Six weeks have flown by! Hard to believe, but tonight was already the last night of our Amazing Summer Program. We worked hard and enjoyed the excitement and camaraderie that come from preparing for a show.
Join us this coming Saturday, July 8 from 3 to 3:30 p.m. to hear our Summer Program songs, plus a mix of favorites from our repertoire.
Stay afterwards for the open mic event and show off your own vocal & performing chops!
For more information about our free Saturday concert and the open mic event, click HERE, or just scroll to the next post below.
Wearing our best Fourth of July smiles — Happy Fifth!
For this week’s rehearsal we sported sunglasses, celebrated our June birthday gals, and worked hard on our Summer Program songs — just one more rehearsal to go before our performance on July 8!
Puttin’ on our coolest shakas. Happy birthday to YOU!
In preparation for an upcoming singalong, members of the chorus tuned up their ‘ukuleles on Wednesday and strummed the ever-popular folk favorite, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” The song originated as an African-American spiritual, so it was a timely choice to honor this week’s Juneteenth holiday.
Enjoy a couple of brief clips and a pic from Wednesday’s rehearsal below.
Such great chords in this song!Trying out new part placements. This week’s theme: “MUSICAL NOTES” 🤩
At this past week’s rehearsal, we celebrated flag day, waving or wearing the flags of our foremothers and our various countries and regions of ancestry. After a solid stretch working on our two new Summer Program songs, we circled up and had some fun with an old favorite, “Hawaiian Lullaby.” See a snippet here.
NLL joined by some special guests!Where I live, there are rainbows…
Na Leo Lani had a special treat this weekend courtesy of Sweet Adelines International: a free video coaching session with Master Director Lea Baker of Endeavor Harmony (Sydney, Australia).
Setting up a two-way call with sufficient audio and video across a 20-hour time difference was beyond our chorus’s skill set, even with post-pandemic fluency in platforms like Zoom and Google Meets. Enter Jeff LeFebvre of Sounds of Aloha chorus, who generously volunteered his video-connectivity know-how and supplied his equipment, to boot. Jeff stayed with us the whole afternoon to fix any glitches that arose. We could not have done it without him. Thank you!!! 🙏🏽 🙏🏽🙏🏽
A huge mahalo as well to NLL member Suzanne, who provided the perfect space for our coaching session with a huge screen, steady wifi, tiered seating, and even fresh-popped popcorn for a post-coaching snack!
Thanks most of all to our director, Chris, for tenaciously following through on this coaching opportunity, to SAI’s Education Department for underwriting it, and to Lea Baker for her amazing ear and helpful insights. Lea put us all through our paces, even the baris and tenors, who usually fly under the radar as long as we warble our “doo doo dooooos” at the right time. 😉 We learned a ton in two hours and had fun doing it.
Wizard of Oz, eat your heart out. This magic is the real thing!With Lea Baker on the big screen and Jeff LeFebvre (he really is that tall!)
We spent the second week of our six-week Summer Program working hard on our new songs, getting to know our participants, and celebrating “National Chocolate Ice Cream Day” on June 7. (Not to worry, all you vanilla, fudge ripple, and mint chocolate chip lovers out there — there is also a general-purpose World Ice Cream Day in July — the more ice cream days, the merrier!).
Interested in participating in our Amazing Summer Program, learning two great tunes, and participating in a Friends & Family performance in July? It’s not too late to join us. CLICK HERE to find out more.
At this week’s rehearsal, Na Leo Lani members wore a festive mix of red, white, and blue to honor and acknowledge those who served and those we’ve lost.
Na Leo Lani was pleased to perform for the June 2 ceremony at 15 Craigside honoring Hawaii’s top volunteers of 2023. Guests included Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke. Thank you to Adam LeFebvre for the lovely photos and video excerpt [click here to hear us!] from the event.
The indomitable JoAnne!With Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke
Another fun night of rehearsal with ensemble -style sectionals and a debut of a new tune by Pure Nerves quartet. The theme was “Goth Night,” which made for a lot of folks in black and some heavy eyeliner. 😉
Enjoy the video snippets and pic below.
Group B working on blend.
Pure Nerves offered an ode to America’s favorite sandwich. 🙂
Doing our best to look like “Goths” — with a dash of Halloween spirit thrown in (photo courtesy of Suzanne).
In honor of Endangered Species Day and the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, the ladies of Na Leo Lani had a hoot doing energetic anti-poacher themed physical warm-ups at tonight’s rehearsal.
Our most spirited members sported outfits and images of their favorite wild species, from ‘Ohi‘a lehua (currently under threat from Rapid ‘Ohi‘a Death) to rhinos. Enjoy the pic below.
Sweet Adelines give a hoot (& a howl, bark, squeak, and hiss) for monk seals, polar bears, pandas and more — all living creatures like us who love to vocalize.
Na Leo Lani Chorus 