To say that I have survived a big weekend is an understatement! I got up at 4:45 am on Friday morning to catch an early Hawaiian Airlines flight to Lihue, Kauai, where I was met at the airport by my student, Daniel Welch. We drove straight to All Saints Episcopal Church in Kapaa, where I… Read More Big weekend!
That’s how I would describe tonight’s Kauai Chorale concert—never has there ever been a sing-along concert on the island of Kauai where a sold-out audience sang so loudly and enthusiastically, accompanied by a real pipe organ. And did they ever raise the rafters and sing their hearts out! The concert opened with Dan Forrest’s celebratory… Read More We raised the rafters!
If indeed the period between Halloween and Christmas is called the season of excess, I’ve got it in spades! As you may have learned, I have two completely different church positions, taking up much of my waking hours. Let me share with you what parts of the service I play on the organ: Nu‘uanu Congregational… Read More Too many notes … too much!
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
A few days ago, a longtime friend who is a faithful reader of this blog sent me this message: “… I haven’t read a blog from you for quite awhile. Everything ok? 🤗💕” I pointed out that I had written a post just five days prior, but apparently she hadn’t received the notice. People who… Read More Controlled (?) mayhem
Ah, you probably don’t even know what I’m talking about. A few years ago, I found a cartoon about the music of Olivier Messiaen that I “Liked” on Facebook and perhaps even copied. I thought perhaps I had saved a copy in my Photos on my phone, but as I laboriously looked through years 2000-2015… Read More The lost is found!
When I wondered what repertoire was played at Salisbury Cathedral, where people heard organ music while receiving their vaccinations, I found this article which revealed that the organists played Bach, Handel and Pachelbel: “Beautiful organ music soothes people having Covid-19 at Salisbury Cathedral.“ If you click the link, you can even view a video of… Read More We have our answer!
Maybe you saw these photos and stories about organ music being played Salisbury Cathedral as people were receiving vaccinations. It was reported on a number of news outlets such as CNN. The Telegraph, The Guardian and the BBC. Here’s what was reported by The Guardian: Graham Turner, 88, a chaplain at Salisbury Cathedral, wore his… Read More Organ music and the vaccine
And I haven’t even gotten to Amsterdam yet! I left Honolulu on Tuesday afternoon and stopped briefly in Los Angeles and Houston before arriving at Raleigh-Durham airport about noon on Wednesday. Of course I didn’t sleep a wink—what was running through my head was Olivier Messiaen’s L’Ascension suite from Steven Severin’s recital on Sunday! Even… Read More Tulip-crazy
It was again another gorgeous day in Seattle—the sky is blue and clear, no rain and it’s cool, in the lower 60s F. When I walked into St. Mark’s, the choir was rehearsing the Kyrie in a mass setting by Uģis Prauliņš (b. 1957), a Latvian composer who “is noted for his powerful and idiosyncratic… Read More Outside the bounds of time