On FaceBook the other day, several of my friends passed around “11 Things You Should Know About Your Musician Friends” and I didn’t think most of them would apply to church musicians. Orenda Fink opens with: Musicians can be a lot of fun to hang out with, but sometimes we can make for challenging friends. Here’s a… Read More Still working ahead
I just finished sending the program off to the printers for this Saturday night’s Early Music Hawaii program at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. It’s a group called Ostraka, and they will be performing a program called “Leaving Parnassus: French Baroque refinement,” and will play music by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Marin Marais, Louis… Read More Don’t miss Ostraka
Today Naomi Castro posted this photo of bass Keane Ishii on her FaceBook page with the news that he has accepted the position of choir director of Holy Nativity Episcopal Church. She wrote: Bittersweet times this rehearsal. Saying goodbye to my long-time LCH brother, Keane Ishii, who is going on to do great things as choral director… Read More New beginnings
One of the blogs I follow religiously is the one written by Dr. Noa Kageyama, a sports psychologist who is on the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music. His blog, The Bulletproof Musician, addresses performing strategies for musicians so that they can overcome stage fright and performance anxiety. I really liked reading today’s post,… Read More The next performance?
The emails have continued to pour in for the Early Music Hawaii concert on Friday night. When I was at the chamber music concert on Sunday afternoon, the people in front of me were talking about what a fantastic concert it was (and I was just eavesdropping!) That was a wonderful concert! Such great voices… Read More More kudos for ‘Oratorio’
is how one listener described Friday night’s Early Music Hawaii program, “Oratorio.” What a truly wonderful concert last night!!! One expects Georgine to outdo herself, and she did. But Naomi really “covered herself in glory!” (as the Romans used to say). Her tone and technique seem to have matured and acquired a level of professional… Read More A stunning concert
That’s how theorboist John Lenti described his instrument with its long neck! This week we are hosting John and his wife Sarah while he is visiting Hawaii from Seattle to play the Early Music Hawaii concert this Friday night, September 27th at 7:30 pm at St. Theresa’s Co-Cathedral. The theorbo is somewhat of a curiosity… Read More A ficus tree
Part of what made the past Gabrieli concert so nerve-wracking and challenging was the fact that as the continuo organist I didn’t have a written-out part. You may remember in previous posts that I wrote about the basso continuo having to read from “figured bass,” a kind of musical shorthand. However, in most of this… Read More Open score Gabrieli
Can you believe it’s been almost two years since we celebrated Claudio Monteverdi’s 400th anniversary with two ground-breaking performances of his Vespers of 1610? Now we will celebrate the music of Giovanni Gabrieli (1554-1612), and this time it’s the 400th anniversary of his death. Over the past couple of weeks, Carl Crosier has been hard at… Read More Glorious Gabrieli