One way my world has opened up recently has been through my Spanish classes. That is to say, I’ve met a lot of non-musicians in my Spanish classes who don’t know the difference between keyboard instruments. Like, what’s the difference between an organ and a piano? What’s a harpsichord? If you can play the piano,… Read More The harpsichord (el clavecín)
I was pleasantly surprised to open today’s Star-Advertiser newspaper to find a gigantic interview with Sophia Stark, this year’s winner of the Miss Hawaii Volunteer Teen. I am going to repost the article here, and add that Sophia and her brother Raphael, have studied organ with me for four years but have had to take… Read More My organ student!
A couple of weeks ago I received an email message from the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra with the enticing title: Offer of work with the Hawaii Symphony Alas, it was an invitation to play the organ part of the Albinoni “Adagio” at their concert at The Hawai’i Theatre. Most unfortunately, I would have to turn it… Read More Albinoni on a theatre organ?
For the last two weeks, I’ve been working on getting “my ducks in a row,” that is, taking care of my duties and responsibilities, and organizing my affairs… just in case. From the Grammarist: Get one’s ducks in a row and have one’s ducks in a row are American idioms, the origin of these phrases is murky. One… Read More Getting one’s ducks in a row
”You mean, you would play your concert for only one or two people?” Indeed we would, and in fact, Jieun Kim Newland and I actually gave the Dueling Bach concert a total of five times (!) and luckily it has gotten easier each time. We did two run-throughs (in front of a few people) before… Read More Bach—the second time around
Last night was the Organ Plus concert with Jieun Kim Newland and our fantastic instrumentalists: Charles Coldwell, Luke Reed, Darel Stark and Sara Ricer. I have to say that the audience was extraordinarily quiet and attentive. No one talked, no one’s phone went off, and no dogs barked! (As happened in last month’s First Monday… Read More One down, four to go!
When you met your significant other, did you have “a song,” that reminded you of each other? Maybe it was the music that you were both drawn to, or perhaps the text was especially meaningful. In the case of Carl Crosier and myself, ‘our song’ was the famed Albinoni (sic) “Adagio,” which we listened to… Read More Playing ‘Our Song’
It’s now five days before Thanksgiving and my frozen turkey is safely thawing in my refrigerator. I will be cooking this year and will have 8 people around the table. Once that is over, the Christmas season will be in full swing, and look out! I will be playing five concerts, four services (that I… Read More The PLUS in Organ PLUS+
Back row: James Gochenouer, Scott Fikse, Sarah Lambert Connolly, Keane Ishii, Dylan Bunten, Kawaiola Murray; Middle Row: Darel Stark, Karol Nowicki, Andrea Maciel, Georgine Stark, Naomi Castro, Katherine Crosier, Benjamin Leonid, Taylor Ishida, Megan Bledsoe Ward; Front Row: Ann Hansen, Maile Reeves Everybody looked happy! In the end, everything was a success at Early Music… Read More Everybody went home happy!
You wouldn’t ordinarily laugh during a classical concert, but a lot of people couldn’t help themselves last Saturday night at the “Think Outside the Bach” concert. It came during Michal Nowicki‘s reading of PDQ Bach’s biography (in his beautifully accented English), who is described by PDQ’s creator, Peter Schickele as “the son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Anna… Read More You wouldn’t ordinarily laugh …