The Family

At this very moment, there are three students and one partner visiting my house. They have driven up my icy street to paw through free music, play anthems on the Allen, play anything at all on the Hauptwerk, and work on homework for music theory and business law.

At other times, I have had as many as 8 of my 9 students here, to work on a conference report for the magazine, work on a proposal for a new digital organ for the university auditorium currently being renovated, build the Hauptwerk, plan an outdoor organ recital on the Hauptwerk, eat my world-famous spaghetti, and just hang out and be supportive.

The final tally:

Dinner out with students: $25.

Paper, pens, and pencils for homework and reports and back-of-a-napkin dream lists: $5.

Watching these students exercise good manners and mutual support and enjoy the non-judgmental safe haven of my house: priceless.

Now it's just a blur

I deserve a way to publicize my activities yesterday, December 9, 2012, because I am QUITE sure that NONE of my colleagues ANYWHERE has EVER done in one day what I did yesterday: Conduct RENT at 2:00, play solo organ for the Messiah Singalong at 6:00, conduct RENT at 8:00. All in the same day. All in the same room.

I know that must demonstrate a certain level of versatility as a musician, but why should that be an exception, an anomaly? Why can't a musician do music of more than one kind in one day? I find it invigorating. And I had a chance to work with lots of students, all of whom volunteered to participate in RENT or Messiah. I also had a chance to work with some band personnel who were "all over it." And all day, I was looking forward to the big meal/drink I was going to have at the end, which I did. (I recommend the new shrimp parmesan steak at Applebee's.) And then I couldn't sleep. So today, as I return borrowed Messiah scores and rental RENT scores, I'm wondering, "Whatever will I do with my time now?" Oh yeah: exams, juries, cook for the studio, PRACTICE, post grades, meet with the financial guru, plan Christmas travel, shop for Christmas. And all that good stuff.

Halloween 2012

It was a dark and stormy night. I was stealing ideas from others...

The Houston chapter of the American Guild of Organists used to present a Halloween Monster Concert. The audience would scream and howl with cue cards during the Toccata & Fugue in d, sing Pumpkin Carols, and see smoke rising during the Boëllmann Toccata. Fast-forward to a patriotic name-that-tune quiz I once heard in the National Cathedral, which I converted to a name-that-SCARY-tune quiz for Halloween. Now fast even more forward to my own ideas of holding brief costume contests decided by applause meter, plus presenting a silent scary movie on top of all the above, and you now have the Appalachian State University organ studio's annual Halloween Monster Concert.

We just presented the sixth annual concert last week. It's always on Halloween proper, which this year was a Wednesday. That didn't seem to deter the church choirs or their directors/organists from attending! Go to our Facebook page and YouTube channel to see photos and videos (soon).

21st century

At long last, my studio has a presence on YouTube and Facebook. Check us out on YouTube at AppstateOrganStudio (maybe later) and on Facebook at Appalachian State University Organ Studio. Thank you, Johnson Ramsaur, for setting all that up.

As for myself, I'm about to add Facebook and Twitter links to my website, if I can figure out how. I'll also be adding a fan page on Facebook to steer more audience to my recordings.

Blogs are beginning to look so last month. But mine is still healthy and is being read by many each week. I'll keep it going as long as I can.

My studio is Texas-bound! East Texas Pipe Organ Festival in Kilgore. It's going to be stunning, I'm sure. We can't wait!

Crawling

Boone is 1 hour from anything. When I take students down the mountain to attend something, it had better be good. Last Saturday was. Nine of us traveled to Burlington, NC, where we enjoyed an organ crawl and reveled in the sights and sounds of organs by Harrison & Harrison (Front Street Methodist), Andover (1st Presbyterian), Schantz (1st Presbyterian), and Dobson (Holy Comforter). We also enjoyed hotdog after hotdog at Zack's in downtown.

And that was just the appetizer. In November, ten of us will be traveling to Kilgore, Tex., where we will participate in the second East Texas Pipe Organ Festival. We will learn much about the zenith of American organ building and its various characters. I can smell an Aeolian-Skinner from a mile away, and I have been hooked for years. Now I have done all I can to get my point across to my students: "Go to this." And they're going! And they're looking forward to it, as am I.

Recitals continue unabated. School continues unabated. And Music City Mixture just got its first real publicity push, the one that it didn't get at the convention. Here's hoping...