The second half of the week, we began rehearsing with the Maui Chamber Orchestra and Chorus. As Tropical Storm Hector brushed the eastern side of the island, we enjoyed the most divine offering of homemade dishes prepared for us by the choir members. We sang with young musicians at Maui High School and older folks at Roselani Place, many of whom came to see us in concert with the MCO at the pinnacle of our week on Maui! Please enjoy recordings of our choral-only set and the Haydn Harmoniemesse, featuring soloists Anna O’Connell, Tracey Bloser, Nate McEwen, and Levi Hernandez.

Outside of rehearsals, we had plenty of opportunities to explore the island – we spent time in Mākena, Kīhei, Paʻia, Kahului, and trekked all the way to the peak of Haleakalā! One of our altos, Jess Barbini, described the hike as “Breathtaking! This day will forever be one of my most cherished! I could have spent hours absorbing the peace and stillness on Haleakalā, with a beautiful brunch to follow!”

We also had opportunities to learn about the Hawaiʻian environment and participate in ongoing efforts to preserve and protect the island. One of our sopranos, Brianna Cox, said “Hiking Haleakalā made me feel small and made me understand why we need to protect our environment... I felt so connected to the Hawaiʻian value of mālama honua, protecting the environment, and therefore, even closer to the island as a whole.”

To sum up our amazing cultural exchange, tenor Matthew Milano puts it best:

“There's nothing that says ‘Welcome to Maui’ like being greeted with Leis and singing and ʻukulele and beloved former directors [John Rowehl]! The welcoming spirit of the MCO was truly stunning. From this initial welcoming came gesture after gesture of amazing hospitality, helpfulness, and camaraderie – culminating in an MCO member [Lehua] following us to our departure gate so that she could give us a box of chocolates. Each.”

Every community we reached with our music felt to us like a box of chocolates. What a privilege it is to have access to experiences like these because people like you believe in our group’s mission to foster connections far and wide through our music. As always, you can learn more about the Chamber Singers on our website and hear more of our music on facebook and YouTube. Come hear us perform in Ithaca this November, and stay tuned for updates on our August 2019 adventure…

Mahalo nui loa [Thank you very much],

Amy Penick and the Cornell University Chamber Singers

Photo: At 10,000ft elevation, we were above the clouds on that misty Friday morning. From left to right: Amanda Hellwig ‘16, Jess Barbini ‘17, Amy Penick ‘17, Brianna Cox ‘20 atop Haleakalā.

Aloha kākou! [Hello everyone!]

Five weeks ago today, after six hours of being couched gently between the ocean and the stars, our plane descended on Maui. From the first “aloha” to the last, graced with gifts of leis, kukui nut necklaces, and glorious music, we felt so welcomed by the island of Maui and its beautiful people.

Sunday morning, the 32 of us delivered our debut performance as This Particularly Lucky Cross-Section Of Chamber Singers Members And Alumni in the form of a service at Keawalaʻi Congregational Church, which would be our rehearsal space and home base for the next four days. The people there welcomed us with open arms, filling our hearts with good will and our bellies with good food. Standing in the chapel, hearing the ocean waves and feeling the breeze, infusing our music into the space – this all felt like a warm embrace from the church walls themselves. By our Wednesday evening concert, our sound had come together as one musical force.

Members of the church community invited their friends and family, and especially loved our performances of Hawaiʻian music, which we learned beachside with Dr. Keona Donaghy from the University of Hawaiʻi. Many of us deeply appreciated working with local people to learn their music; “respecting a language is respecting a way of life!” We were lucky to have a language lesson on the beach, followed by plenty of burgers and a stunning sunset.

Photo: Most of the choir gathered at Kamaʻole Beach Park after a successful day full of music and sand!

Video: Stars by Eriks Esenvalds -- the piece that inspired John Rowehl's invitation -- performed at Keawalaʻi on Wednesday evening.

