Just a week or so ago, “upended” was the answer to a crossword puzzle clue. I didnʻt know it at the time, but my life was going to evolve into chaos, and be completely upended. I have been dealing with the problem of termites in my apartment for the last ten years. (Yes, I have… Read More U-p-e-n-d-e-d !
My schedule at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church has changed recently so instead of playing a Sunday High Mass and Sunday afternoon Vespers and Benediction, I now play a Saturday Vigil Mass with Benediction instead of Sunday Vespers. Before the schedule changed in July, Father Paul Lillie suggested that I play the same prelude and postlude… Read More Second chances
It’s Holy Week — the busiest week of the year for church musicians. My late husband, Carl Crosier, used to call this “Holy H— Week,” because in addition to conducting nine services of music during the week, typing a complicated bulletin containing all the services and music of the Triduum, rehearsing the brass and choir… Read More The Holy Week marathon begins
An organ transplant is a surgical procedure that replaces a damaged or failing organ with a healthy organ from a donor. The goal of an organ transplant is to save the life of the recipient. In this case, it was to save the organ music at Nuuanu Congregational Church when the Rodgers organ began the process of… Read More Organ transplant!
I am continually telling my organ students that when we play hymns, we are the ones taking charge … we are the leader. So it’s important to have a forward motion, like “pretending you are the Crucifer,” I sometimes say. We are the ones who lead the parade. That was absolutely impossible for me this… Read More Just above a whisper
As soon as the Christmas Day High Mass was over at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (about 12:35 pm), I raced home where I already had my suitcase packed and ready to go. My friend, Cindy Scheinert, picked me up and we headed for the airport, where I had a flight scheduled with a 2:20 boarding… Read More Out with the old!
This is the time of year where you summarize the year in terms of numbers. For example, I received these notifications from Duolingo, the foreign language app, about my progress in learning Spanish. As you can see by the above, I have an unbroken streak of 1955 days — as of November 30, 2024 when… Read More The year in numbers
This weekend, within the space of 24 hours, I will have performed such a mixed bag of music, that my head is spinning! On Saturday morning, I’ll be practicing Gabriel Fauré’s Messe Basse (1881, rev. 1906) for treble voices, which will be sung at the ordinary for Sunday morning’s High Mass for “The Seven Sorrows… Read More A mixed bag … all within 24 hours!
EDITOR’S NOTE: I realized that this post was sitting in my Drafts for several years (!), and now is a perfect opportunity to publish it. Sorry it took me so long! When is the last time you walked into a church and saw any sort of memorial tribute to an organist? Oh, I’ve walked into… Read More Tribute to an organist
The Sunday after Easter is sometimes referred to as Low Sunday. One website described it this way: The word “low” may serve to contrast it with the “high” festival of Easter on the preceding Sunday. Or, the word “low” may be a corruption of the Latin word laudes, the first word of a sequence used in… Read More The week after Easter