“Wow’d Crowd Cheers Aloud” the headlines might have said after the March 28th performance by the Stanford Chamber Chorale.  The concert, a joint presentation with the Kona Choral Society, brought the world-renown Stanford University’s most select choir of 24 voices to Hale Halawai.

The enthusiastic audience heard four types of choral music: the early classical period, more recent choral music,  music by Queen Lili’ukalani, and American spirituals.  Under the direction of master musician and conductor Dr. Stephen M. Sano, such a repertoire was not surprising since Dr. Sano excels on the Hawaiian slack key guitar.

The 24 beautiful voices sang for over an hour, receiving a standing ovation.  As an interlude before the Kona Choral Society performance, Dr. Sano played guitar and Danny Akaka, the ukulele, winning standing ovations of their own.

The concert was a gift to the Kona community, honoring KCS’s 25th anniversary. The community, applauding its thanks, clearly hoped there would be another joint performance soon.”