What joy it was to raise our voices with so many others this past Sunday at the KE KANI O KE KAIĀULU (Sound of The Pleasant Breeze) community choral festival at Kawaiahaʻo Church! If you missed the concert or would like to hear it again, see the video and photos below.
Mahalo nui loa again to the festival organizers. We are honored to have been a part of this marvelous event!
On October 21, Na Leo Lani joined with members of Honolulu Blend Show Chorus and men from Sounds of Aloha to celebrate World Singing Day.
Following a picnic and talk story time, we circled up and sang. The gorgeous surroundings of Kapiolani Park and Diamond Head were especially inspiring as we harmonized tunes we knew in common and new songs we learned on the spot.
Special thanks to HBSC director, Stephanie Brictson, for organizing this event, as well as to NLL members who attended: Jojo, Anna, Yvonne, Charley, Deb, Summer, Rosie and Chris, and dual NLL and HSBC members Yvonne and Charley.
We love harmonizing with all of you!
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.
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.
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.
We had a ball today performing at the City & County of Honolulu Retired & Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) annual volunteer recognition celebration at the Waikiki Community Center.
In addition to honoring O’ahu’s 2023 volunteers of the year, we also recognized one of our own, Rosie Ramiro, who volunteers for the Lanakila Senior Center and many other places.
Whether serving on chorus committees, helping with rehearsal logistics, carpooling, or just sharing snacks, all of our NLL members are vital volunteers in our own right. Harmony is by definition a collective venture!
See video and pics below.
Na Leo Lani Chorus is fundraising again this year through the Kahala Mall Very Merry Event!
For just $5.00, the Very Merry savings pass offers you discounts, in-store specials and giveaways at nearly fifty stores and restaurants at Kahala Mall, Friday December 9 though Sunday, December 11, 2022.
See below for the list of participating merchants.
Ticket holders can also enter to win a one night staycation at the Kahala Hotel & Resort.
Enjoy discounted holiday shopping and support Na Leo Lani Chorus at the same time. 100% of your ticket purchase goes to support Na Leo Lani!
Please contact a chorus member or email naleolanichorus@gmail.com to purchase a Very Merry ticket today.
Attention Foodland, Sack N Save, and Foodland Farms shoppers! September is Give Aloha month, so please support Na Leo Lani by making a monetary donation of any amount (up to $249) at your local Foodland or Sack-n-Save checkout. Provide code #79104 or simply tell the cashier “Na Leo Lani”, and Foodland and the Western Union Foundation will make a contribution to the chorus as well!
Make sure to provide your Maika’i number to the cashier when donating — only donations made with a Maika’i account will receive a matching gift.
If you choose to support, please let us know — email naleolanichorus[at]gmail.com so we can acknowledge your generosity with a big mahalo nui loa!
Na Leo Lani Chorus 