The Abbey of St Peter and St Paul, Romainmôtier Today on the first day of the 2018 Historic Organ Study Tour we saw three organs in the village of Romainmôtier (called the most beautiful village in Switzerland!) and one in Moudon, but it was two “home” organs which made the biggest impression on me. The… Read More “Home” organs no more
Guiding Spirit, comfort us who grieve the death of Fritz. As he remains fresh in our love and memories, assure us that he lives, and will continue, in the heart and mind of God. Fritz’s devotions were many: to the earth and all its creatures, to the poor and vulnerable, to the arts and good… Read More A full house for Fritz
The last few days have been super busy for me, as I get ready to leave for Seattle, did the dress rehearsal today for tomorrow’s Iolani School chorus concert, and finished up the publicity for the 40th anniversary of the Rudolf von Beckerath organ program on Sunday, May 24th at 5:00 pm. The latter meant… Read More 40th Anniversary booklet has arrived!
One of the blogs I follow religiously is the one written by Dr. Noa Kageyama, a sports psychologist who is on the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music. His blog, The Bulletproof Musician, addresses performing strategies for musicians so that they can overcome stage fright and performance anxiety. I really liked reading today’s post,… Read More The next performance?
While I am off practicing, my local consultant felt compelled to write in my absence. Although I have been quoted in several of Kathy’s blog posts, this will be the first time I have actually written one myself. For the regular readers of this blog, you probably have already surmised that the upcoming Bach recitals… Read More A labor of love
When I read about the death today of French organist, Marie-Claire Alain, I got a huge lump in my throat. You see, for the past three weeks, I have incessantly played her recordings of Bach’s Great Eighteen chorales over and over and over again. I have the CD in my car, and whenever I’m out… Read More Marie-Claire Alain, 1926-2013
As you may recall from a previous post, I am practicing and being totally consumed by the Great Eighteen chorales of Bach, BWV 651-668. It was my need to “get myself a project” now that I am down to three jobs (from four, formerly). It’s been about a month now, and I have decided… Read More The teacher as student
I just got an email from WordPress.com with the Annual Report on this blog, “Another Year of Insanity,” which states that 27,411 people visited my blog in the year 2011! This is pretty remarkable, because of course, I don’t know 27,411 people — in fact I don’t know that I even know one-tenth of that!… Read More The numbers are in!
For the last couple of days, we have hosted Hans-Ulrich Erbsloeh and his wife, Christiane from Hamburg, Germany. We were trying to remember how many times Hans has visited Hawaii, and figured it was well over ten times. You see, Hans’ first visit was as the “apprentice” for organbuilder Rudolf von Beckerath when the LCH… Read More Memories of “The Boss”
It’s the day before Carl’s final Bach Vespers, and guess what we’re doing? Yup, working on the printed program! This morning, Carl said to me, “I can’t believe it’s the day before and the program is not at the printers yet!” It’s not that we didn’t start it in plenty of time — Carl typed… Read More Procrastination, addiction and obsession