This weekend I am off to Burbank, California for my high school reunion, and as I read on another blog, it takes guts to attend a reunion. Why? Because physically we’ll all look different — we either have gray or (in the case of men, no hair!), maybe we’ve put on a few extra pounds,… Read More The school alma mater
Whenever I run into people I haven’t seen in awhile, their first question to me is “How is retired life?” And I have to answer, “Oh, I’m not really retired yet.” Look at my schedule this weekend: Saturday 9:45 am. Teach organ lesson at Lutheran Church of Honolulu 11:00 am. Play funeral at St. Alban’s… Read More Retired? Hardly!
Yesterday was a triple-header Sunday as I played three big services — two in the morning at St. Andrew’s Cathedral and one last night at St. Alban’s Chapel for Iolani School’s Baccalaureate. Except for the communion and postludes in the morning services, none of the hymns or any of the music was repeated. The 8:00… Read More A triple-header Sunday
I asked my Iolani School colleague, John Alexander, if he wouldn’t mind sharing his brilliant eulogy for John McCreary, and he was happy to oblige. So here it is in its entirety: HENH!!! That’s one of the things I’m going to miss most about John: that quirky way he had of greeting those he knew… Read More Sesquipedalian circumlocution
This morning our Iolani School Chaplain, the Rev. Daniel Leatherman (whose mom, by the way, studies organ with me) and I worked on configuring the school’s Virtual Organ which we use in the gymnasium for four All-School Chapels a year. It consists of two keyboards and a pedalboard and uses software called Hauptwerk on a… Read More The Virtual Organ and the Virtual Organist
The biggest story in the local media this weekend has been the Hawaii visit of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu who is here at the invitation of The Very Rev. Walter Brownridge of St. Andrew’s Cathedral. The airwaves and print media have been flooded with stories about this special visitor and it seems everyone… Read More Music, food and Desmond Tutu
Holidays are generally thought of as happy times for family and friends — but when you have experienced a death in the family, getting through the holidays can be painful and lonely. That was the thinking behind a candlelighting memorial service I played last night at Iolani School, with The Rev. Diane Martinson-Koyama, our Lutheran… Read More Comfort, comfort, ye my people