Today marks the one week countdown until my concert at All Saints Episcopal Church in Kapa‘a, Kaua‘i with the Kauai Chorale, directed by Shane Morris Wise. First, however, I have to get through a weekend with four services beginning tonight with a Procession and Solemn Mass for the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary… Read More A maiden most gentle
While my colleagues at the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM) were meeting this week for their biennual conference in Philadelphia, look what popped up in my Facebook feed! It was a picture of my husband, Carl, and me with my sister, Doris Au MacDonald and her duet partner, Sharon Dennis (aka The Braeded Chord)… Read More Across the pond(s)
Yesterday’s homework assignment to create a family tree for my Cada Dia Spanish class led me to investigate the people in my family. As I’ve written before, I come from a very large family — I am the oldest of five children, my mother was also the oldest of five children in her family, and… Read More Music in my family
When I haven’t seen people for awhile, generally they ask me two questions: “What are you working on?” “Where are you going on your next trip? Well, I’m glad you asked! I am pleased to tell you that Scott Fikse asked me to play the organ on his last Sunday at the Lutheran Church of… Read More Fingers crossed!
“You love life in the fast lane, don’t you” was a text message I received from my sister last night as I was sitting in Neal Blaisdell Center Concert Hall, waiting for the Beethoven Ninth concert to begin. I had just gotten off the plane from 9 days on the mainland with my family in… Read More Life in the fast lane
Deep in the heart of Mennonite and Amish country of Lancaster, Pennsylvania is the Sight & Sound theatre where we saw an impressive production of “Joseph” — and the contrasts between the two cultures could not be more stark. There were three of us: I and my sister, Doris, and her singing partner, Sharon… Read More Christian Broadway
VIDEO: Iolani School’s Hospice Class teaches about life through death. In this post, I am going to deviate a bit from blogging about music and turn to the subject of hospice and end-of-life care which is the subject of an unusual class at Iolani School. It has now been nine months since my husband of 37… Read More The journey continues
One week ago we were in attendance at the Region 4 Conference of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians and Dr. Joy Berg, president, came up to me with an important question: “Kathy, will you play for the choral reading session? This is one detail which slipped through the cracks.” It was about 8:45 in… Read More Music sightreading
Earlier in the week, we have been at the Region 4 conference of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM) held at California Lutheran University in cool Thousand Oaks, CA. The theme of the conference was “Behold I Tell You a Mystery: Telling God’s Story in the 21st Century.” In case you don’t know, going… Read More Day One: ALCM Thousand Oaks
A couple of years ago, my former organ student Joey Fala attended a Pipe Organ Encounter (POE), a week-long “organ camp” if you will, for high school students. It is sponsored yearly by the American Guild of Organists and every summer, there are a half-dozen or more of these programs held in various locations on the… Read More Something to hold onto