My friend from the Three Choirs Festival, Rich Arenschieldt, after reading my last post about being grateful to have an organ at home to play, observed that musicians are posting videos of themselves playing at home and sharing them on the Internet: “I love how much music is taking place and how supportive musicians are… Read More In quiet joy
When I was taking organ lessons during high school, I was aware that my teacher, Dr. Norman Söreng Wright, commuted from his home in Montecito to Hollywood, CA where he was the organist and choirmaster of the Hollywood Methodist Church, a distance of 86 miles. He actually had an apartment in Hollywood, where he stayed… Read More Commuter organ teacher
Cheeky. That’s how I would describe my performance of Bach’s famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor yesterday at the 50th anniversary celebration of Thurston Memorial Chapel. Another way I’d describe it is: Gutsy. I say this because I bet it’s been 20 years since I’ve played this piece in public—and I only practiced it for about 4 days,… Read More Oh, THAT Toccata and Fugue!
Many people think that because I spent thirty-five years of my life playing the Beckerath organ at the Lutheran Church Honolulu, I only play Bach and baroque music. That can’t be farther from the truth — I learned on a big Casavant organ at the Hollywood First Methodist Church and can push pistons and manipulate the… Read More Cortège et litanie
The Internet surely has been a vehicle of communication between people far and wide. I can’t tell you the number of people that have found my blog (well, yes, I can–to date there have been close to 200,000 hits on this site!) and I have reconnected with people I knew decades ago but have lost track. The… Read More My first organ teacher
A couple of weekends ago, when we were in the Los Angeles area, we used the GPS on my iPhone to give us directions from St. James Episcopal Church to a restaurant in Burbank where we wanted to eat. And so we found ourselves on Highland Avenue, and I said to my son, “Look! There’s… Read More A visit to the past
The last few days we have had a delightful houseguest, Isabelle Demers, concert organist, who is billed as a “diminutive dynamo” because of her small stature but virtuosic organ playing. She will give an organ recital tomorrow night, June 10th, 7 pm at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. What’s really interesting is to learn her story of… Read More Isabelle Demers, diminutive dynamo
When I was seventeen, I had the great fortune of going to Paris and studying with the French virtuoso, Marcel Dupré. Of course, at the time, I didn’t realize how lucky I was to have this experience, and even though I thought I was pretty good at the time, I really knew NOTHING much about… Read More Marcel Dupré, organist extraordinaire