Recognize the woman third from the left? It’s Jennifer Lane, a frequent visitor to Hawaii, singing with the Early Music Hawaii Singers! If you may remember, Jennifer sang her first concert in Hawaii when my husband Carl Crosier contracted her to sing in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in the year 2000. Here’s part of Jennifer’s… Read More Jennifer’s back in town!
“Three sensei…” That’s what Thomas Yee said in this picture of himself, his former student Tyler Ramos and me after their wonderful concert tonight “An Evening of Music for Piano and Four Hands.” It was the first First Mondays concert of 2023. [In case you don’t know, sensei in Japanese means teacher or instructor. However,… Read More Three sensei
The Crosier Bed and Breakfast aka The Marble Palace is now back again in operation as I have been hosting Paul Leenhouts and his wife, Monika Ruusmaa Leenhouts. They had originally only planned a vacation on Kauai but it was mezzo Jennifer Lane who persuaded them to spend a few days teaching on Oahu at… Read More Early Music houseguests
Friday night was a first—my first time in a theatre in at least 14 months to watch a performance because of the pandemic. Now that I am fully vaccinated, I felt safe to be at Diamond Head Theatre to take in the Honolulu production of “Forever Plaid,” an off-Broadway musical revue. The theatre was as… Read More What a coincidence!
Yesterday Jieun Kim Newland and I conducted a dry run of our Dueling Bach concert scheduled for Saturday, January 18. What is a “dry run?” Here’s one definition I found: Most believe that dry run was first used in the 1940s, referring to firearm training in the military. Before a gun is fired, the recruits… Read More Dry run
In the last four days, I have attended three concerts and gotten my chance to be an audience member. I used to remember Carl Crosier saying that as performers it was our job to make it Christmas for everyone else—now I’ve had my chance to hear someone else’s hard work. On Sunday, I was at the… Read More ‘Tis the season, part 2
All week long, director Tim Carney was encouraging the choristers to invite their friends to the Hawaii Vocal Masterworks Festival concert on Sunday. “We lost our graphic designer which means no postcards were sent out.” I did see a number of Facebook posts about the June 25th concert from the soloists, Jennifer Lane, Naomi Castro and… Read More Sellout for Dido and Aeneas!
Hey! Don’t read this post if you are going to Sunday’s Hawaii Vocal Masterworks Festival performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you! In case you want to know what I’m talking about, you need to first know something of the story. Here’s a quick synopsis from Naxos Records: Dido,… Read More Spoiler alert!
Yesterday I thought I was drowning in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas—I was completely overwhelmed! You see, after flying home on Saturday night after 12 days in California to meet my first grandchild, I went to a choral rehearsal the very next day, where I picked up the music for next Sunday’s Hawaii Vocal Masterworks Festival… Read More Drowning in Purcell
[Yesterday I started to share Carl Crosier’s 2008 article from Cross Accent, the journal of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, “A Personal Journey to the Bach Passions.” Here’s the second part.] “Although the St. Matthew Passion had been presented several times before in Honolulu, it had only been sung in English, in an adapted… Read More St. Matthew Passion: Part Two