For some reason, the viola has become a butt of many jokes. According to Wikipedia: Viola jokes are jokes directed towards violas and viola players. Viola jokes are thought to have originated in the 18th century, when viola parts were often simple and thus amenable to untalented musicians. Some examples: Pity the poor violist. Except… Read More Not a viola joke
I may have mentioned once or twice (!) that I come from a musical family. My mother won a piano in a music competition when she was in high school and had to make the hard decision to choose between music or going to medical school (she became a pediatrician but went back to playing… Read More Music runs in families
In my last post, “A leap of faith,” I wrote about the beginnings of our Annual Organ Concert series, and how it all started with the concert with Paul Jacobs in 2006. Since then we have hosted twelve more annual organ concerts of “rising stars” — you can see a list of the artists here.… Read More Meet Adam Pajan
Last night I attended the 44th Advent Procession at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, and afterwards, a few people mentioned to me that they had been thinking of Carl Crosier. Actually, I was thinking of both Carl (who died in 2014), as well as the late Peter Hallock (1924-2014) and their influence upon the… Read More Advent Procession, The “O” Antiphons
Wh-a-a-t? I’m not on an organ tour anymore, where we typically visit three churches a day, but I’ve been chauffeuring my sister’s duo (The Braeded Chord) to various church venues for their gigs. On Thursday, they joined the jazz ensemble at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in a Jazz Vespers where The Rev. Diane Martinson, my… Read More Six churches in four days!
So observed Ian Capps at last night’s Early Music Hawaii concert, “Treasures of the French Baroque.” Here is the letter Ian wrote to last night’s performers: Congratulations, you did it again! Our faithful audience… was introduced to a completely new repertory and loved it. Not a soul left at the intermission, as far as I… Read More No one left at intermission!
Last Sunday morning I was in my Zürich hotel getting ready to go to the airport when I got a text message from United Airlines saying that my flight would be delayed by 85 minutes. That meant that I would have missed my connection in San Francisco, but luckily I was able to rebook a… Read More Treasures of the French Baroque
Nah, just kidding! I’m 100% Chinese-American! On Saturday, though, I was made an Honorary Member of the German Benevolent Society of Honolulu at their August meeting! Certificate of Honorary Membership presented to Katherine Crosier. The GBS Board and its membership would like to thank you for your selfless devotion to the Society and its mission… Read More I’m part-German!
While I am home for sixteen days between European trips, I have a long “to do” list besides the obvious—doing laundry and repacking my suitcase! I did tell you of my desktop computer debacle (“A glutton for punishment”) and at this moment, the restore process has taken four whole days! While the files were being… Read More A new role
En route to Prague from Salzburg, we stopped at the Augustinian monastery and chapel at St. Florian, where composer Anton Bruckner grew up as a choirboy and became organist. We began with a 45-minute tour of the monastery and I was impressed with two major rooms: the library, which houses about 130,000 books and manuscripts;… Read More St. Florian