As I was driving home from the airport this afternoon, having taught organ lessons on Kauai, the traffic was absolutely wretched. I had decided to take Dillingham Boulevard (surface streets) instead of staying on the freeway, which I immediately found out was a bad decision! There are lanes closed off due to the ongoing construction… Read More In love with Requiems
Last night was the first of two performances of the Fauré Requiem by the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble, conducted by Tim Carney, with soloists Martina Bingham and Buz Tennent. This was by far the biggest concert crowd since the pandemic, and people even sat in the chairs above the board room (which I don’t think… Read More All things French
Last week, I had an email exchange with Ian Capps, president of Early Music Hawaii, about the William Byrd concert, which now had originally been scheduled for April and now is been rescheduled to May. Thinking that I could get ahead on the project, I set up the ticket program a couple of weeks ago,… Read More No rest for the wicked
Tonight’s two major works at The Three Choirs Festival could not have been paired more perfectly: Jonathan Dove’s There was a child and Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem. You see, the Dove piece was commissioned by Rosemary Pickering to celebrate the young life of her son, Robert, who drowned at age 19 while snorkeling in Thailand. “Jonathan has… Read More A perfect pair: Dove and Fauré
It worked! Ironing my music for the Fauré Requiem did the trick! (See my previous post “Desperate measures needed” for enlightenment on this comment.) Everything yesterday afternoon at the second performance of the Hawaii Masterworks Festival went extremely well — my music stayed flat, the choir, orchestra and soloists sounded fantastic and I asked Eric… Read More Redeemed!
Last night could only be described in one word: nightmare. You see, I was accompanying the Hawaii Masterworks Festival chorus in their first performance of the Fauré Requiem and my music would not stay open! That meant that every few seconds, I would need to take whatever hand was free at the moment to swat the… Read More Desperate measures needed!
This is the last weekend before I board the plane for 40 days away from Honolulu, and what a weekend it will be! Nine organ lessons, one piano lesson, two church services, one orchestra rehearsal and two concerts all crammed into the next four days. And today in addition to teaching three other organ lessons, I played a… Read More In the space of one weekend …
Last Friday I was supposed to try out the organ in the Mystic Rose Oratory at Chaminade University in advance of a rehearsal there on Saturday. You see I will be accompanying the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble in their annual Masterworks Festival in June. Many of the choristers, in addition to others on the mainland and… Read More Winging it
As organists, we always have to be prepared with a Plan B, in case Plan A doesn’t pan out. I have written about arriving at the church and having to make last-minute substitutions of stops for when a note is dead or stuck, or having to use a different manual. Or, in the case of… Read More Plan B, revisited
We’re home for just a short nine days before taking off again across the pond. And on our “to-do” list is a performance of Gabriel Fauré’s beloved Requiem for the memorial service of our long-time friend, choral conductor Dale Noble who died on March 22. Go back and read my post “Aloha, Dale” for information about Dale’s… Read More Upcoming Fauré Requiem