Yesterday was St. Joseph’s Day (March 19), and as I told my compañeras in my Spanish conversation club, I was going to be sitting at the organ at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, playing a Solemn Mass for St. Joseph. Most often, St. Joseph’s Day (March 19) falls in the season of Lent, and this year… Read More Full organ for St. Joseph’s Day!
Yesterday I woke up to a text on my phone that our dear friend, organist and harpist Nyle Hallman, had passed away. That was confirmed in a phone call with her daughter, Kathy Hallman, who was her mother’s constant companion, page turner and harp mover. We send our deepest condolences to the Hallman family at… Read More Rest in peace, Nyle
When I was in college, I had “socially distant” organ lessons with my teacher, although of course, that term was completely unknown in 1968. It was at the University of Southern California in the “prehistoric” days when my lessons took place in Bovard Auditorium and the organ console was down in front of the stage.… Read More Socially distant organ lessons
As is the custom, a member of the clergy gave a instructions on what to do should an emergency arise (“Stay in place”) and then said a short prayer for this concert, “where score, player and acoustic” come together. Isn’t it amazing that the synthesis of these three words can describe the whole concert-going and… Read More Score, player, acoustic
It must be Spring Concert Season! [DISCLAIMER] I am only personally involved in three of these concerts and this is by no means a comprehensive list of concerts in Hawaii! For example, it does not include the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra concerts even though I have season tickets and will most probably be in the audience,… Read More If it’s May …
I only spent one year in Princeton, NJ, attending graduate school at Westminster Choir College where I obtained my Master of Music degree in Organ Performance, but I daresay it had more influence on me as a musician than did five years of organ lessons in high school, a summer studying with French virtuoso Marcel… Read More A sad day
In spite of the fact that the Oahu Choral Society scheduled its performance of the Verdi Requiem on a Thursday night, (and the Thursday before Palm Sunday at that!), there was certainly a decent audience. (Don’t they know that God made Thursdays for choir practice!) I invited my organist colleague, Elizabeth Wong, to share a… Read More Verdi Requiem
Let me see … I left home at 7:30 pm Friday night for a five-hour flight to San Francisco. Then I had a 9 (NINE!) hour layover before taking an 11 hour flight to Paris. Then I waited two hours at Charles de Gaulle airport for the train to Lorraine, and then a bus to… Read More 30 hours to Metz
You meet all kinds of people at music conventions and you never know where your conversations will lead. In fact it was fifteen years ago that I met organist and Lutheran pastor, Karl Bachman, at a national conference of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians in Richmond, VA. That was in July 2000. Just a few… Read More A conversation on the bus
This week I have been spending lots of time practicing on the Aeolian-Skinner organ in anticipation of being the organ substitute for four services at St. Andrew’s Cathedral this Sunday. In so doing, I have coordinated my practice schedule with Karol Nowicki, the Music Program Manager, who according to the St. Andrew’s website: “Working directly with… Read More Karol Nowicki and the EMH Choir