Honestly, I don’t know whether “The Week That Was” refers to last week, while I was on my birthday trip to California — or this week, where between October 29 and November 6, I will have played seven church services, and a Friday night choir rehearsal YOWSERS! I arrived home on Saturday night completely exhausted.… Read More The Week That Was
Yesterday’s homework assignment to create a family tree for my Cada Dia Spanish class led me to investigate the people in my family. As I’ve written before, I come from a very large family — I am the oldest of five children, my mother was also the oldest of five children in her family, and… Read More Music in my family
When I haven’t seen people for awhile, generally they ask me two questions: “What are you working on?” “Where are you going on your next trip? Well, I’m glad you asked! I am pleased to tell you that Scott Fikse asked me to play the organ on his last Sunday at the Lutheran Church of… Read More Fingers crossed!
The next two Sundays, March 22 and 29, I was supposed to play the organ for services at Waiokeola Congregational Church … CANCELLED. I was contracted to play organ continuo for a performance of the Mozart Requiem by the Oahu Choral Society on April 4 … CANCELLED. Tom Poole at Calvary by the Sea Lutheran… Read More In the midst of a shutdown …
“You love life in the fast lane, don’t you” was a text message I received from my sister last night as I was sitting in Neal Blaisdell Center Concert Hall, waiting for the Beethoven Ninth concert to begin. I had just gotten off the plane from 9 days on the mainland with my family in… Read More Life in the fast lane
This blog supposedly has the underlying theme of music but sometimes I deviate to include travel, art, and today, food. For seventeen years, Chef George Mavrosalassitis, a James Beard winner whose Honolulu restaurant, Chef Mavro, has been awarded a five-diamond star rating for six years in a row, presented a dinner for supporters of Hawaii Public… Read More Springtime in Provence
Being an organist, I’m not used to playing with anyone except by myself. So playing a duet with someone is at the same time fun and challenging—fun because you hear sounds being played that are in addition to your own, and challenging because of ensemble problems (staying together), and figuring out who has the melody so… Read More Duet for the family
Last Christmas, my sister Margo and I read through a few Christmas carol arrangements for two pianos and it was the greatest fun. Even though I stopped taking piano lessons eons ago and I consider myself a washed up pianist at best, I somehow was able to keep up with my sister who got… Read More A new holiday tradition
Chances are that you’ve never heard of the saint, Charles Borromeo. Well, I hadn’t either, except that I knew that the legendary choral conductor, Paul Salamunovich, was the chief musician at this church for a record sixty years. So I was quite happy when my new daughter-in-law, Jessica Crosier, told us that we were going to… Read More St. Charles Borromeo