My schedule at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church has changed recently so instead of playing a Sunday High Mass and Sunday afternoon Vespers and Benediction, I now play a Saturday Vigil Mass with Benediction instead of Sunday Vespers. Before the schedule changed in July, Father Paul Lillie suggested that I play the same prelude and postlude… Read More Second chances
An organ transplant is a surgical procedure that replaces a damaged or failing organ with a healthy organ from a donor. The goal of an organ transplant is to save the life of the recipient. In this case, it was to save the organ music at Nuuanu Congregational Church when the Rodgers organ began the process of… Read More Organ transplant!
This is the time of year where you summarize the year in terms of numbers. For example, I received these notifications from Duolingo, the foreign language app, about my progress in learning Spanish. As you can see by the above, I have an unbroken streak of 1955 days — as of November 30, 2024 when… Read More The year in numbers
For the first time ever in my professional career (that’s almost six decades!), I am working in a parish which will formally recognize the efforts of its choir. In this week’s parish newsletter at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, The Rev. Paul Lillie wrote: … at the High Mass Aloha Hour there will be a reception… Read More Choir Recognition
This actually was a new word for me, although the concept is not. Pedilavium is defined as “The ceremony of footwashing performed on Maundy Thursday in memory of Christ’s action before the Last Supper.” It is the practice of many congregations to choose 12 people, representing the 12 disciples, to have their feet washed. At… Read More Pedilavium
On Saturday, we received a text message from choirmaster Mike Dupre: Tomorrow is Laetare Sunday! Anyone want to wear Rose/pink tomorrow? According to Wikipedia, Laetare Sunday is the fourth Sunday in the season of Lent, in the Western Christian liturgical calendar. Traditionally, this Sunday has been a day of celebration within the austere period of Lent. This Sunday gets… Read More Laetare Sunday pink
To say that I have survived a big weekend is an understatement! I got up at 4:45 am on Friday morning to catch an early Hawaiian Airlines flight to Lihue, Kauai, where I was met at the airport by my student, Daniel Welch. We drove straight to All Saints Episcopal Church in Kapaa, where I… Read More Big weekend!
I guess you could call me a “working stiff” — meaning, that I’m back in the work force, after ten years of relative retirement. Here are some of the synonyms for “working stiff” from Dictionary.com: I’m a working stiff organist! My last post, “Too many notes … too much!” described the quantity of music I… Read More Working stiff
In two weeks, I’ll be playing the organ at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Kapahulu, near Waikiki. I’m already nervous about getting to the church on time, because I’ll first have to finish playing the 9:00 am service at Nuuanu Congregational Church. The last few weeks I haven’t been able to return to my car… Read More Double duty