she opened with a stunning performance of Anne Wilson’s… Read More Caroline. WOW WOW WOW!
Yesterday on my monthly visit to the island of Kaua’i to teach organ students I met Noah Smith, the summer organ intern at All Saints Episcopal Church. Noah is here from May 29th to August 7th, primarily to play the Sunday 9:30 am services while the church’s Director of Music, Henry Adams Curtis, is on… Read More In his genes
“Nice T-shirt you have on.” I heard the voice of a young man behind me as I was on my daily 2-1/2 mile walk through downtown Honolulu. He was pushing a stroller with a blond toddler, and caught up with me. I was wearing my T-shirt from the Organ Historical Society—the OHS is a not-for-profit organization… Read More A T-shirt leads to a conversation
Today I had the opportunity to not only see but to play the new Rosales organ at All Saints Episcopal Church in Kapa’a, on the island of Kaua’i. I set my alarm for 5:00 am to get ready for my morning flight to “The Garden Island,” parked my car in the inter-island terminal and took… Read More A day on Kaua‘i
This afternoon I was very happy to hear that Adam Pajan opened the Inaugural Concert of the Rosales Organ (the Sloggett/Wilcox Ohana Organ) with Marcel Dupré’s Cortège et litanie, a piece I learned as a teenager with Dupré himself. Adam said that the piece was a great one to showcase the many colors of an… Read More Rosales puts Kaua‘i on the map!
This coming week I will be playing the first of several end-of-the-year events for St. Andrew’s Priory School, starting with Ascension Day, the school’s traditional Founders Day event. St. Andrew’s Priory School was founded on Ascension Day, May 30, 1867, by Queen Emma, wife of King Kamehameha IV, and Mother Priscilla Lydia Sellon of the… Read More Getting back to “normal” — almost!
If you asked the average man or woman in the street, what are the odds that they would know what a pipe organ is? Not likely, I would guess, and I can’t count the number of people who walked into the Lutheran Church of Honolulu and exclaimed to me, “That’s a really big PIANO!” (Uh,… Read More Pipe organs in the news!
Last night was the opening Welcome Dinner for the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists, and look at the big crowd we had! People literally came out of the woodwork—and for some people, it’s been DECADES since they have attended a meeting of local organists. (By the way, not everyone was in the picture! Some… Read More They came out of the woodwork!
As the horrifying images of Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral on fire spread throughout the world, there was an overwhelming anxiety in the organ world, “What is happening to the organ?” I was especially alarmed when I saw this drone photo of the nave on fire. Surely, the organ was lost! It is the largest organ… Read More ‘It is a miracle!’
This morning I attended the 10:00 am service at St. Mark’s Episcopal in Berkeley, CA where I am helping to organize the music director’s office. George Emblom introduced me to the choir after the warmup and related the conversation I had with him on my visit here two years ago. In looking at the state… Read More Free for the taking