I have another busy day planned today, but thought I would blog a bit before I get working.

Yesterday I met with a violinist and cellist in preparation for Sunday’s services at Grace. I proposed to these two fine musicians that we informally consider ourselves a bit of a trio and beginning working on more substantial repertoire. My first suggestion was a Mozart piano trio. They readily agreed and we begin rehearsing next week. I offered to do the leg work and choose a trio to consider.  This will be lots of fun for me.

I also emailed a composer, David Hurd, and asked him about a registration I was considering for one of his organ pieces.

He graciously and immediately emailed me back with his comments and preferences.

I had asked him if I could beef up his setting of “Go Down, Moses” and perform it a bit louder. He gently pointed out the intention of his registration didn’t really lead to adding higher stops (which is how one would make it louder). He suggested I play his setting of “Deep River” as a postlude instead. I have performed this one  before and  I readily agreed.

The reason I was thinking of beefing up the choices of pipes to play his piece with is that my organ has a severely limited range of choices. If I followed his instructions to use only pipes of 8′ or ones that only sound as they are written and not higher or lower, my performance would have been very very very soft.

On a bit of a downer, I found out from my boss at the Worship Commission meeting yesterday that the Church Exec committee approved paying for an ad for my upcoming recital. But they asked me to use the local PFLAG chapter as a charity instead of The Network from GR.

The ad above says it all. Yuck. I googled PFLAG this morning and the local chapter doesn’t seem to have a web site. I will mention to my boss this morning how we aren’t really support gays. We’re supporting people who support gays. But I think its also the best I can get out of my church community right now, so I’m going with it. Although their missions statement mentions bisexual and transgered persons, I do wish their name included them. Ah well.