This photo which I posted on Facebook yesterday has already gotten over a hundred likes! The Hawaii Chapter AGO will be presenting a Mini Organ Festival from March 12-21, 2022. Featured will be Alcée Chriss and Katelyn Emerson playing the Rosales Organ at All Saints Kapa’a and the Aeolian-Skinner Organ at Central Union Church. In… Read More Mini Organ Festival
Last night I got notice that my former organ student, Christopher Lindsay, graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California (my alma mater)! Here’s the message from his mom, Holly: Thank you for your incredible support, wise advice, and faith that enabled Christopher to graduate today from USC. He graduated magna cum laude… Read More Where did the time go?
Whether it’s picking the Grammy or the Oscar award winners, or even guessing how many jelly beans are in a bowl, some people have all the luck in knowing which movie is going to get Best Picture, or guessing the correct number on “The Price is Right” in order to win a dream vacation. You… Read More Picking the winners
This has already been a fantastic convention but the Steering Committee of the 2019 AGO West Region Convention absolutely saved the best for last with the closing night performance by Paul Jacobs, one of the youngest department chairs appointed to the famed Juilliard School of Music and the only organist with a Grammy. This is… Read More Saving the best for last, Paul Jacobs!
Fourteen years ago, our Hawai’i Chapter of the American Guild of Organists took a leap of faith when it decided to present organist Paul Jacobs for a concert. I had been absolutely wowed by Paul’s performance at St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City and vowed to have him come to Hawaii for a concert.… Read More A leap of faith
The following speech was given by Karl Bachman at the Oahu Choral Society’s Vivace! fundraising dinner at the Bishop Museum, March 3, 2018. We are here to honor Katherine Crosier this evening, but I would like to begin by thanking the Oahu Choral Society for asking me to speak a word on her behalf. In… Read More “Cain’t say, No!”
This morning I’m watching the news about the big snowstorm in the Northeast—I guess I left just in the nick of time! It was the first time I took a nonstop flight directly to Honolulu from Newark—11-1/2 hours, in which I watched five movies! In case you’re wondering, no, I never sleep on flights, even… Read More In the news
I just found a fascinating article called “Is Musical Talent Rooted in Genes?” in which author Jillian Rose Lim challenges the conventional wisdom by writing: Practice doesn’t always make perfect when it comes to becoming the next Mozart, a new study suggests. Researchers compared pairs of identical twins, and found that no matter how hard… Read More The music gene
Once a year, the Hawaii Chapter of the American Guild of Organists brings a “rising star” organist to play a concert in our island state. This coming Sunday, March 6 at 2:00 pm, we will hear Greg Zelek play on the 4-manual Aeolian-Skinner organ at Central Union Church, 1660 South Beretania Street, Honolulu. Here’s what we… Read More Rising star, Greg Zelek
“More terrifying than performing naked” — this was the caption that former student Joey Fala posted today on Facebook about his February 6th concert performance of Bach’s Trio Sonata No. 5 which I attended in New Haven, CT. It was the first time Joey had performed a Bach trio sonata in public — and I’ve always maintained that… Read More “More terrifying than performing naked”