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Blue Hill

Blue Hill

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This is living in Blue Hill …

Friday: Singing Ola Gjeilo, Morten Lauridsen, Karl Jenkins, Moses Hogan and more with the Bagaduce Chorale in concert at the Blue Hill Congregational Church.

Saturday: Reprise of Friday’s concert.

Sunday: Breakfast and worship at Deer Isle/Sunset Congregational Church in the morning, and in the evening, attending a recital in Deer Isle by Jillian Gardner, a twenty-six-year-old internationally acclaimed organist.

Monday: Kayaking in Blue Hill Bay, seeing ten seals swimming and sunning.

Tuesday: Sailing with friends off Deer Isle. More seals. And in the evening, going to Kneisel Hall in Blue Hill (“the cradle of chamber music teaching in America”) to hear eight young artists, eight young world-class artists perform. First we heard Liyuan Xie, Camille Poirier, Lydia Grimes and Zoe Lin played Béla Bartók’s “String Quartet No. 3.” It absolutely blew me away, had me one the edge of my seat the whole time, had me in tears. And then, an exquisite “Piano Quartet No. 2 in A major” performed by Yu-Ming Ma, Ao Peng, Yifei Li, and Leon Bernsdorf.

Wow!

a great man died tonight

a great man died tonight

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Lynn Nielsen A great man died tonight …

Lynn Nielsen was great by the only measure that matters, that so many of us loved him.

We loved him for his courage, living and dying with multiple myeloma. Eventually it claimed his life, but it could never diminish his vitality or his humor or his eagerness for what tomorrow might bring.

We loved him for his faith, unconventional and genuine and exuberant, a faith that understood that God’s desire for us is life in all its fullness, here and now.

But, above all, we loved him for his joy. Teaching was joy to him, that unique setting where teachers and students come together to challenge each other and grow each other and put personal gifts and skills to use to nurture the skills and gifts in another person. A most unselfish profession! His students, from Iowa and from all points of the globe, brought joy to him, and he to them. And he found and made joy in his colleagues, my wife among them. He was the one who brought my wife into the College of Education and the University of Northern Iowa family, and for that she and I are most grateful.

And he found joy in making beauty, extraordinary beauty for all of us to relish! He made beauty with his music, playing organ for worship or jazz piano for the delight of the patrons of Elms Pub at New Aldaya Lifescapes and for concert-goers at other venues including our church. He made beauty at his home on Tremont Street — lovely backyard gardens, an interior decor warm and inviting and eclectic and elegant. He made beauty with his parties! Good food, good drink, extraordinary dishes and desserts, all carefully prepared and arranged by Lynn, the consummate host, the consummate friend. Parties for laughter and for music and for bringing people together, for making new friends and for treasuring every happy moment with friends old and dear.

He was a friend, old and dear, to so many. We loved him, for many good reasons, but we would have loved him regardless, just for how he loved us and for how he loved life. No one can replace him. No one could. No one should.

It is grief for us to lose him. But what joy it was to share some of our life with him!

“miah and friends”

“miah and friends”

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Watch a video recording of the finale from the “Miah and Friends” organ recital performed at First Congregational United Church of Christ on April 29. The piece is “Maestoso” from “Organ Symphony No. 3” by Camille Saint-Saens. Miah Han plays organ, accompanied by timpani and a brass quintet.

The concert provided all of us who shared the afternoon with Miah an experience of extraordinary richness and beauty. When she finished playing Buxtehude’s “Prelude and Fugue in G Minor,” I told myself, “That is going to be my favorite of the program.” Then she played Franck’s “Choral No. 2 in B Minor,” and I decided that was my favorite. And then she played “Messe de la Pentecôte” by Olivier Messiaen and I knew that was my favorite!

The music from beginning to end was dazzling and moving and awe-inspiring. The program was well-designed, providing moments that were in turn meditative and exuberant and whimsical. The “friends” Miah gathered added to the joy of the afternoon: brass players and a timpanist, a soprano soloist and, of course, her husband, Taemin. Their organ/piano duets were a highlight of the program, her impeccable musicianship matched by Taemin’s remarkably clean and technical and passionate playing.

To view videos of the other pieces on the concert program, go to Taemin’s YouTube channel: Taemin’s YouTube Channel.