Operator: 911, what is your emergency? Caller: I need an organist! So it was Tuesday of this past week, that I actually received a text AND an email message with the title, “SUBBING EMERGENCY,” from John Renke at St. Andrew’s Cathedral who needed an organist to play a funeral. Brian McCarthy, the Organ Scholar who… Read More Emergency?
Have you ever heard the term “circuit rider?” It referred to clergy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the United States who traveled from church to church to organize congregations. It was especially prevalent in places where there was a dearth of ministers, and so it was common to have ministers serve more than… Read More Have shoes, will travel!
All over town, events were being cancelled because of the threat of Hurricane Ana to the Hawaiian Islands. But the planners of the BIG SING event for the local chapter of the American Choral Directors Association decided to go ahead as scheduled. A gentle rain was falling as many entered historic Kawaiaha’o Church, and what a… Read More BIG SING is Big Success!
This is just a reminder that this coming Sunday, October 5th at 5:30 pm, Carl Crosier will be remembered at Evensong at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. He specifically requested that the Herbert Howells Gloucester service be sung. I am also posting John Renke’s remembrance of Carl here (written shortly after he died): Much has been and… Read More Evensong to remember Carl Crosier
Father William Kunisch was kind enough to send me the text of his funeral sermon for Carl Crosier, and I am happy to share it with you here. Homily for Carl Crosier’s Funeral Mass What makes a person leave everything they have, everything they know, everything familiar to them and set out on a new… Read More A life of faith and music
A story in today’s newspaper reminded me about today’s organ concert, the 24th Annual Midsummer Afternoon Organ Concert, which will take place at Central Union Church at 3:00 pm. When I saw the headline, Island doctor has traveled the globe to help people see, I wondered whether the story was about Dr. Steve Miller, a long-time parishioner at… Read More Organ concert TODAY
Judging by the many comments I received on my FaceBook page when I posted the photo above, I thought I had better give you an additional explanation of Carl Crosier’s journey to this place in his life. It began at Queen of Angels Roman Catholic Church in Port Angeles, WA, Carl’s first contact with the Catholic… Read More A journey fulfilled
Are organists the only musicians who never know what to expect when they have to perform on their instruments? I can’t tell you the number of times I have come to the church and found something not working on the organ. There was the time I was scheduled to play Jeremiah Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary in… Read More Handicapped!
Shivers of delight ran up and down my spine yesterday as I was listening to the concert by former student, Joey Fala, at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. I was in amazement at his musical maturity, and the ease with which he played extremely difficult passages — the music just oozed out! Here was Joey’s bio in… Read More Beautiful concert, beautiful playing
Lately, a number of people have come up to us with the question, “How is retirement?” And I have to tell people that both my husband Carl and I are still performing music, but the big difference is that we are not in charge anymore! That means we don’t need to do any planning, organizing,… Read More Still performing music, but —