Category Archives: Music Ministry

Music Ministry Internship

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The Early Worship EnsembleThe Lutheran Church of Honolulu is offering an internship for music majors enrolled in a qualifying degree program, or candidates with a strong background in music. Our Music Ministry Intern will have the opportunity to be involved in many aspects of music direction, performance, and event planning.

Duties:

  • The Music Ministry intern is eligible for audition and a paid position in one of the LCH Music Ensembles.
  • Work with the LCH Choral librarian to maintain the sheet music library.
  • Relay and answer emails pertaining to Music Department activities.
  • Maintain the database of Text and Translations for all choral works.
  • Assist with designing and distributing publicity for concerts and special services.
  • Create PDF music files using Sibelius composition software.

Required Qualifications:

  • Ability to simultaneously work on multiple projects and meet deadlines.
  • A positive, teamwork-focused attitude accompanied by strong communication skills.
  • A basic understanding of music theory.
  • Competent with Microsoft Office and social media applications.
  • A willingness to learn new skills and methods.

Additional Desired Qualifications:

  • Familiarity with church music and Biblical texts.
  • Strong instrumental or vocal ability.
  • Experience with being a consistent member of a musical ensemble.
  • Leadership skills and the ability to take initiative.

Compensation and Hours

This position will involve a commitment of either 5 or 10 hours per week; 5 unpaid hours for a non-section leader candidate, or 10 paid hours for a section leader candidate who joins one of the LCH music ensembles. Pay is $34 per rehearsal / service / performance.

Application Deadline: September 5
Please submit a resume and letter of intent to:
Scott Fikse, director of music and liturgy
scott@LCHwelcome.org

The LCH choir and Bach Chamber Orchestra

Pentecost Vespers (May 15)

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On May 15, Pentecost Sunday, the Lutheran Church of Honolulu will celebrate Vespers, the sunset evening prayer service of the canonical hours. This service is comprised almost entirely by music, with the LCH Choir singing a rich array of musical selections including the psalms for that evening. Other pieces include:

  • Herbert Howells’ “Magnificat” from Evening Canticles (Collegium Regale setting)
  • Kevin Siegfried’s “The Spirit of the Lord”
  • Gerald Near’s “Spiritus Domini”

The service begins at 7:30 pm, and all are welcome. A freewill offerings in support of the music ministry will be received.

All are welcome to the lecture “The Entanglement of Early Christianity and Islam” by Dr. Stephen O’Harrow, Professor of Philology and the Director, Center for Southeast Asian Studies at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, prior to Vespers at 6:00 pm. The lecture is part of our ongoing series, Exploring Boundaries….and Beyond.

Children’s Benefit Concert a Great Success

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The concert began with the F.R.O.G.S. Choir singing “Peace Life a River” and “Kumbaya”

The children of LCH offered their annual benefit concert on Saturday, March 5, at 4:00 pm in the LCH Nave. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the children’s very own fundraising concerts.

As iIn years past, the children sang and performed on trumpet, violin, cello, organ, and piano. The photo at right shows the F.R.O.G.S. Choir singing “ Peace Life a River” and “Kumbaya” at the beginning of the concert Additional photos are available inn the slideshow below.

The beneficiary of donations at the concert and from others who could not attend is the ELCA Good Gifts program. The children ask the members of the congregation to make a pledge od $1 a day during Lent which will be added to the money children have contributed during Sunday School. After the concert, the Sunday School will decide which particular gifts to fund. The Good Gifts program enables individuals or groups to sponsor gifts of farm animals, clean water, health care, and education to help communities around the world transcend poverty and hunger. This tradition offers our children a chance to practice stewardship by donating their time and talent toward a worthy cause and a chance for adults in the congregation to model stewardship for the children by making contributions in connection with the concert.

If you were not able to attend the concert and would like to be part of this effort, donations are welcome through Easter Sunday.

Children’s Benefit Concert (March 5)

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The concert ended with the F.R.O.G.S. Choir singing “Elijah Rock!”

The Sunday School is preparing to offer their annual benefit concert on Saturday, March 5, at 4:00 pm in the LCH Nave. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the children’s very own fundraising concerts.

In the past, the children have performed with song and dance and on trumpet, violin, cello, drums, flute, organ, and piano; and we expect another enjoyable afternoon provided by our talented children. The photo at right shows the F.R.O.G.S. Choir singing “Elijah Rock!” at the end of the 2015 concert, and additional photos are available on the Children’s Benefit Concert 2015 page.

The beneficiary will again be the ELCA Good Gifts program. The children ask the members of the congregation to make a pledge at the concert or any time during Lent which will be added to the money children have contributed during Sunday School. After the concert, the Sunday School decides which particular gifts to fund. The Good Gifts program enables individuals or groups to sponsor gifts of farm animals, clean water, health care, and education to help communities around the world transcend poverty and hunger. This tradition offers our children a chance to practice stewardship by donating their time and talent toward a worthy cause and a chance for adults in the congregation to model stewardship for the children by making contributions in connection with the concert.

We hope you will attend the concert and consider giving $1 a day during Lent ($40) towards the fundraising effort. Please join us on March 5 for an invigorating concert and consider contributing to the ELCA’s worldwide ministries!

German Vespers · January 1 · 4:00 pm

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German Vespers posterWelcome the new year with German Vespers for New Year’s Day, a tradition at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu since 2002. The service honors the church’s heritage as a congregation founded by German immigrants to Hawaii‘i and the the German practice of ushering in the new year with religious celebrations.

This year’s German Vespers features a cantata by J.S. Bach, Herr Gott, dich loben wir, BWV 16, and Johannes Brahms’ ”Ihr Habt Nun Traurigkeit” from Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45. Music we be performed by the LCH Choir, soloists, and the Bach Chamber Orchestra, all under the direction of Scott Fikse. The sermon will be offered (in German, with translation) by the Rev. Anke Flor.

