Apparently a number of my friends were unaware that our mutual friend, Preston Larson, died last December of Covid. The post I wrote, “RIP Preston Larson 1942-2020” somehow got overlooked in the busy Advent/Christmas season. So if you’d like to read his obituary, you can click the link. I guess I must have been pretty… Read More A really good friend
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?
My organist and Symphony buddy, Sam Lam, texted me with the news: “Bud Klein died Sept. 27.” This was a shock to me, as I’ve known Henry C. “Bud” Klein for over 40 years. He was primarily known to me as the choir director emeritus of Waiokeola Congregational Church. He was one of the original… Read More Aloha, Bud!
It was just about a month ago that I dragged out my sewing machine and started making cloth face masks—an activity which has consumed me 10-12 hours a day for the last few weeks. The motivation for sewing masks came from my son and daughter-in-law, who complained that the Los Angeles mayor had mandated the… Read More From Honolulu with love …
This is my last week in Honolulu before embarking on my summer travel. I had one last gig this morning—substituting for Gloria Faltstrom, organist at Waiokeola Congregational Church, and home to the Heissler tracker organ. Waiokeola is also the parish church of a former student of mine, Andrew Moore, the grandson of Bud Klein, the… Read More Boston on the brain!
One constant in our Hawai’i Chapter American Guild of Organist concerts is the “spiel” given by Karl Bachman at intermission to encourage people to give offerings. I always look forward to hearing these little “sermonettes” — filled with humor, and sometimes I’ve gotten a shout-out. Here is an excerpt from yesterday’s concert with Adam Pajan:… Read More A HUGE leap of faith!
Today I filled in for organist Gloria Faltstrom at Waiokeola Congregational Church. When I came to practice last Tuesday, I was given enlarged photocopies of the hymns. Smaller versions were also printed in the Sunday bulletin which I picked up this morning before the service. The last hymn was not familiar to me—at least I… Read More Familiarity breeds … confusion!
After playing for two services each Sunday for the last three weeks at Holy Nativity, this coming Sunday I’m going to be back at Waiokeola Congregational Church filling in for Gloria Faltstrom. You remember that the last time I was scheduled to play there, I couldn’t get the organ to turn on and ended up… Read More Lazy organist? or one music fits all!
In these 16 days back in Hawaii, my plate has been full, not the least of which has been to play for church services, “subbing” for the regular organist. (By the way, in England this is called “depping”— being the deputy organist.) On August 5, after being home from Europe for only nine hours, I… Read More Plan B! No, Plan C!
It was already time to say goodbye to Vienna so after breakfast we loaded our luggage into a trailer attached to our double decker bus. It was only about halfway to our destination that the Hawaii Masterworks Chorus director, Tim Carney, came to tell me that the Abbey had given me permission to play the… Read More Melk Abbey