The BYU-Hawaii Concert Choir sang hymns of praise and thanksgiving in celebration of the Thanksgiving season with its “Evensong” concert held on Nov. 22 in the McKay Auditorium. Michael Belnap, the choir director, said, “Because we performed the weekend before Thanksgiving, I wanted to choose songs that reflected praises to the Lord and focused on Christ.”Belnap said the concert performance was elevated by the accompaniment of the organ by Ken Weber, a local from Kalihi Valley. “It’s the first concert we’ve ever done with the organ. It was like having our own little orchestra rolled into one instrument and made it exciting,” said Belnap. “Ken contacted me through a student we both knew. He really wanted to perform with us so he and I got together and selected the pieces. It was the right combo because we’ve never had the voices to do some of these pieces until now.”Kaylee Buss, a junior vocal major from Colorado and Choir librarian and costumer, said, “I’ve never been a part of choir concerts where we had the organ so prominent and integrated in our program. Brother Belnap usually has spiritual themes in our concerts, but the organ made it more clear to the audience what we were going for - the Spirit.”Belnap said he tried to find a balance between educational and entertaining music. “If everything is educational, it’s boring. If you can entertain and inspire somebody while still being educational, even better.”“All within these 11 weeks we had to first audition everyone,” said Buss. “Second, we got all of our music and learned it by spending one hour every day practicing in class. We’re also required to practice one hour outside of class in our own little quartets and memorize the songs. Usually we do a Christmas concert in December, but because it was before Thanksgiving, there was more pressure to learn it faster.”A crowd favorite was the closing number, Mack Wilberg’s arrangement of “Come Thou Fount.” Kelsey Kimball, a junior from Laie studying elementary education, said, “It would be difficult to accurately describe the spirit and joy I felt when hearing this song sang so beautifully by the choir. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to hear not only these songs, but also their testimonies that I could feel through the music as they sang about their love for the Savior.”Jashon Fabia, a sophomore from the Philippines studying psychology, said, “The choir’s rendition of ‘Come Thou Fount’ really impacted me. While walking home after the concert, I was looking at the stars and realized how insensitive I have been for not thanking the Lord for the things I don’t see. We thank him for the visible, but forget to thank him for what isn’t visible. I felt motivated to be more spiritually sensitive of every blessing and more receiving of them.”Fabia also said he felt the Thanksgiving theme was good for international students “because we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in other cultures. We have festivities similar to it, but not annually, especially in Asia.”
Writer: Joshua Mason ~ Multimedia Journalist
