When one steps inside St. Mark’s Cathedral Seattle and attends a worship service, one is immediately struck by the fact that … “this is a sacred and holy space; something mystical and magical happens here.” It is the huge space, the magnificent Flentrop Organ, it is the rolling acoustics that make music so extraordinary in this… Read More Mysticism and the sense of the sacred
The May issue of The Diapason finally arrived, and I eagerly scanned through the pages to find the write-ups about the Class of 2016: 20 leaders under the age of 30. I found what I was looking for starting on page 26. The Diapason’s second annual “20 under 30” selections came from a field that… Read More So unbelievably proud
In the movie business, it’s the Academy Awards. In the recording industry, it’s the Grammy Awards, and for Broadway shows, it’s the Tony Awards. Yes, this is award season, and it seems like there are awards for all kinds of businesses and industries. Yesterday when I opened up my Facebook page, I gasped when I saw this video… Read More The Big Reveal: 20 under 30
Today Joey Fala took me on a tour of the 16 pipe organs on the Yale University campus, which we organists call an organ crawl. According to Wikipedia, “An organ crawl is a tour of several pipe organs at different locations in an area, usually taken by a group of enthusiasts. It may include short concerts or opportunities to… Read More The teacher becomes the student
I’ve been preparing music for the upcoming Early Music Hawaii concert which will be on Saturday, September 19 at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, and have chosen organ music by Heinrich Scheidemann (1595-1663). He is one of three “Sch” early German Baroque composers — the other ones are Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) and Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672).… Read More Stiff requirement
As you can guess, I’ve been pretty busy the last few weeks, with my husband’s illness and hospitalization, his death, the funeral, and the aftermath. So it is only now that I’m able to share my excitement about the New York City American Guild of Organists opening concert which took place on September 8, 2014. I… Read More A spectacular doublebill!
Photo by Miguel Felipe Despite having another full house for Bach Master Works: The Great Eighteen Chorales, it was another opportunity for me to learn one of life’s hard lessons: All human beings are flawed and imperfect! As I wrote to my FaceBook friend, Wyatt Smith who asked me how the second concert went, some… Read More Life’s lessons learned
This afternoon I attended an organ masterclass with Martin Jean, formerly of Valparaiso University, and now teaching at Yale University. You can read about all his accomplishments by reading the Wikipedia article by clicking here. In case you haven’t been to one, a masterclass has several students who in this case, volunteer to play a… Read More Organ Masterclass
As I reported previously, this week we are hosting young South Dakota organist Wyatt Smith. Wyatt gave a most colorful and interesting recital at St. Andrew’s Cathedral today at noon, including Bach’s Toccata in F, BWV 540a and a 3-movement work he himself commissioned, Missouri Sonata by Kurt Knecht (b. 1971). From his website, I learned… Read More Pay to play
It was back in May 2011 that I received a message from Wyatt Smith, a young organist from South Dakota: Hi Katherine, I just wanted to say how much I REALLY enjoy reading your blog. It is one thing I look forward to every day. I really wish that I could just fly out to Honolulu… Read More A visitor from the Internet