The worship service is free, and a freewill offering will be received to benefit the church’s music program.

Advent Means Preparing for Christmas

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The season of Advent has begun, and all around the church preparations for Christmas are underway. The children are practicing their skit for Christmas Eve worship, and the choirs are working on their music. Each Sunday of Advent we will light another candle on the Advent wreath during worship, and there aren’t any Christmas carols.

Plans are already being made to decorate the Nave for Christmas on the morning of December 24. The antique crèche (imported from German in the 1920s) will be brought out from storage, poinsettias unwrapped and placed around the Nave, a wreath of greens assembled and hung by the entrance, and a tree decorated. With the help of many hands, we will be ready for two worship services on Christmas Even and one on Christmas Day.

All are welcome to the three Christmas worship service:

  • Family Worship on Christmas Eve at 5:00 pm featuring a Christmas skit by the children, familiar carols, and Holy Communion.
  • Festival Choral Eucharist on Christmas Eve at 11:00 pm featuring the LCH Choir, familiar carols, and Holy Communion. Come early and enjoy music of Egil Hovland and Gustav Holst sung by the LCH Choir at 10:30.
  • Choral Eucharist on Christmas Day at 10:30 am featuring the men of the LCH Choir, familiar carols, and Holy Communion

Above, an acolyte lights one of the candles on the Advent wreath.

At left, Steve Miller and the kids unwrap poinsettias.

Advent Procession · November 29 · 7:00 pm

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Advent wreath graphicSince 1975, the Lutheran Church of Honolulu’s Advent Procession has been a Hawai‘i tradition. This perennial favorite ushers in the Advent season with a service that melds music and word. This year’s 41st annual Procession is the first under the direction of Scott Fikse, our new director of liturgy and music

The service combines lessons from scripture with fine choral compositions by German composers Anton Bruckner, Franz Lizst, Felix Mendelssohn, and Josef Rheinberger.

The LCH Choir and Mark Wong, organist, perform under the leadership of Scott Fikse. The full listing or lessons and music is available on the November Music List.

All are welcome to attend this free service of worship. A freewill offering will be taken

Driving Directions / Bus Information

Duruflé Requiem: A concert in memory of Carl Crosier (Nov. 1)

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Concert graphic

The Lutheran Church of Honolulu Choir will join with the Hawai‘i Vocal Arts Ensemble to remember long-time church musician, Carl Crosier, featuring Maurice Duruflé’s beloved Requiem and the world premiere of Frank Ferko’s Missa O Magne Pater based on medieval Hildegard chants.

Timothy Carney and Scott Fikse will conduct the combined choirs with members of the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra, internationally-renowned organist Jonathan Dimmock, and soloists Laurie Rubin, mezzo-soprano and Leslie “Buz” Tennent, baritone. Mr. Ferko will be in attendance for the premiere of his Mass.

Duruflé’s Requiem, while composed on the Gregorian chants of the Mass for the Dead, allows the listener to focus on life rather than on death, while receiving comfort in the face of the unknown. Ferko’s Missa O Magne Pater was commissioned on the suggestion of Crosier, and is patterned after Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor for unaccompanied double chorus. These Masses, with their mystical feeling, have brought the beauty of the Latin Mass into modern times.

The concert is free, and all are welcome.

Sunday, November 1 · 7:00 pm
Lutheran Church of Honolulu · 1730 Punahou Street

Driving Directions / Bus Information

Barbershop Quartet for the Last Summer Sunday

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August 30, the last summer Sunday with only one worship service, Scott Fikse, our new director of music and liturgy, brought along the other members of his Barbershop Quartet to provide music for worship. Pastor Jeff joked that the roof might cave in because LCH is not used to this kind of music, but God was cool with it all, and the roof is still intact.

Society Dues, which includes Scott and three friends, is beginning their second year of competing within the Barbershop Harmony Society, so when Scott moved to Honolulu this summer to join the staff at LCH, they decided to rehearse here for the upcoming Evergreen District competition in October. (The sacrifices one makes for the sake of music!) Everyone at LCH was glad to welcome them to worship on Sunday and to hear their uplifting renditions of spiritual songs.

Beckerath Organ Celebration · May 24 · 5:00 PM

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organ rededication graphicForty years ago, the Lutheran Church of Honolulu sought to revitalize its music program, beginning with the purchase of a mechanical action organ, altogether unique and unprecedented in Hawaii, in a classic design made by one of the leading master organbuilders, Rudolf von Beckerath of Hamburg, Germany. It turned out to be the last organ he personally voiced and supervised in the United States.

Organist Joey Fala, who was intrigued by the sound of a pipe organ in a Honolulu preschool, returns to perform music by Bach, Reger, Wammis and Demessieux. He began lessons on the Beckerath organ with Katherine Crosier in the fifth grade and continued through his high school years. At Iolani School’s graduation, he won the Bishop’s Award and was proclaimed “the best organist in the state” by then-Headmaster Val Iwashita.

While concurrently pursuing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture, Fala has given many recitals and won prizes for his organ playing. A recipient of the American Guild of Organist Hawaii Chapter and Eastern New York Chapter scholarships, the Robert T. Anderson Award, and the Pogorzelski-Yankee Memorial Scholarship, he has also received first prize in the NYC chapter AGO/Quimby Competition for Young Organists and most recently performed as a finalist in the Arthur Poister Organ Competition. This summer, Fala will present a recital as a featured artist at the Organ Historical Society’s national convention in Springfield, MA. In August, he will begin the Master of Music program in organ at Yale University under full scholarship, studying with Thomas Murray and Martin Jean.

Tours of the organ chamber will be given after the program, and a reception will follow in the courtyard.