Sounds of Aloha's blog

On December 11, 2022, the Sounds of Aloha were thrilled to return to performing live and in person after a long COVID hiatus that had limited us to virtual performances! We were honored to sing Christmas songs for a relatively small, distanced, and masked audience of true music lovers at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. 

We are grateful to the church and its Director of Music and Liturgy, Scott Fikse, who runs a formidable music program there -- and also is an experienced and talented barbershopper! In fact, we couldn't resist calling him up to sub in as bass and sing a song with one of our quartets, 19th Avenue. You can watch the whole performance by clicking on any of the images below:

Back in 2016 and again in 2018, quartets from the Sounds of Aloha were featured in two episodes of Hawaii Public Radio’s show “Applause in a Small Room.” Named for HPR’s Atherton Studio, the weekly broadcast showcased live performances of musicians from Hawaii and elsewhere, recorded in front of small studio audiences. Our quartets had a chance to teach the audience and listeners about our singing style and perform as individual quartets and as a larger ensemble (in barbershop vernacular, a "very large quartet," or "VLQ").

There may have been fewer of them delivered overall, many were sung through masks and/or outdoors, and a few were delivered virtually, but the Sounds of Aloha found ways during this COVID pandemic to go ahead and provide our popular annual Singing Valentines to lovebirds! 

We were grateful this year to our friends at KHON television for helping spread the word with this Take2 story on Wake Up 2day.

For years, the Sounds of Aloha have held a popular ice cream social, with roaming quartets, all-you-can-eat ice cream and toppings, and a short chorus performance at the end. This year, with most everything shut down during the COVID pandemie, we haven't been able to gather and perform live. But that challenge pales in comparison to the impact COVID has had on so many small businesses.

Separated from one another's voices, and trying to bring a little musical comfort to our friends and neighbors while we all ride out the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sounds of Aloha Chorus decided to cobble together a virtual performance from their individual homes. We were overjoyed to be rejoined by some of our long-distance members, from as far away as our friend Sig Rønbeck above the Arctic Circle in Norway!

Here's the message we sent out on April 11, 2020, and which we extend to you:

The Sounds of Aloha Chorus hopes all of our friends are faring well during these difficult and disruptive times.