Tonight is the Bach and Prayer service, which occurs on the fourth Wednesday of the month. It only lasts a half hour, and at least half of it is the music of Bach. I’ll be playing three chorale preludes from Bach’s Leipzig collection, also called the Great Eighteen. This morning as I was on my… Read More Bach as comfort
In six days’ time, I will be playing the monthly Bach and Prayer service at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, the fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:00 pm. All the music I have chosen comes from Bach’s collection of extended chorale preludes, The Great Eighteen or Leipzig Chorales. You might remember that in 2013… Read More Throwback to 2013
Yesterday I received a phone call from Scott Fikse asking if I’d be available or interested in playing the February “Bach and Prayer” service. I really wasn’t sure what this service is all about, so this is the description I found on Facebook: Join us every 4th Wednesday of the month at 7:00pm for Bach… Read More Got Bach?
Lately Facebook has offered a feature where you can re-share a post you did two, three, or five years ago, and the above picture from December 10, 2013 popped up. It was a picture of Carl Crosier stepping in to conduct the St. Andrew’s Priory Select Choir for Naomi Castro, who was sick at the… Read More Memories of Advents past
The Flentrop organ at St. Mark’s is Peter Hallock’s legacy. On Sunday morning we took Peter Hallock to St. Mark’s Cathedral where he had been the church musician for decades. No sooner had we walked in the door and we were besieged with people wanting to come up to greet him. Mel Butler, the organist… Read More Sunday at St. Mark’s
For all of you who were waiting for the CDs and DVDs of my Bach Great Eighteen Chorales, the wait is no more! One caveat — these are recordings of the live concerts — and there is some audience noise even though at the time I thought the audience was especially quiet. Also since it… Read More The CDs and DVDs are in!
When I read the Wikipedia entry for “perfectionism,” I knew right away that I’m guilty. Here’s what it says: Perfectionism, in psychology, is a personality trait characterized by a person’s striving for flawlessness and setting excessively high performance standards, accompanied by overly critical self-evaluations and concerns regarding others’ evaluations. So guess what I’m doing this afternoon? Yup, I’m meeting… Read More Perfectionism
Photo by Miguel Felipe Despite having another full house for Bach Master Works: The Great Eighteen Chorales, it was another opportunity for me to learn one of life’s hard lessons: All human beings are flawed and imperfect! As I wrote to my FaceBook friend, Wyatt Smith who asked me how the second concert went, some… Read More Life’s lessons learned
Last week I had a comprehensive, annual checkup at my doctor’s, and one item on her checkoff list was to talk to me about my sleep habits. She said that I ought to be getting 8 hours of “bed time” per night. Now, that did not mean that I ought to have 8 hours of… Read More Insomnia
“I can’t believe this many people would come to an organ recital!” was a comment I heard over and over at yesterday’s first in a two-part mini-series featuring the Great Eighteen Chorales. “I guess people are just starved for Bach” was another comment. For whatever reason, there was absolutely a full house for Bach MasterWorks:… Read More SRO: A full house for Bach