Last night our Hawaii chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) had its Pau Hana Posaune, an informal pupu and cocktail party at a local restaurant. Now, a few definitions for you in case I’m using unfamiliar terms to you non-Hawaiians, non-organists. The term pau hana is a familiar one in Hawaii and means “the time… Read More Below the surface
In my last post, I mentioned my houseguest, Jason Anderson, the second director of the Seattle Compline Choir. You may recall from a previous post that Jason wrote his doctoral dissertation on the life and works of composer Peter Hallock and became his caregiver in his last days. Jason also took over as executor of his estate when… Read More Buried treasure
This was the first time I have attended an Organ Historical Society (OHS) convention and I have asked a number of the attendees how they perceived it is different from the conventions of the American Guild of Organists (AGO). Over and over I was told that “at AGO it’s about the personalities, and at OHS… Read More Personalities vs. Organs
Yesterday, one day after the magnificent 40th Anniversary celebration of the Beckerath organ, twenty members of the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists came to “The Marble Palace in the Sky,” (my condo) — for the members’ annual meeting and to see the newest pipe organ in Honolulu: the “box organ” built by… Read More Baby’s coming out party
In the last week, this blog has received numerous hits while searching for “McNeil Robinson,” who died on May 9, 2015. Here is what the American Guild of Organists posted on its website: McNeil Robinson 1943-2015 The American Guild of Organists is sad to announce the death of internationally renowned organist and composer McNeil Robinson… Read More In loving memory, McNeil Robinson
Last night belonged to Don Conover, retired Minister of Music and organist of the Church of the Crossroads. It was the first ever fundraiser for the Honolulu Chorale, a volunteer community chorus which has been in existence for forty-nine years and which has never charged admission to its concerts. Jeremy Wong, the interim choral director at… Read More Don’s night
Last week, my former student, Joey Fala, texted me about wanting to share “some breaking news,” and was eager to phone me. When we finally did talk, he wanted to confirm some of the details of his engagement here, for the fortieth anniversary of the Beckerath organ at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. That will be… Read More Super exciting news!
Every so often, I have the feeling that Carl Crosier is trying to prod me into not forgetting him, not that THAT would ever happen. I already wrote about Derek Chester‘s sending me the article from the San Francisco-based examiner.com, in which the writer used my photo of Derek and Carl at the Boston Early… Read More Popping up again!
Four years ago, our visiting organist, Hyunju Hwang, had heard about a live jam session happening every Thursday night at the Hilton Pasadena and decided to check it out. She was very curious to learn what kind of music-making could happen with the premise that anyone could join in the jam session and amazingly, some great music ensued. One… Read More Jamming with a church organist
You meet all kinds of people at music conventions and you never know where your conversations will lead. In fact it was fifteen years ago that I met organist and Lutheran pastor, Karl Bachman, at a national conference of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians in Richmond, VA. That was in July 2000. Just a few… Read More A conversation on the bus