We are so grateful to all our donors--in just 24 days, you have helped us reach 92% of our $10,000 goal!!! As a thank you, please enjoy this message from John Rowehl, whose invitation sparked this project centered around cultural and musical exchange. The Chamber Singers are fortunate to experience the beauty of Maui--not only its physical beauty, but more importantly the beauty of its people and their history, and the shared experience of music-making. The birds chirping in the background are what Maui sounds like in the morning, and the rainbow at the end of the video slideshow is completely unfiltered! Here is the video transcript:

Aloha kākou! (Hello all!) This is John Rowehl coming to you from beautiful Maui. As many of you know, I conducted the Cornell Chamber Singers from 2011 to 2015. I’m now the Executive Director of the Maui Chamber Orchestra & Chorus. And I want to bring the Cornell Chamber Singers to Maui to have them join MCO in a large choral-orchestral work. Maui is a small place, so we need a guest choir in order to do large works.

The performance with the Maui Chamber Orchestra is slated for Sunday, Aug 12, at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, a state-of-the-art facility nestled between Kahului Harbor and the stunning West Maui Mountains, in what is probably the best concert hall in the entire state.

For the decade-plus that I worked with Cornell choirs, it was a dream of mine to bring one of them to Hawaiʻi, because it’s an amazing place -- culturally as well as scenically -- and I love seeing people discover it for the first time. But it always seemed too challenging, logistically, to bring the larger Glee Club or Chorus, and the Chamber Singers didn’t tour. I think it’s especially fitting that the Chamber Singers’ first-ever tour  will bring them to Maui.

Because I’m here, the group will experience the island as I know and love it, not as a tourist destination. For example, I’ll take them to sparsely populated Mākena, where they will give a separate concert at one of Hawaiʻi’s oldest missionary churches --  Keawalaʻi  Congregational,  whose walls of coral and floor of indigenous ʻohia together make for a gorgeous acoustic. (I know, because I’m the Organist and Director of Music there.)

But along with appreciating the beauty of that space, we’ll talk about the downsides of the missionary era -- how the missionaries’ racist and unenlightened treatment of native Hawaiians nearly led to the extinction of their language and culture. And we’ll talk about U.S. imperialism and the illegal overthrow of the sovereign Hawaiian Kingdom.

I’ll also introduce the Chamber Singers to my new friends and colleagues at the University of Hawaiʻi, who are actively involved in the Renaissance of Hawaiian Culture that began in the 1970s. And they will learn how distinctively Hawaiian values and the concept of mālama honua might point the way toward more sustainable ways of living on Island Earth.

Sure, we’ll make time for sunrise at the top of a 10,000-ft volcano, and swimming with giant sea turtles. But I see the Chamber Singers’ visit as focusing primarily on education and cultural exchange -- their glorious choral music in exchange for an introduction to a glorious corner of their own country that most of them know nothing about.

I hope you will lend your support to this very exciting opportunity!

You can learn more about the Chamber Singers on our website and hear more of our music on facebook and YouTube. Stay tuned for more updates, and keep spreading the word to help us reach our goal in this final push!

Thank you to all our donors! After just over a week, you have helped us reach 15% of our $10,000 goal. To share more information about our upcoming tour, we are pleased to present our project video: Watch to get a sneak peek of some of our venues for performance, teaching, and learning on the island. We feature our fearless leader Steve among several current members, one of whom is learning to speak Hawaiian in preparation for the exchange. We also hear from John Rowehl, whose invitation sparked this initiative.

During our visit, our goal is to experience life on the island approximately as permanent residents do, and to share rhythms and melodies in the process. Our plan is to perform in a couple churches and to sing with people in community centers so we can connect with as many people as we can throughout the island. We'll also get to interact musically with students of a range of ages in local schools. Some of our members studying music direction with Steve will be able to work with these kids as a teaching opportunity.

Our week will culminate in a performance with the Maui Chamber Orchestra as part of their 8th anniversary celebrations. This collaborative event, which we’ll present under the direction of John Rowehl, is the professional highlight of the exchange. And after getting to know the members of the orchestra through rehearsals, homestays and community events, we hope it will be a personal highlight too -- for the Chamber Singers, Orchestra members, and audience members.

You can learn more about the Chamber Singers on our website and hear more of our music on Facebook and YouTube. Stay tuned for another update soon, and keep spreading the word about our project! Thanks for taking the time to read about us.