Last night we were at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre to hear Jean-Philippe Merckaert play a program of Buxtehude, Bach and Bert Matter on an organ which looked like this. He chose the repertoire carefully, in which the mean-tone tuning of the organ made it sound sweet and convincing: Dieterich Buxtehude, Toccata in D minov, BuxWV… Read More An engineering marvel!
Two weeks from tomorrow, I’ll be getting on a plane to Tokyo, Japan, to celebrate a milestone birthday. I wanted to do something different for my birthday instead of going to California to be with my family, as I’ve done for years. I’m not sure who told me about it, but I found out that… Read More Destination: TOKYO!
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 learned a new word today: Deux-olingo, which describes someone who is trying to learn two languages at once. I learned the word from one of the latest blogs on the Duolingo app, https://blog.duolingo.com/how-to-learn-multiple-languages/. Go ahead and click the link, you’ll find it most interesting! It’s only been about three weeks now, but I’ve spent… Read More Deux-olingo
The hard fact about living in Hawaii is having to always say goodbye or aloha to people whom we have grown to treat like family. This summer I’ll have to say goodbye to several musicians—ALL of whom have studied organ with me. I’ve already said goodbye to my former student, Marie Wang, who was the… Read More Always saying ‘Goodbye’
It was another of those crazy weekends requiring me to shift gears quickly for the music at hand: A rehearsal with the Early Music Hawaii ladies for their dress rehearsal for “Triumph Against the Odds;” a concert with the Iolani School Chorus and Hokuloa Singers (John Alexander, director) in which I played a Mozart orchestral… Read More Three choirs in three days … and more!
This coming Saturday night is the final concert of the season for Early Music Hawaii, May 19 at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, 7:30 pm. I thought I was going to be “off the hook” for this concert, but as it turns out, I’ll be playing for the opera by Francesca Caccini—the first known opera… Read More Triumph Against the Odds 2
It must be Spring Concert Season! [DISCLAIMER] I am only personally involved in three of these concerts and this is by no means a comprehensive list of concerts in Hawaii! For example, it does not include the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra concerts even though I have season tickets and will most probably be in the audience,… Read More If it’s May …
In spite of only coming back to Hawaii on Tuesday, I’ve had to hit the ground running and will be playing several different organs within the week. Next weekend will especially be busy because of a Friday night rehearsal and Sunday concert at St. John Vianney, playing the prelude for Pastor Fritz Fritschel‘s funeral service… Read More Planning ahead for a busy week
I really wasn’t expecting to play for church this morning; in fact I was looking forward to a morning off when I got a message from Fr. David Gierlach of St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church yesterday: “Good morning, Kathy… Just on the off chance that you are not in Paris or Rome and are totally bored—tomorrow morning might… Read More Low Sunday … NOT!