Hello. As we enter the new year, I would like you for following me along. Thank you for the 42 new subscribers in 2020, it is my honor to show the organs in Oberlin Conservatory and the music spanning centuries from Franz Tunder and Dietrich Buxtehude to Charles-Marie Widor and Jehan Alain.
The year started with an internship at St. John's Lutheran Church in Stamford CT with Nathan Lively, who introduced me to a new world of hymn-playing and service music...not to mention my first experience with the Richards-Fowkes organ-building company.
When we were ordered to leave university to go home due to the Coronavirus in March we were filled with uncertainty for the year. Our departmental recital was postponed, I was not able to practice the organ at all from April until many months later.
Fortunately we did return to university in the Fall, and were able to stay until Thanksgiving without any major breakouts. We held our departmental recital, postponed from the spring, in October; and I played the Jehan Alain Suite for Organ, a piece that was one of my biggest goals to learn of the whole of my Conservatory studies. Now I am figuring out what I want to learn next, stay tuned for the Jehan Alain Theme and Variations sur un theme de Clement Jannequin and more pieces by Bach, Buxtehude and other Baroque composers.
I also reconnected with old friends in California, and was part of the church service for First Congregational Church in Palo Alto CA. I hope that one day I will be able to return to California and relive old memories at the organs that ignited my love for the King of Instruments.
Once again, thank you for following me along through the year, and here is to hoping 2021 and beyond will bring more adventures, recitals, organs, and music.