This was the text message I received last night from Shane Morris Wise after Caroline Robinson‘s organ concert at All Saints Episcopal Church in Kapa‘a, Kaua‘i. Caroline is here in Hawaii as the recitalist for the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists Annual Organ Concerts, a series which was started in 2006 with the concert… Read More Caroline. WOW!
Tonight the people of Honolulu celebrated the 10th anniversary of the passing of John McCreary with a special memorial Evensong. A publicity flyer described him like this: John McCreary was a musical force of nature. During his five decades in Hawai‘i, he served as Organist/Choirmaster and Canon Emeritus at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, taught music at ‘Iolani School… Read More Rubber Ducky Evensong?
Yesterday was my 11th trip to the island of Kaua’i to teach an organ lesson. We had eight lessons before the pandemic then had to stop for more than a year because of the quarantine restrictions for inter-island travel. However, since June, you no longer need to take a Covid test or prove your vaccination… Read More “Yes, I speak organ”
While the numbers of people were few, the enthusiasm was unmistakable of those who were brave enough to come out to a concert in these frightening times of the coronavirus pandemic. There was no problem keeping a “social distance” from other audience members in the large sanctuary. I’m speaking about yesterday’s absolutely phenomenal organ recital… Read More WOW! Absolutely phenomenal!
Whether it’s picking the Grammy or the Oscar award winners, or even guessing how many jelly beans are in a bowl, some people have all the luck in knowing which movie is going to get Best Picture, or guessing the correct number on “The Price is Right” in order to win a dream vacation. You… Read More Picking the winners
Last night was the opening Welcome Dinner for the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists, and look at the big crowd we had! People literally came out of the woodwork—and for some people, it’s been DECADES since they have attended a meeting of local organists. (By the way, not everyone was in the picture! Some… Read More They came out of the woodwork!
Last week I was copied on an email message from a woman who is a former graduate student at the University of Oklahoma. It so happens that she is a former student of Adam Pajan, who stayed with me as my houseguest while he is on a 3-island Hawaii concert tour. She was trying to… Read More I knew I had it somewhere!
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!
Fourteen years ago, our Hawai’i Chapter of the American Guild of Organists took a leap of faith when it decided to present organist Paul Jacobs for a concert. I had been absolutely wowed by Paul’s performance at St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City and vowed to have him come to Hawaii for a concert.… Read More A leap of faith
Last night was the first meeting of this season’s Hawaii Chapter of the American Guild of Organists—it was the debut of our Orgelkids pipe organ kit. To refresh your memory on what Orgelkids is, I refer you to my previous post: Orgelkids coming to Hawaii! The members of the board decided that we should try to… Read More How many organists does it take to …?