For the first time ever, BYU-Hawaii united all eight of its different musical ensembles to create a night of Christmas cheer, according to percussion professor Darren Duerden.“Right from the get-go it brought home a powerful sense of Christmas ambiance, not just with the decorations, but with the music, lyrics, and the strong feeling of the Christmas spirit that was here tonight,” said Lasi Reed, an undeclared freshman from Hawaii.The night of Dec. 15 was a musical alliance of over 200 students and community members with a wide variety of musical talents and skillsets, according to Daren Duerden who has been directing and coordinating the concert since the beginning of the semester.The normal devotional stage was gone and the floor preceding the podium was lined with poinsettias. In place of the stage were the musical groups.The program opened with remarks from President John S. Tanner, who presided at the devotional. President Tanner reflected on what he called his favorite Christmas tradition. “There are several Christmas traditions that go back to that first Christmas story,” Tanner said, “No Christmas tradition is more wonderful to me than the tradition of music, which harks back to those herald angels that sang. Today we have our own angels: The choirs that will sing and the musical performers today.”The program began and closed with the musical ensembles and congregation joining together to sing a Christmas carol. Each group then performed a piece accompanied by a Christmas thought. The groups included two choirs, the Concert Choir and University Chorale, and four ensemble groups: Salsa Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Brass Ensemble and Shaka Steel. The Salsa Orchestra directed by Darren Duerden performed the Latin-sounding “A Chili Pepper Christmas,” “A Child is Born,” and “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” featuring a duet between Josh Wallace and Calista Cappuccio.They were followed by BYUH piano majors Yvonne Wang and Hikaru Imaizumi, who played “Dance of the Flutes” and “Russian Dance” from “Nutcracker.”They were followed by the Chamber Orchestra as directed by Ernest Taniguchi, and performed traditional renditions of “The Holly and the Ivy” and “Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella” from “Suite of Carols.”The University Chorale directed by Elizabeth Kammerer then sang a spirited vocal performance of “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly.”Then the North Shore Symphonic Winds, an ensemble comprised of brass, woodwinds, and percussion played both students and community members performed “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “Merry Christmas Darling,” as directed by Ernest Taniguchi. Next appeared the crowd favorite, Daren Duerden’s steel drum band, Shaka Steel, who delivered a very tropical feeling “Mele Kalikimaka,” which was followed by “Pat-a-pan” and “Sleigh Ride.”BYUH students said they enjoyed Shaka Steel. “My favorite part was Shaka Steel,” said Euijin Oh, a junior from Korea studying elementary education. “Especially at the Christmas season, that’s the best one.” Oh remarked that it was incredible that “even in the really short one hour,” she could feel the Christmas spirit. Another student, Synneva Collett, a junior from Montana studying International Cultural studies, concurred with Oh. Collett said, “I really liked Shaka Steel .It definitely made me a lot more excited for Christmas!”Then came the Brass Ensemble directed by David Kammerer, who played “Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming,” “What Child is This?” and “In Dulci Jubilo.”Following this, Mouria Pokoina delivered “A Dream About Silent Night,” on the piano.Next, the North Shore Symphonic Winds Orchestra joined forces with the Chamber Orchestra to perform “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.”The final group to perform alone was Michael Belnap’s Concert Choir, which delivered a performance Taniguchi said, “Made the hair on my neck stand up. They were amazing.” The Concert Choir sang the Nigerian carol, “Betelehemu,” followed by “Simbang Gabi” in Tagalog, and “O Magnum Mysterium.” The piece “Betelehemu” was introduced as a hymn that “personified the joy that was felt when the savior Jesus Christ entered the world.” The choir swayed with synchronized hand gestures and together raised their voices to sing praises to the savior of the world. All the musical talents united to perform a Christmas medley combining “Joy to the World,” “Come Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “Silent Night,” “Jingle Bells,” and “Oh Come all ye Faithful” at the end. Ezra Uluave, a freshman majoring in business management from Hawaii, said, “The music in the ending really topped it off. It was very powerful combining all the choirs and the orchestra. There was a very spiritual feeling about it. You could definitely feel the spirit flowing throughout the crowd.”Tom Lam, a senior from Hong Kong majoring in vocal performance played the trombone in the Brass Ensemble and described the final song as “one of the best run-throughs we’ve had out of all our rehearsals.” Lam accredited the synchronization of their performance to how in tune with the Spirit the performers were, saying, “It’s mainly the Spirit here that helped everyone be in tune with each other.”Collett was impressed by how smoothly the performance went with all of the different choirs combined. She said, “It must have been really difficult to get everyone together to practice. Especially you saw some people running back and forth so they were in multiple things. It’s just really amazing. They’re just all so talented.” Isabella West, a freshman from Arizona studying marine biology played in the Salsa and North Shore Symphonic Wind Orchestra. She said, “They did a really good job focusing the attention with the lights and cameras on one group so players could switch positions to another group without too much attention on them,” said West.Ernest Taniguchi said, “[The musicians] have been a pleasure to work with, you can tell they’re not selfish. They play their music for a greater purpose. That purpose is everything the church and school stand for. We need more of that in the world.”Taniguchi was in charge of directing the whole group during the climax and said they as a whole had never practiced together until the actual day of the concert. “We had about 45 minutes of rehearsal today after the [morning] devotional to put that huge piece together,” said Taniguchi just after the concert, “I have to say all the ensembles were very well prepared, each of the directors had prepared them so well so it was much easier for me.The program’s theme was joy through recognizing the reason of the season: Jesus Christ the Savior. President Thomas S. Monson said, “Finding the real joy of Christmas comes not in the hurrying and the scurrying to get more done, nor is it found in the purchasing of gifts. We find real joy when we make the Savior the focus of the season.” Uploaded Dec. 22, 2015
Writer: Alex Maldonado & Alyssa Olsen
