Incoming…we’re just a few weeks away from the start of the fall semester, bring on the Windward Choral Society’s seventh annual holiday concert. Yeah, seventh. Wow. If you’re new to our merry band, welcome! You’ll like it here. We’re all friendly, welcoming, filled with the joy of music and juuuuust a little bit nuts. Don’t worry, we’re harmless. Except for the tenors. Give them a little extra room.

So how did we get here? Many of you have been on this ride since the beginning, some jumped on during the journey and some are just trying to figure out where the rehearsal hall is. We’re going to explore just a little in this two-part blog, just for fun.

Some numbers are simple. Like multiplication by 2. When I saw the little blurb about the first gathering of the Windward Choral Society in MidWeek magazine in the summer of 2008 and my wife urged me to check it out (translation: get me out of the house for one night a week), I was one of 50+ folks who showed up in the pews at Windward United Church of Christ. That’s just about double the number Susie expected and now here we are in 2015 and we’ve doubled THAT to over 100. I guess there are a LOT of spouses looking for a little peace and quiet.

Some numbers aren’t as simple. The group that showed up for the second week of rehearsal in 2008 probably had the notion that Christmas music was going to be nice and traditional with just a little mix of “mele kalikimaka” thrown in. You seasoned vets are already laughing, aren’t you? When one of the tenors blasted out with “Viumbe vyote vya mungu weeeetuuuuu!” and everybody else answered “Na mfalme weeeetuuuuu” it was obvious that this was NOT going to be your grandparents’ Christmas program (unless of course your grandparents were from South Africa or Israel or the deep south or…well…you get the idea). Since that eye-opening moment, the Windward Choral Society has rocked Kailua with music from somewhere upwards of thirty countries and cultures (like I said, some numbers are NOT simple). Shoots, we even did a piece in a language that isn’t even spoken anymore and nobody knows what the words meant. It DID sound really cool, though.

There have also been some not-so-choral goings-on. A partial list would include:

– Ululation (imagine the yells of jockeys racing camels…yup, THAT noise).
– Sneezes to celebrate “Cold and Fugue” season.
– Brazilian rain forest bird noises.
– The “ting” sound a little bell would make.
– A squeaking rubber duck.
– A circle of singers dancing the “Horah”.
– A complete orchestral “Fantasia and Fugue” based on a song performed by a Muppet (see “rubber duck” above).
– And speaking of creatures, there was also a hippopotamus, some sort of jumping Samoan ant and the entire menagerie of beasties found in a nativity scene. No, not in the flesh. We just sang about ‘em.
– A fruitcake recipe. That’s right, a COMPLETE fruitcake recipe.
– Instruments aplenty, many that you don’t often find in a community choral event. A charango (an Andes mountain 10-string  lute), a hammered dulcimer (which has upwards of 25 strings), a harp (who knows how many strings that thing has…), a kazoo, pieces of bamboo banging together, a cymbal the size of a Fosters beer can top, a brass band, a clarinet quintet, a Dixieland band and a long list of “normal” stuff.
– And of course, song titles that have NEVER been on a program around these parts, for example; “Siyahamba”, “Wana Baraka”, “Pasko Na Naman”, “O Sifuni Mungu”, “Pengyou, Ting”, “Kuai Lo de Chu Huei”, “Tres Cantos Nativos Dos Indios Krao”, “Ríu, Ríu, Chíu” and many, many more. (My spellchecker just collapsed in a heap, whimpering and begging for mercy.)

As you might imagine, there is a mixture of excitement and panic when the new repertoire is passed out at the beginning of a concert season. There’s always a ripple of barely discernable comments that flows through the room. “What language is THAT?!” “I know the title, but that’s not the song I remember.” “I think Susie lost her mind over the summer.” Lately there has also been something that, at first glance, is so complicated we’re all CERTAIN that there’s no way we’ll survive it. Pieces like the “Misa Criolla”, and “Star in the East” are HARD and we’re just a simple bunch of non-auditioned amateurs!

And every time, EVERY time, Susie guides us down the road to success. Some rehearsals leave us totally gassed from the level of work and concentration, but that’s part of what makes it so rewarding when we finally “get it”. The sound of the Windward Choral Society performing a true master work with full confidence that they have it nailed is magical and all you need to do is look in the eyes of the audience to know it.

Next time, a tour of the letter “M” (as in moving, memorable, etc.).

(And by the way, the rehearsals are at Holman Hall on the campus of Kailua United Methodist Church. 1110 Kailua Road, down the stairs on the marsh side of the parking lot. Open house and the beginning of the semester is 6:30 pm on September  1^st. Y’all come.)