Since I arrived in San Francisco early on Monday morning, I can honestly say that I haven’t stopped moving except to catch a few winks before getting up early and doing it all over again. For example, yesterday after Joey Fala’s concert, I boarded the bus to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley to hear… Read More Wall-to-wall activities
No question, the performances at organists’ conventions are the best of the best, AND these performers are at the top of their game. We heard two of best this afternoon, Ken Cowan from Rice University and Peter Sykes from Juilliard and Boston University. Ken Cowan played a gorgeous E. M. Skinner organ (1925/1928) at Trinity… Read More Connections
After playing two Sunday morning services plus evensong and benediction in the afternoon I ate a quick snack before my friend Mark Russell took me to the airport. My flight left at 10:45 PM and I arrived in San Francisco at 6:10 AM. I would have felt really wiped out had I not been upgraded… Read More Over the top stunning!
It was only a couple of weeks ago that I received a phone call from Nicholas Lee, Director of Music at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, asking me to play today’s two choral Eucharists in which Orlando Gibbons’ “This is the record of John,” was scheduled as the anthem. He had called me to ask whether I… Read More Someone was watching …
Holy cow! An expression of surprise which is mostly used in the United States, Canada, Australia and England—and a euphemism for “Holy Christ,” according to Wikipedia. And that’s what my friend, Karl Bachman, said to me upon hearing the last note of Kenny Broberg‘s piano recital last night in Orvis Auditorium at the University of… Read More Holy cow!
I’m preparing my young organ students for a recital just two weeks away now, and as part of the printed program, I’m including short bios. One question I’m asking all of them is: “Out of all the musical instruments, why did you pick the organ?” The answers may surprise you! [My comments are in brackets,… Read More Why the organ?
If there was one thing I wanted to do while in Paris, it was to go to the Sunday mass and organ concert at St Sulpice, the church made famous by the book, The Da Vinci Code, and the church where I had heard my former teacher, Marcel Dupré, improvise all the Sunday services while… Read More Late night change of plans
I was thinking I could throw my alarm clock away. That was because Thursday was my last early morning Iolani Chapel, so I in fact turned my alarm off. But wouldn’t you know it, the last two mornings I’ve gotten up at 4:45 am — so I guess my body clock just doesn’t listen! Today,… Read More Just can’t win!
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
People have been asking me what my next project will be and that will be a concert on October 19th at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kula, Maui, home to an Oberlinger organ. They are re-dedicating the organ to celebrate its restoration and it was through my Maui organ student, Clayton Logue, that I received the… Read More The man behind the organs