The Hawaii Symphony Orchestra was present to accompany several soloist student musicians, as well as the BYUH Concert Choir during the Evening of Concertos on Nov. 25, held in the McKay Auditorium.
The student soloists were chosen in the spring during a concerto competition. The soloists were: Sun Mi Jin, a violinist from Korea; Koko Ohira, a saxophonist from Japan; Cameron Abaroa, a baritone vocalist from Arizona; Joshua Wallace, a percussionist from California; Kaylee Buss, a soprano vocalist from Colorado; Ayaka Kinjo, a pianist from Japan; Sydney Nemrow, a soprano vocalist from Laie; and David Kinikini, a pianist from Hauula.
“The students have been preparing for months, and even years for some of them. Some of them have been practicing as many as 10 hours a day,” explained Dr. Daniel Bradshaw, the chair for the Music Department.
He spoke very highly of the student soloists, saying, “This represents the culmination of an immense amount of work on their part.” The majority of the soloists began their musical journeys during their childhood, making this, as Bradshaw stated, the result of several years of work.
For soloist Ayaka Kinjo, sophomore piano performance major, the evening was a dream come true. She said, “Playing a concerto has been my dream since I started playing the piano.” Kinjo has had that dream for most of her life, as she started taking lessons at the age of three.
Saxophone soloist Koko Ohira, a senior music major, talked about how over the summer, her concerto piece was changed due to complications with the length of it, yet she said she couldn’t believe that the performance was already finished.
While things went by quickly for the soloists, the time possibly went by faster for the choir, who prepared for about two weeks. According to freshman Brinley Berrett, a vocal performance major from Colorado, “It went by pretty quickly. We had to rehearse just this one song for two weeks.” This was the first time performing with a full symphony orchestra for many of the students, which provided a number of new experiences.
Soloist Sydney Nemrow, a music major in her senior year, shared: “It’s my first time to sing with the symphony. The symphony doesn’t come often. And so to do it with such a big ensemble behind you is amazing.”
Soloist Sun Mi Jin, a sophomore music major, added, “It’s a learning experience. I don’t play perfect still. But each time I feel like I’m getting better - especially with professionals.”
Talking about performing with a pianist verses a full symphony orchestra, she said, “For pianists, they match me and so it’s easier. For orchestra, if you mess up you don’t get a chance to get back. The orchestra is amazing and has no flaws, and I need to get better.”
On Nov. 23, two nights before the performance, the soloists went down to Honolulu to rehearse with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra. This rehearsal was conducted as a professional rehearsal, which some students had never been to before. Each soloist had a section of time specifically for them they had to stay within.
There were people assigned to keep track of the rehearsal schedule in order to make sure the rehearsal stayed right on track. This is because the orchestra musicians are members of a union, and going over time costs too much.
“So we need to run things quickly,” said soloist Joshua Wallace, a junior music major. “But when we run things quickly, we don’t have enough time to go over, for example, things that I want to run over. But everyone is just so talented and professional that it makes things easier. It’s really thrilling and fun.”
Ernest Taniguchi, conductor for the North Shore Symphonic Wind Orchestra and the BYU–Hawaii Chamber Orchestra, was the conductor for the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra for the event. He had to learn every part to the eight soloist pieces as part of his role as conductor.
Dr. Scott McCarrey, a BYUH associate professor of Music, was behind much of the detail work for the concerto competition, the concert, and the preparation in between. According to Dr. Bradshaw, “He had to coordinate a number of things with the symphony. He had to order music from many different parts of the world.”
And everyone’s the work most certainly paid off. Students said they were blown away by the performances that evening. Mikaila Sass, a freshman biochemistry major from Washington, was particularly impressed. “I think it was amazing to see all of the work that people had put into those performances and all the hours that must have been behind making it so perfect,” she said.
Choir member Reyna Shumway, a freshman music major from Laie said, “My favorite part has been watching the others. It’s a good thing we didn’t perform first, not because we were worse, but we were able to get pumped and inspired by the other performers.”
Many thanks were expressed to everyone involved in the event as well as those who supported the performances. Each soloist was also called back for a second round of applause from the audience.