When I described last weekend’s organ gigs, my sister said, “They should start calling you a Minuteman!” because I had so little notice before having to jump on the organ bench. I had forgotten what a Minuteman was, so here’s what I found: Minutemen were a small hand-picked elite force which were required to be highly mobile… Read More Minuteman Organist
There are two times of the year when I scour the ads in the newspaper — and that’s just before Christmas and Easter. I’m talking specifically about the church ads, when various churches around town advertise their services. Today was the day, and I looked at and read each one carefully. Yes, for years I… Read More The church ads
Lately Facebook has offered a feature where you can re-share a post you did two, three, or five years ago, and the above picture from December 10, 2013 popped up. It was a picture of Carl Crosier stepping in to conduct the St. Andrew’s Priory Select Choir for Naomi Castro, who was sick at the… Read More Memories of Advents past
A pipe organ in peril — that’s only one of the many projects I’m working on these days. The organ in question is the 1961 Æolian-Skinner organ at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Honolulu, which after “the stress of six decades of heavy, continuous use and various assaults ranging from a leaking roof to termites, the organ… Read More A pipe organ in peril
A few days ago I posted some pictures on Facebook of my dining room as it is decorated during this Advent season which I called “Blue Christmas.” Even though I will be away for two weeks in California for the Christmas holidays, I still wanted to decorate my apartment since I will be holding a number… Read More Feeling blue
“Britten? I thought I was only playing Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms!” (for the University of Hawaii Choirs concert this weekend). So the day before I left for Italy, I got an email from Miguel Felipe titled “would you hate me if …” and the rest of the message said, “…I told you there was another piece I… Read More Back to Bernstein and Britten
According to the calendar on my phone, I was to leave today for my tour to Rome, Italy. So I stopped the newspaper and the mail, and packed my suitcase. I’m all ready to go! It was when I tried to arrange a ride to the airport, I thought I’d double-check the time of my… Read More Reprieve
Many people think that because I spent thirty-five years of my life playing the Beckerath organ at the Lutheran Church Honolulu, I only play Bach and baroque music. That can’t be farther from the truth — I learned on a big Casavant organ at the Hollywood First Methodist Church and can push pistons and manipulate the… Read More Cortège et litanie
I thought by now I would be settling in to a nice retired life, watching soap operas and eating chocolate bon-bons, and scheduling only events like a few organ lessons, meals and naps, and then you know what happened — I received an email message from Miguel Felipe saying, “I’ve had you on my mind recently. . . ”… Read More Beware of lunch invitations!
In yesterday’s post, I described only the daytime of my first day of “retirement” — I didn’t tell you about my activity last night when I spent several hours creating a “playbook” for this weekend’s services at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. Back in the days when I was the organist at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu,… Read More The playbook