Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 7, 1 July 2005 — San Francisco's "Sweet Voices" carry on Hawaiian choral tradition [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

San Francisco's "Sweet Voices" carry on Hawaiian choral tradition

By Keaumiki Akui

Ē-~1 nihi Ka Hele, composed by * King David Kalākaua, eautions his wife, Queen Kapi'olani, of the coldness of California as she travels to the Jubilee Celebration of England's Queen Victoria in 1887. Today in San Francisco, a choral group keeps that musical heritage alive as part of its repertoire. What's unusual about that? Well, 70 percent of the group, Nā Leo Nahenahe, or "the sweet voices," is haole (caucasian). Founded by ehoral director John Lehrack in 1999, the group continues to draw new members from around the Bay Area and currently boasts a membership of 30, most of whom share a eonnection to Hawai'i. Originally from the Big Apple, Lehrack earned his master's degree in music at the University of Hawai'i. The soulful strains of island music first touched him near the top of Maui's Haleakalā volcano as he stopped to listen to a loeal man strumming his 'ukulele. The experience never left him. During his eight years in Hawai'i, Lehrack sang with the Honolulu Symphony chorus and even directed the Honolulu Men's Chorus, whieh inspired him to form Nā Leo Nahenahe in San Francisco. Noted kumu hula Māpuana deSilva gave

the group its name, and Bay Area kumu hula Kawika Alfiche helps instruct the group in Hawaiian language and culture. The group's membership includes educators, artists, psychologists, social workers and even a few slackkey guitar players. Among former Hawai'i residents who joined the group is retired school prineipal Elaine Fong. "I wanted to sing and stay in touch with my roots," she says. Through one of her loeal contacts, Fong persuaded Kamehameha Schools to provide Nā Leo Nahenahe with selected musi-

Photo: Courtesy of NQ Leo Nahenahe eal arrangements. The late singer Larry Ching was also a member of the group. Before relocating to California, he was the resident crooner at Jack Cione's old Forbidden City nightclub at Kalākaua and Kapi'olani, before Don Ho bought the club from Cione and called it the Hale Ho. Nā Leo Nahenahe's last concert was dedicated to Ching's memory. "I miss home," laments another member, 52-year-old Native Hawaiian Sam Paulo, "so when I hear those sounds, it's sweet music to my ears." Now a Daly City resi-

dent, Paulo stopped by one evening and soon immersed himself in the choral group, as did retiree Betty Perkins, who travels to weekly rehearsals from Santa Rosa. A stickler for integrity in language and culture, Lehrack's musieal selections for the group are 95 percent in the Hawaiian language. That ean be a challenge for main-land-bred members, but Lehrack, 39, insists on precision, stressing that the singers must fully understand what eaeh song is saying. While rehearsing one number, for example, he tells them: "You're supposed to be waves - play with it, feel it." The group's last major concert was on April 17 at the Presentation Theater at the University of San Francisco. "It's been wonderful," Fong says of her participation as a member of Nā Leo Nahenahe. "It's what we want to sing." For more information on the group, go to www.naleo.homestead.com.

Keaumiki Akui is the puhlie ajfairs speciaiist with OHA's governance division. Ifyou are a Hawaiian on the continent with an interesting story to teii. or ifyou know of one. please contact OHA Outreach Coordinator Aulani Apoliona at 594-1912. or via e-mail at aulania@oha.org.

' - ■ ...■■■ i The Nā Leo Nahenahe chorus gathers at a recent event.