Today I attended Samuel Lam‘s last service as organist of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. I’ve known Sam for years now ever since he moved back to Hawaii in 1985 after getting his doctorate at the University of Michigan and living in Ann Arbor, MI. Sam grew up in Honolulu and graduated from Hawaiian Mission Academy. I… Read More Mixed emotions
Today was the last day of the Organ Historical Society convention and we boarded the buses for the Atlantic City Boardwalk on the New Jersey shore. Yes, the home of the Miss America pageant and the Trump Taj Mahal is also the home of the world’s largest organ in the Boardwalk Auditorium, seven manuals, 33,112… Read More The World’s Largest Organ (the Loudest?)
This is the last weekend before I board the plane for 40 days away from Honolulu, and what a weekend it will be! Nine organ lessons, one piano lesson, two church services, one orchestra rehearsal and two concerts all crammed into the next four days. And today in addition to teaching three other organ lessons, I played a… Read More In the space of one weekend …
All this political talk of “low energy” is in sharp contrast to the weekend we had with organist Greg Zelek — definitely high energy! On Friday night, I invited the members of the AGO Executive Board for a “meet and greet” party and luckily I had nearly the whole day to prepare for it. The… Read More High energy Greg Zelek!
Even though the use of the organ in some churches is passé, there still seems to be a need for organists in others. And it seems that organists are on their way of going the way of the dodo bird, or the dinosaur. So when an organist goes on vacation, or needs to have surgery,… Read More Desperately. Seeking. Organists!
Over the years I daresay that we have invited hundreds of people to dinner, and those of you who have come, know that I politely ask everyone to sign the guest book. (I’m now on volume 7!) This was a tradition we started with the guest book from our wedding in 1977 and even though Carl is now… Read More What are the odds?
It was another adventure coming home from the Organ Historical Society convention 2015, and because my flight was leaving Boston early in the morning, I decided to leave one day before the convention ended. Lucky for me, I was able to watch the OHS live-webcast of the final concert by Nathan Laube on the organs… Read More Home at last!
Six of what? and twelve more? That’s six organ recitals today (plus a lecture on organ building in the Pioneer Valley), and twelve more recitals in the next two days at the Organ Historical Society Convention. I’m actually leaving the convention one day early so I’m missing out on Thursday’s six organ concerts! You must realize… Read More Six down, twelve to go
Four years ago, our visiting organist, Hyunju Hwang, had heard about a live jam session happening every Thursday night at the Hilton Pasadena and decided to check it out. She was very curious to learn what kind of music-making could happen with the premise that anyone could join in the jam session and amazingly, some great music ensued. One… Read More Jamming with a church organist
For a number of years, our local chapter of the American Guild of Organists held a clergy-organist dinner, a time when we could say ‘thank you’ to each other for working together. A date was scheduled for a similar event this year, but was cancelled due to lack of interest. This was most unfortunate, because… Read More Clergy appreciation dinner