13th Annual Messiah Sing-along Sunday, December 22, 2019, 3 PM

Join us Sunday December 22, 2019 for the 13th annual Messiah sing-along at Christ Lutheran Church, 5945 Kapiolani St, Hilo HI 96720 (click link to open new window in Google Maps).

Bring your own music score or borrow one of ours.  Sing the choruses alongside community chorus members, or just sit and enjoy.  Soloists are D’Andrea Pelletier, Roni Koscik, Tom Mirenda, and Barry Brandes.  Accompaniment on piano and organ by Walter Greenwood and Rick Mazurowski.

Free event; donations welcomed

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Free Christmas Concert this Saturday, December 7, 2019, 3 PM, First United Protestant Church

Please join us this Saturday (December 7, 2019) at 3PM for our annual Christmas concert, “Carols for Christmas.”  The concert is free (donations welcomed). The location is First United Protestant Church (above Kaiser and the hospital), 1350 Waianuenue Avenue, Hilo HI 96720 (click link to open a new window in Google Maps).

The concert will feature works from two composers:

Sir David Valentine Willcocks (1919-2015) started as a chorister and progressed through a career as chorus master, organ master, composer and decorated hero of World War II. His choral arrangements ground audiences in tradition and familiarity with a few surprises and sophisticated departures from the expected.

John Milford Rutter (1945-present) was likewise educated in England, also beginning his career as a chorister. Notable in his long career as prolific composer and sought-after conductor is his founding of the Cambridge Singers. Rutter’s original carols are influenced by traditional English and French styles. They also reach into popular idioms of the 20th century that delight the ear without losing the deep spirituality and emotion associated with carols for the Christmas season.

Carols celebrating the birth of Christ originated with medieval nativity plays attributed first to the influence of St.Francis of Assisi in the early 13th century. These plays became the foundation for teaching scripture to a broad spectrum of society, using drama, costume and music.

Surviving the centuries, Christmas carols have evolved from simple 14th century chants and the use of dual languages — Latin for the church and a local tongue for the people — to the melodies associated with traditional and modern Christmas celebrations.

Walter Greenwood will assist on piano and organ. Featured soloists are drawn from the chorus.

Thanks Hilo Tribune Herald for the nice feature:

Hilo Community Chorus to perform at First United Protestant Church

12th Annual Messiah Sing-Along, Sunday, December 16, 2 PM, First United Protestant Church

During the dedication concert for a new organ at the Church of the Holy Cross in 2007, a germ of an idea occurred to Tom McAlexander that the Church would be a great place for a Messiah sing-along. At intermission he shared that idea with then Palace Theater organist Bob Alder, whose only remark was, “Yes. Make it happen.” So after making arrangements through Pastor Tom Olcott, the first annual Messiah sing-along took place in their sanctuary. The sing-along remained at Holy Cross until after Pastor Olcott retired, then in 2014 it was moved to Christ Lutheran Church. By request of Pastor Ron Kent of First United Protestant Church, this year it will be presented there as the concluding event of their 150th anniversary year celebrations.

Singer or not, everyone is invited to this sing-along. Audience members who wish to sing may bring their own score, or a copy may be borrowed at the door. Members of the Hilo Community Chorus will be strategically placed in the pews to act as section leaders (look for the soprano/alto/tenor/bass signs on the pews). Of course you may sit and sing wherever you wish or just enjoy the singing. The sing-along will also feature the most famous of all choruses, “Hallelujah,” and end with “Worthy Is the Lamb” and the final “Amen.” The event is free (with calabash), and everyone is welcome.

Conductor is Tom McAlexander and accompanists are Walter Greenwood, organ and Rick Mazurowski, piano. Soloists are Andrea Pelletier, soprano; Lisa Katherine Taylor, alto; Barry Brandes, bass; and Ian McMillan, tenor.

This event is co-sponsored by First United Protestant Church and the Hilo Community Chorus. The Church is located at 1350 Waianuenue Ave. (above the Hospital and Kaiser),  There will be two open rehearsals, one at the UH-Hilo rehearsal room on Monday, December 10, at 6:30 PM and the other at the Church on Saturday, December 15 at 2:00 p.m. Anyone who cares to join in for a refresher course before the sing-along is welcome. For more information, call Tom McAlexander, 985-7192, or email tommac@hawaii.rr.com.

Hilo Community Chorus Presents Free Holiday Concert on Saturday, December 1, 2018, 3 PM, at First United Protestant Church

The Hilo Community Chorus will present Norwegian composer Kim Andrè Arnesen’s “The Christmas Alleluias” with harp accompaniment by Tatyana Shapiro-Leiste and guest soloist Amy Horst on Saturday, December 1, 2018 at 3:00 p.m. at First United Protestant Church in Hilo (click link to open location in google maps). Also featured will be Suites IV (“Carols of Central and South America”) and V (“Carols of North America”) from Mark Hayes’ “International Carol Suites,” and a selection of carols arranged by John Rutter, all accompanied by Walter Greenwood, piano.

“The Christmas Alleluias” sets to music the work of librettist Euan Tait, whose text “Unfinished Remembering,” commemorating the outbreak of the First World War, was performed in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall in 2014. He has worked extensively with Arnesen and other composers.

