Stanford Chamber Chorale Makes Big Island Premiere

The Stanford Chamber Chorale will makes its premiere on the Big Island while on a tour through Hawai’i in late March.

Under the direction of Stanford University Music Department Chair, Stephen M. Sano, a collection of 24 voices make up the chorale. The group will perform for the first time on the stage of Kahilu Theatre on March 27 at 7 p.m.

Considered Stanford Department of Music’s most select choir, the 24 individuals who compose the group are undergraduate and graduate students from all over the world. In addition to their demanding schedule that includes performing, touring, and recording, singers are also students who meet their rigorous academic programs. A variety of academic disciplines and degree programs are represented.

Chorale works that will be included in the Hawai’i tour performances will range from a Gregorian Chant to newly-composed works, and even Hawaiian part-song, folk songs and spirituals.

Among much recognition, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences recognized the Stanford Chamber Chorale, under the direction of Dr. Sano, with inclusion in five categories in the preliminary balloting for the 2013 Grammy Award, including the category “Best Choral Performance.”

Dr. Sano is also active in his fields of interest, including Hawaiian choral music, the music of Queen Lili’uokalani, kī hōʻalu, and North American Taiko. His own recordings have been nominated as finalists for the Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award and the Hawaiian Music Award. In 2008, his most recent release, Songs from the Taro Patch, was on the preliminary ballot for the Grammy Award in Hawaiian Music.

Many have regarded Dr. Sano as “a gifted conductor.” Others have noted his work as “wonderful music making… evident in an intense engagement with his charges: the musicians responded to this attention with wide-eyed musical acuity.”

Tickets to the show are $5/$10/$15/$20 and can be purchased online, by calling (808) 885-6868, or at the Kahilu Theatre Box Office, which is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.