In honor of Labor Day, the ladies of Na Leo Lani channeled the spirit of Rosie the Riveter at our September 6 rehearsal. No heavy lifting for us, though — when singing barbershop, we strive to keep it light. 🙂 Enjoy the pics below of our enthusiastic Rosies. Three cheers for woman power!
We had a special treat at this week’s rehearsal — a coaching session with Region 12 visual coach Pamela Johnson! In addition to waving colorful ribbons in time with the beat for warmups, we sported paréos and inflatables in rainbow colors in keeping with this week’s “beaches” theme.
Thank you for the fun and inspiring session, Pamela!
A fun night was had by all who attended our 48th anniversary party on August 26. We made mounds of salad and chowed down on soup and bread, reminisced about when we each became members (Wow! What stories!), and of course sang a few tunes to cap off the evening.
Thanks again to Deb for hosting the party at her condo, and to the rest of our board members for setting up and decorating.
We were thrilled to formally welcome new member, Summer, to the chorus at our August 16 rehearsal. Summer comes to us from Velvet Hills Chorus of Colorado Springs, where she was a lead. She has now ventured into the wild roller coaster of baritone — bravo, Summer, and a warm E komo mai to you from Na Leo Lani!
The ladies of Na Leo Lani had a grand time on August 12 watching our brother chorus, Sounds of Aloha, perform in their annual show at the Hawai’i Theatre. This year’s theme was “Broadway Through The Years,” with special guest stars Shari Lynn, local chanteuse, and After Hours quartet. See photos from the event below.
(This is a belated post from April that somehow got stuck in the drafts folder and was never published! Still, it’s never too late to celebrate these fine ladies’ birthdays …)
Hard to believe these ladies are another year older — could it be that singing a cappella makes one age in reverse, like Benjamin Button? Either way, we’ll never pass up a chance to sing Happy Birthday — in four-part harmony, of course!
Happy birthday, Anna and Vera! And happy birthday in absentia to Coralyn, who missed her chance to wear the April birthday gals’ sash (there’s always next year 😉).
. . . for National Coloring Book Day!
Returning to rehearsal this week after a two-week break, we marked this week’s theme, “National Coloring Book Day,” with our favorite colors and children’s books. After fun warmups by the Wee women, we launched into repertoire review, including sectional duets of our Summer Program song, “Count on Me” — a tune that is rapidly becoming one of our favorites.
Coming through town or interested in joining a chorus? Come check us out — Wednesdays at 6 p.m. at the Mo’ili’ili Hongwanji! See our join us page for more info.
What a blast we had on July 8 performing the two songs we learned for our summer program, as well as many other favorites from the Na Leo Lani repertoire. Making it even more special was a supportive turnout from sister choruses Honolulu Blend Show Chorus, Mission Valley Chorus (California), and Velvet Hills Chorus (Colorado).
After our performance, members of the audience and Na Leo Lani singers came up to participate in our first ever open mic event. It was a great afternoon of singing all around.
Many thanks to our summer program participants Summer, Marlene, Carolyn, and Donna — we hope you will continue singing with us! — and of course to all our chorus members and their families who made the event possible. Thanks most of all to Chris, our Director, for introducing these challenging but fun new songs. As she noted, they are still very much works in progress (hence our holding our sheet music in the video clip), but we covered a lot of ground in just six weeks and look forward to perfecting them further.
Enjoy the pics and video clips from the performance and open mic event below.
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.
Join us on Saturday, July 8 at 3:00 p.m. for a free concert featuring Na Leo Lani chorus and the singers in our Amazing Summer Program, and stay for our open mic event where YOU can show off your own amazing talents!
Where: Mo’ili’ili Hongwanji, 902 University Ave., Honolulu
When: Saturday, July 8, 2023. Doors open at 2:40 p.m. Concert at 3:00. Open mic 3:30 – 4:00 p.m.
Pre-register for the open microphone event at: https://tinyurl.com/NLLOpenMic or scan the QR code below. The mic is limited to ten acts, so sign up now!
Suggested donation for open mic participation: $10 (cash calabash at the microphone).
Open mic performer guidelines: A cappella or with accompaniment. Bring your own instrument(s) / equipment. There will be a Bluetooth speaker available if you wish to use it. One song per person/group. Other types of talent (slam poetry, magic tricks, tap dance, tell jokes, and more!) are welcome, but please keep lyrics and language family-friendly and in good taste.
We can’t wait to sing for you and see you strut your stuff!
Na Leo Lani Chorus 