On Sunday night, Pastor Jeff Lilley acknowledged the congregation of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu for having the vision and then supporting the vision of a fine music program with a quality tracker organ. And in a Facebook conversation, someone marveled at the sight of the 40-year-old Beckerath — still looking fresh and new and having… Read More The Beckerath B.C. (Before Carl)
From all accounts, last night’s 40th anniversary of the Beckerath organ was a grand and glorious occasion and the church should feel extremely proud to have put on a first class act. From Joey Fala’s stunning and magnificent playing, to the energetic congregational singing, to the colorful and elegant 16-page souvenir program, to the delicious… Read More Magnificent Joey!
In this week leading up to the anniversary of the Beckerath organ, I can’t help but think that there were three important people forty years ago who are no longer with us: Rudolf von Beckerath, Carl Crosier and McNeil Robinson who were so instrumental in putting this organ on the map: Rudolf von Beckerath, for building… Read More Remembering Neil
Today, Jason Anderson posted James Weaver‘s obituary from the WYDaily.com, the local newspaper from Williamsburg, VA. You may recall from my last post about necrology, that Jim’s name was the last name read Sunday night at Compline, and that his death was sudden and unexpected. You can read the complete obituary by clicking here, but what jumped… Read More Lives touched by others
Yesterday I went through my 20,000+ plus digital photos specifically looking for pictures of Carl Crosier and Peter Hallock — all in preparation for my upcoming trip to Seattle where we will celebrate the lives of both men — and I came across pictures and events I had completely forgotten about. One of them was taken at… Read More Going through the haystack
This past weekend, I have been a busy beaver and have found myself working on four separate projects —three of them ultimately will lead to musical events in several churches. I’m guessing it was Carl Crosier’s idea many years ago to produce a color postcard to publicize our special concerts and services — and you can probably guess… Read More The busy beaver
Guess what — Pentecost 2015 will mark the 40th Anniversary of the Beckerath organ at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu! I can’t believe it, yes, I was there forty years ago at the dedication of this organ. (No, I didn’t play — I only came to listen.) It was absolutely crazy — more than 600… Read More Upcoming 40th Anniversary!
Gone but not forgotten … forever in our hearts … in loving memory … rest in peace — these are some of the most popular headstone epitaphs. The challenge is, how do you sum up a person’s life in just a few words? You could even consult the internet, and today I discovered www.yourtribute.com which has sections on… Read More Gone but not forgotten
Chances are, most people in the pew have not heard the name Wilbur Held (b. 1914) but if anyone has come to any services I’ve played, the odds are pretty good that he or she has heard his music. That’s because as a composer, he has written a ton of organ music which is used widely… Read More Wilbur Held, 100 years old
For the last few days, I’ve been working on the program for the Maui concert I’m doing at St. John’s, Kula on Saturday, March 22nd, at 6:30 pm. The concert will be dedicated to the memory of Dr. John Hanley, his wife Claire Frances “Cancy”, and son Paul Hanley. I was skimpy on some of… Read More Here today, gone to Maui