Submitted by Sounds of Aloha on
During the last two holiday seasons before the pandemic, SOA offered "A Gift of Song" free performances in collaboration with the Kawaiaha'o Church. These concerts were so warmly received that we expressed the hope this might become an ongoing tradition. Fate had other things in store in 2020 and 2021, but we were overjoyed on December 11, 2022, to have this opportunity again -- in the month that marked the 75th anniversary of our chorus!
In addition to the chorus, we were pleased to showcase five of our quartets: Funny Bones, H4, 21 North, VHF, and 19th Avenue:
This year we also furthered our mission of supporting young singers with a guest performance by HEARTS (Hawaii Education of the Arts), under the direction of none other than SOA Assistant Director Bryce Irvine! We were so glad to feature them and to make some music with the future of local choral singing.
We live-streamed the performance on Facebook, and the recording still is available on our Sounds of Aloha Chorus Facebook page:
After the performance we received a very special gift in turn. One of our lead singers, Adam Jansen, is the State Archivist of Hawaii, whose work is aided by some dedicated community volunteers. One of them, Michael Gentry, attended the concert and was moved to make sketch of the scene. The result is above, and we are grateful to Michael for memorializing the evening in this way.
The very special, historic venue in which we were privileged to perform has the added advantage of being right across the street from Honolulu City Lights at Honolulu Hale, so our 5:00 p.m. performance left the audience with the rest of their evening to go check that our. Now that makes for a wonderful holiday tradition -- not only for the Sounds of Aloha and Kawaiaha'o Church, but for our patrons!
