One hundred fifty years ago on Ascension Day, 1867, Queen Emma Kaleleonālani, wife of King Kamehameha IV, founded St. Andrew’s Priory School for Girls. Today’s Ascension Day service combined orchestra, band, choir, organ and congregation to celebrate the school’s founding—and the decibel level in St. Andrew’s Cathedral was so loud that when I played full… Read More How loud is loud?
Last Sunday night I attended the “Cantate” concert by the Lutheran Church of Honolulu Choir and Men’s Schola; Wednesday I went to hear the St. Andrew’s Priory girls’ concert; tomorrow night I’ll be playing in the Iolani School Chorus concert; and Saturday night I’ll be at the Hawai’i Symphony concert! ‘Tis the season! Scott Fikse… Read More Spring concert season
You remember that huge box of mail that I returned home to, after being on the road for nearly six weeks? The bills always get my attention first, but what I look forward to is reading all the magazines that have piled up in my absence. It was not until yesterday that I finally opened… Read More Ding, dong bell!
Talk about choral music in Hawaii, and I bet the first name that comes to mind is Wanda Gereben, who was honored at last night’s gala 50th anniversary celebration of the Honolulu Chorale. I wrote about Wanda a couple of years ago (“50 Years of Choral Music in Hawaii.”) as the person who organized “The Big… Read More It’s a Wanda-ful World
Okay, okay… maybe this is a little melodramatic, but I’m currently in the process of refinancing my mortgage and the lender wanted to see a copy of the retirement letter. Retirement? I said I’m not retired, yet! But since I am the beneficiary of Carl Crosier’s annuity, I guessed they were looking for the official… Read More A voice from the grave
I wanted to let you know that the number of remembrances for Carl Crosier is growing, so here is the complete list of events: Friday, September 5, 2014 Viewing at Nuuanu Mortuary 2233 Nuuanu Avenue, Honolulu 1:00-3:00 pm Saturday, September 6, 2014 9:30 am pre-service music 10:00 am funeral mass St. Theresa’s Co-Cathedral Reception following in… Read More The tributes continue
This morning we attended a lovely (but warm!) service at St. Andrew’s Cathedral — a regular Priory chapel service but dedicated to the memory of Carl Crosier. The Cathedral Choir added to the beauty of the occasion by singing several anthems; the most poignant of which was Mozart’s Laudate dominum sung by Naomi Castro, choral teacher at… Read More Remembering the Prime Minister
Over the weekend, my husband and I looked in vain all over our apartment for the Christmas carol books. You see, Carl is out playing the piano for St. Andrew’s Priory’s Home for the Holidays fundraiser tonight, and they asked him to play Christmas carols as entertainment. “You mean you actually need the music?” I asked… Read More Playing by ear
All week long at Iolani chapel services, I’ve been playing the hymn, “I sing a song of the saints of God,” and the focus has been on saints as ordinary people. I sing a song of the saints of God, patient and brave and true, who toiled and fought and lived and died for the… Read More ‘Saint’ Carl
This has been a week of parties — on Tuesday we were at St. Andrew’s Priory for the “Big Reveal,” as after nearly 150 years of educating only girls, they are now re-branding the school as St. Andrew’s Schools with three schools, one of them being St. Andrew’s Prep for boys only, St. Andrew’s Priory… Read More Retirement contrafacta