Guest soloist Amy Horst is well known to Hilo Audiences for her crystal clear soprano voice. She is Instructor in music and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Hawaii – Hilo. She has been soloist with the Hilo Community Chorus on a number of occasions.

Tatyana Shapiro-Leiste is a professional, classically-trained concert harpist from St. Petersburg, Russia. She grew up in a musical family and graduated with a Master’s degree from the world-famous St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory of Music in 1998. After moving to the United States in 1999, she received her second Master’s degree and worked on her PhD in Music and Harp at the University of Arizona where she studied under Dr. Carrol McLaughlin. She was the principal harpist with the El Paso Opera Company and El Paso Symphony Orchestra and was part of the world’s largest harp touring ensemble “HarpFusion.” She has performed with a number of symphony orchestras. Tatyana has done recordings at Capital Records and at other recording sessions. She has also performed on TV, most recently at “Dancing with the Stars.”

“International Carol Suites” is a work of five geographically themed suites representing 20 countries. The chorus performed the first three suites last year, and the two remaining suites, which will be performed in this concert, include carols from Venezuela, Chile, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada, and the United States. Soloists from the Chorus will be Danielle Kwami, Belinda Hall, Pressley Sutherland, Kevin Reardon, and Adrianna Zablan.

Composer/arranger John Rutter is one of the most recognized names in Christmas music. The collection to be performed include “Child in a Manger,” “Flemish Carol,” “Sans Day Carol,” and “In dulce jubilo” (which was edited by Rutter but this arrangement is by R. L. Pearsall). Soloists for “In dulce jubilo” from the Chorus are Adrianna Zablan, Joan Derbyshire, Connie Leyendecker, Roni Koscik, Len Miyazono, Pressley Sutherland, Doug Albertson, and Mike Kingston.

Hilo Community Chorus is a 501(c)(3) organization and is conducted by Tom McAlexander. For more information, call 985-7192 or email tommac@hawaii.rr.com.

December 2016 Concert Schedule

Our main concert date is Saturday, December 3 at 2:00 pm, at First United Protestant Church, Hilo HI.

Hilo Community Chorus will also again participate in the Holiday Concert at the University of Hilo Performing Arts Center on Sunday, December 11, 2PM.

Our annual Messiah sing-along will be on Sunday, December 18, at 2:00 PM at Christ Lutheran Church, Hilo HI.

NEW THIS YEAR: we will be participating as well in the holiday show at the Palace Theater also on Sunday, December 18, more details to be announced.

Spring Concert, Saturday May 28, 2016, 3 PM and UH Choral Scholarship Presentation

Spring 2016 Poster2Chorus to Perform Two Requiems

The Hilo Community Chorus will present Luigi Cherubini’s “Requiem in C minor” and Dan Forrest’s “Requiem for the Living” in concert on Saturday, May 28, at 3:00 pm at First United Protestant Church, 1350 Waianuenue Ave, Hilo, Hawaii 96720.  Click here to see location at Google Maps.

The Cherubini, which will be accompanied by Walter Greenwood, premiered January 21, 1816 at a commemoration service for Louis XVI of France on the twenty-third anniversary of his beheading during the French Revolution. It was admired by Beethoven and performed at his funeral. Schumann praised it as being “without equal in the world.”

The five movements of Dan Forrest’s Requiem for the Living, (2013) form a narrative just as much for the living, and their own struggle with pain and sorrow, as for the dead. It will be accompanied by an instrumental ensemble and will be conducted by Dr. Daniel Mahraun, who first conducted HCC last spring at the Palace Theater. Rachel Edwards, last year’s recipient of the Hawaii Concert Society’s scholarship, will be the guest soprano soloist.

Moriah Mathson, student at UH-Hilo, will be the recipient of the third annual Hilo Community Chorus Tom McAlexander Choral Music Scholarship award for 2016. According to her instructor, Amy Horst, “ Moriah is a Senior Psychology major with a 3.96 GPA. She has been an extremely dedicated alto singer in the University Chorus this past semester, and I look forward to her continuing with University Chorus in the Fall, and then joining the Kapili Choir in the Spring, next school year.”

Admission is $10 and tickets may be purchased from chorus members or at the door. For more information, call HCC choral director Tom McAlexander (985-7192) or email tommac@hawaii.rr.com.

“We are the instrument, we are that music”

The Hilo Community Chorus spring concert will be Saturday, May 28 at 3:00 PM at First United Protestant Church, located above Kaiser and the Hilo Medical Center at 1350 Waianuenue Ave, Hilo, Hawaii 96720. Click here to see the location on Google Maps.

The chorus and special guests will present Cherubini’s “Requiem in C Minor “and contemporary composer Dan Forrest’s “Requiem for the Living.”  For more information about these pieces scroll down to view earlier posts.

There will be an additional rehearsal on Saturday, May 21 in the afternoon, probably at the University rehearsal room (if available) and the “dress” rehearsal will be on Thursday, May 26 (evening) at the First United Protestant Church.

In the 3 minute video clip below, you can watch composer Dan Forrest discuss the importance of choral singing, including his statement “We are the instrument, we are that music.”