We all know the holiday season can be hard work, but there’s no reason it can’t be fun at the same time! As these snapshots and video clip from our recent rehearsal show, the women of Na Leo Lani are serious about music, but we always make time for laughter as well.
Birthdays are always a blast with Na Leo Lani. We celebrate monthly with a sash, harmonious wishes, and an opportunity to ham it up in birthday glory.
Enjoy a glimpse below of our fall birthday gals enjoying their moment, plus a pic from our weekly sisterhood of song.
Every NLL rehearsal is an opportunity for fun, but Halloween in particular is a time for good-spirited silliness, with unusual assemblages of vocal parts facing off in a Krazy Kwartet competition.
This year’s Kraziness featured a trio of spooky witches, an all-tenor ensemble hitting those scary high notes, and a quintet of bold basses. Not to be outdone, the leads and baris formed a motley flock of black sheep — so baaaad, they’re good!
Basses band together
What a whirlwind few weeks it’s been — more than a month has passed already of our Sing With Us for the Holidays (SWUFTH 😉) program! It’s been a joy getting to know our SWUFTH participants and blending with them in marvelous holiday harmony.
Enjoy some snapshots of Weeks 1-4 below, plus a snippet of an impromptu ensemble warming up the chorus with an old favorite.
Thanks so much to everyone who turned out for our yard sale fundraiser on October 19!
There were bargains galore and a fantastic team of NLL members and supporters whose hard work made the event run smoothly. Mahalo nui loa for all you do. 🥰
It’s been a whirlwind, literally! at our rehearsals lately as we’ve incorporated a mad frolic of colorful streamers into our moves, along with ukulele singalongs, and a walk down musical memory lane as we celebrated the 49th anniversary of the chorus.
Our 50th is coming up next year!!
Enjoy these pics from our late August and early September rehearsals, plus a snippet of a gorgeous rendering of Aloha ‘Oe by an ensemble of our members.
This past week we celebrated our August birthday gals, worked hard on the songs for our next performance, and even made time for a little ukulele strumming. It was great seeing folks back from their summer holidays, as well as a guest, Sam, whose theatre and voice background showed as she leapt into our lead section with aplomb. Welcome, Sam, and welcome back members who have been away!
Last week’s rehearsal theme featured flag-waving, Hawai’i-style, as we celebrated the state flag of Hawai’i, sang more tags, and had a ball reviewing repertoire songs. Folks who aren’t from the islands often wonder why the British Union Jack is on our flag. For more on the Hawai’i state flag history, see the explanation of our Lt. Governor, Sylvia Luke, here.
Many of our members are on vacation at the moment, so we had a small but feisty crew at this week’s rehearsal. We celebrated Christmas in July with several rounds of Mele Kalikimaka, refreshed our memory of other standards in our repertoire, and had fun singing tags in spontaneous quartets.
We also took some time to get to know each other better by going around the group and having each one of us share a bit of background about our parents. Some people brought photos and precious newspaper clippings. With members of wide-ranging ages, what an astonishing array of stories we encompass as a chorus! War, emigration, immigration, internment, refugee escape, starstruck romance, arranged marriage, self-made men, tenacious women — our parents’ stories and our own personal histories represent an extraordinary cross section of twentieth and twenty-first century history. Singing together is wonderful, but so too is learning more about each other’s origins and the experiences that made us who we are — all in the service, of course, of building harmony and making our chords ring!
We’ve been working hard learning new music since June, and now it’s time for Na Leo Lani and our Amazing Summer Program singers to show what we can do. We hope you can join us!
When: Saturday, July 20, 2 p.m.
Where: University Avenue Baptist Church, 2305 University Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96822 (Right next to Mid-Pac school in Mānoa)
Cost: Free! (donations to help support the chorus gladly accepted).
Our performance will celebrate a cappella four part barbershop harmony, island style!
Na Leo Lani Chorus 