When I first heard the term “flunking retirement,” I thought it was a phrase made up by Betsy McCreary to describe her husband, the late (and great!) organist-choirmaster of St. Andrew’s Cathedral and my predecessor as Chapel Organist at Iolani School, John McCreary. That is because after a long and illustrious career at St. Andrew’s… Read More Flunking retirement
It happened last week, when Mark Wong came to play the service for the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, and there seemed to be a cipher (a note which sounds without being pushed down). A further investigation by Roy Helms, a member of the choir who once worked with organbuilder Paul Fritts, resulted in the discovery… Read More EEK! I smell a rat!
https://youtu.be/0YW-uv3Ibm8 Since I grew up without television, I had never watched the show, “Queen for a Day,” which began as a radio show in 1945 then ran on NBC Television from 1956-1960 and on ABC from 1960-1964. Every show began with the question, “Would YOU like to be Queen for a day?” A number of… Read More Queen for a Day
That’s what Iolani School teacher Lisa Preston posted about Joey Fala’s concert last night. “It was positively glorious! What a treat to hear this; if you’re not a fan of organ music, he’d convert you for sure. I was his class adviser for six years, and now he’s all grown up and the rock star… Read More The rock star of the organ world!
Today the Hawaii Tribune-Herald newspaper on the Big Island published a story by Katie Young Yamanaka about our homeboy, Joey Fala, and his upcoming recital at the Higashi Hongwanji Mission, Sunday, March 12th at 3:00 pm. I was surprised that Joey came up with the same analogy as I have previously written about, particularly in regards… Read More Like going into someone else’s kitchen
Last weekend’s concert at the Mystic Rose Oratory marked the 13th annual Hawaii Masterworks Festival, and completed the 24th season of the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble. You may not know that the HVAE was actually co-founded by three people: David Kayner, Carl Crosier and Tim Carney and the group made its debut with a Big Island… Read More Charter members of HVAE reunite
For those of you who are Facebook users, you probably have seen the “On This Day” feature which is meant to spark nostalgia by highlighting content you posted to the site in years past. It pops up in your news feed and shows you photos and status updates you posted on the same calendar day a year or… Read More On This Day
Last Saturday night, I attended the Oahu Choral Society’s 20th Annual “Vivace” fundraiser and was I ever surprised to find myself seated at the head table! To my immediate right was Karen Kennedy, a choral directing legend in this town, and next to her was Wanda Gereben, and next to her was Nola Nahulu of… Read More In with the bigwigs
When I got into the car this morning, of course public radio came on, and I immediately recognized the music. It was Olivier Messiaen’s Alleluias sereins d’une ame qui desire le ciel (Serene alleluias from a soul who desires heaven) from his Ascension Suite for organ, although the performance was done in an orchestrated version. And then guess what… Read More A taste of heaven
Say, do you know that expression, “an albatross around your neck?” It comes from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” in which a sailor who shoots a friendly albatross is forced to wear its carcass around his neck as punishment I probably would have never thought this expression could be used in… Read More Sheet music albatross