The first event of the morning for me was Choral Matins in Grace Cathedral. You must know that this whole convention was about choices — in addition to Matins, you could also elect to go to an African-American worship service in a Baptist church or an organ and violin concert by a Chinese organist. There… Read More Last day of the convention
While my colleagues at the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM) were meeting this week for their biennual conference in Philadelphia, look what popped up in my Facebook feed! It was a picture of my husband, Carl, and me with my sister, Doris Au MacDonald and her duet partner, Sharon Dennis (aka The Braeded Chord)… Read More Across the pond(s)
I LOVED IT! SUPER COOL! It was like Legos. I liked putting it together because we used teamwork to put it together. We all did something together. I liked the pumping the best! These were the uncensored, honest-to-goodness reactions to Orgelkids, the pipe organ kit which Miki Yamamoto and I took to Waimanalo Elementary and… Read More I LOVED IT! Super cool!
Last night was the opening Welcome Dinner for the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists, and look at the big crowd we had! People literally came out of the woodwork—and for some people, it’s been DECADES since they have attended a meeting of local organists. (By the way, not everyone was in the picture! Some… Read More They came out of the woodwork!
If you read my last post, “The kids did it!” you know that over the weekend, my younger students gave a concert, after which they assembled a two rank pipe organ kit, called Orgelkids. If you read further back, when our local chapter of the American Guild of Organists was considering getting one of these… Read More The organ world is SO SMALL!
I am happy to report that yesterday’s Young Organist recital was a grand success in every possible way, and the students did themselves and their parents proud. Even one girl who repeatedly told me. “I quit the piano because I can’t play recitals—I always play BAAAAD and am going to mess up!” gave a fantastic performance, probably… Read More The kids did it!
I’m preparing my young organ students for a recital just two weeks away now, and as part of the printed program, I’m including short bios. One question I’m asking all of them is: “Out of all the musical instruments, why did you pick the organ?” The answers may surprise you! [My comments are in brackets,… Read More Why the organ?
Last night was the first meeting of this season’s Hawaii Chapter of the American Guild of Organists—it was the debut of our Orgelkids pipe organ kit. To refresh your memory on what Orgelkids is, I refer you to my previous post: Orgelkids coming to Hawaii! The members of the board decided that we should try to… Read More How many organists does it take to …?
A couple of days ago I was surprised to get more than 60 “Likes” when I posted this photo of the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists after our Annual Dinner Meeting at the Mandalay Restaurant. I’m guessing that people were surprised to see so many people in the picture! Oh, not everyone pictured here… Read More Taking the organ to the people
A few years ago, Karl Bachman of the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists took visiting organist Nathan Laube to dinner in a local Honolulu restaurant. When the waiter asked why he was here, Nathan answered that he was here to play a concert on the pipe organ. You got it, the waiter had no clue what… Read More Orgelkids coming to Hawaii!