My post about the passing of our colleague, John McCreary, has generated a lot of pageviews, remembrances and comments. For those of you who are not FaceBook users, you haven’t been able to smile at all the “Johnisms” that have been posted to the Memorial Page set up by Maestro Tim Carney. And it’s hard not… Read More Remembering John McCreary
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
Yesterday I went early to St. Christopher’s to practice after our usual Saturday morning walk of 5 miles. Little did I realize I was going to have another workout — but this time on the J. W. Walker tracker organ! You see, the Walker is a completely mechanical organ, with not only mechanical key action… Read More Working out on the Walker
And with these words from my Iolani colleague, John Alexander (and former LCH pianist), came the news that our colleague and friend, John McCreary, passed from this earthly life to life with the angels, and is now conducting the heavenly choir. It was just this morning that my husband Carl was reminiscing about his first… Read More The strife is o’er
My last post generated a lot of discussion about the whole notion of poor pay being the reason for the organist shortage, especially considering the amount of preparation time required to play a church service. I suppose if you go back to my ten years of private organ lessons, four years of college with courses… Read More How much prep?
That’s what superstar organist, Ken Cowan, received at last Sunday night’s concert at St. Andrew’s Cathedral and I’m so sorry that I didn’t do more to publicize his recital through this blog so that more of you could have attended his fantastic program. His program showed not only all the colors of the Aeolian-Skinner organ,… Read More Four standing ovations
Yesterday when I opened the Star Advertiser newspaper, I cannot tell you thrilled I was to see Rodney Gehrke‘s picture prominently displayed in the entertainment section. Rodney arrived yesterday from San Francisco and will be playing a recital on the mighty Beckerath organ at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, Sunday, January 15th at 4 pm.… Read More Two organ recitals in January
Those were Carl’s words at the end of tonight’s dress rehearsal for the Bach Mass in B Minor. Tonight was the first time we went straight through the piece, from beginning to end, and did not stop except where we will have an intermission in the concert. Carl got so excited, though, in the final… Read More We did it!
If your household is like ours, you’ve watched a lot of the TV coverage on the upcoming Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. This morning, we were very excited to receive, by email, the complete list of all the music which will be performed for the wedding at Westminster Abbey. It means that… Read More Music for the Royal Wedding
When I was in college, my theory teacher used to have a saying about church organists and their weekly preparation of preludes, postludes, hymns and other incidental music, “like grinding out sausages every week.” This week my sausage-grinding has taken me more work than usual, and I’ve had to “woodshed” several pieces of music. The… Read More The musical art of woodshedding