Yesterday Mark Boyle, who formerly sang tenor in the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, tagged me in this photo of an altarpiece by Matthias Grunenwald: In Mark’s post, he wrote: The basic idea is to take over Facebook with art, in order to disrupt, for a moment, negative news. Anyone who likes this post will be… Read More When life gives you lemons…
Throughout this coronavirus pandemic, the true heroes have turned out to be the unlikely: grocery clerks, gas station attendants, delivery drivers and others who you wouldn’t normally consider as people saving the world. But an organist? More specifically, an organist turned carillonneur, in the person of Joey Fala, my former student? In the March 24th,… Read More Unlikely hero
The decision has been made, and I no longer have to wonder about how to manage not getting coronavirus while on a plane. Today I logged onto the website of my travel agent where I saw this message: Owing to the evolving COVID-19 situation and government travel advisories and restrictions, Trafalgar, Insight Vacations, Costsaver, Brendan… Read More Out of my hands
Lately it seems that my life is nothing but hosting one houseguest after another—my niece and nephew from Virginia are with me this weekend to attend a wedding in Honolulu. Already they represent (can you believe it!) my fourth set of houseguests since the 15th of January, and in a couple of weeks I’ll welcome… Read More Monica Czausz, concert organist
Yesterday I atttended the annual Iolani Christmas concert with the orchestra and chorus, an event to which the “Retirees” are special guests, with a luncheon following. I “retired” after twenty years as Chapel Organist at the school, but even now, continue to accompany the Iolani Chorus and Hokuloa Singers for their winter and spring concerts,… Read More I’m a Retiree, really?!
You have NO idea how the following pictures warmed my heart when I saw them on Facebook yesterday: It’s my former student, Joey Fala, who is introducing the organ to the children’s choirs at Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, NC, where he is the Organ Scholar. It was sixteen years ago (May 24,… Read More Passing it on …
the July 26th wedding of Joey Fala to Sarah Jones will stand out in my memory. Yes, I have played the organ at over 6000 (!) weddings, but Joey’s wedding rates right up there at the top. Regular readers of my blog know all about my former organ student, Joey, whom I first met at… Read More Over 6000+ weddings and still …
Karl Bachman generously invited Hawaii organists to a cocktail and pupu reception for my former student Joey Fala and Sarah Jones on their honeymoon! Back row: Paul Lillie, Guy Merola, Mark Wong, Karl Bachman. Front row: Sarah Jones, Joey Fala, Erin Richardson Severin, Steven Severin (Karl apologized for the lighting!) Sarah’s mom, The Rev. Susan… Read More Meanwhile, back in Hawaii
My flight to London was delayed nearly an hour and a half, but I still arrived in plenty of time to catch my train to Gloucester on Sunday morning at 10:30 am. I realized that this is my third time at Gloucester Cathedral, and a year ago to the day I was here listening to… Read More Back at Gloucester Cathedral
Deliriously happy—that’s how I would describe the wedding and reception of Joey Fala and Sarah Jones at The Cookery, a popular venue for newlyweds in Durham, NC. I have a feeling that that the couple’s face muscles are tired from smiling so much! People from 18 different states came to the wedding, as illustrated by… Read More Deliriously happy …