Just about eleven years ago, I wrote this post on March 26, 2011: … it was in 1971 that the church decided to commit itself to a music program that would make LCH a center for sacred music and a venue for classical music concerts. It was then that the decision to purchase the Beckerath… Read More A turning point
Jet lag finally hit me, after another sleepless night on a redeye flight from Washington DC, train to Gloucester and going at Three Choirs Festival all day so when I got back to the hotel and finished yesterday’s blog post, I was ready for bed about 10:45 pm. Alas, I was awakened by some noisy… Read More Berkeley Castle
What time is it in the U.K.? I typed this in my browser repeatedly last night to make sure I knew what time it was in England. You see, I was counting down the minutes it would be exactly April 4th at 10:00 am in England—that was when tickets would be available for this year’s… Read More 11 time zones away
Just six days ago, we received this notice: Dear Ticket Holder, We are delighted to announce that we will be welcoming His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to the performance of Dream of Gerontius on the evening of Tuesday 25 July. As President of the Three Choirs Festival since 2001, Prince Charles’ picture was on… Read More A royal visit for The Dream of Gerontius
Totally at home. That’s how I felt last night sitting at the fabulous Flentrop organ at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley. In fact, I told George Emblom, the church’s music director, that I felt like I had more and better practice than I did at home—no interruptions, not having to stop to give a… Read More Totally at home
After practicing this morning, I took the BART to the very end of the line, Millbrae, where I was picked up and driven to the home of Joe Hansen and Rick Cicinelli. If you go back and read my post about our performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor in 2011 (“Total triumph“) you will… Read More The solution: trio sonatas!
I’ve been preparing music for the upcoming Early Music Hawaii concert which will be on Saturday, September 19 at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, and have chosen organ music by Heinrich Scheidemann (1595-1663). He is one of three “Sch” early German Baroque composers — the other ones are Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) and Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672).… Read More Stiff requirement
On Sunday night, Pastor Jeff Lilley acknowledged the congregation of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu for having the vision and then supporting the vision of a fine music program with a quality tracker organ. And in a Facebook conversation, someone marveled at the sight of the 40-year-old Beckerath — still looking fresh and new and having… Read More The Beckerath B.C. (Before Carl)
In this week leading up to the anniversary of the Beckerath organ, I can’t help but think that there were three important people forty years ago who are no longer with us: Rudolf von Beckerath, Carl Crosier and McNeil Robinson who were so instrumental in putting this organ on the map: Rudolf von Beckerath, for building… Read More Remembering Neil