System: Hakuoh College Handbell Choir farewell concert hosted by UH Community Faculties

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System: Hakuoh College Handbell Choir farewell concert hosted by UH Community Faculties
Hakuoh College Handbell Choir in 2014

The College of Hawai‘i Local community Faculties will host the internationally-acknowledged Hakuoh University Handbell Choir in a absolutely free community concert on March 9, 7 p.m. at Central Union Church. Led by acclaimed Director Hirotaka Arai, who established the choir in 1988, the 15 pupil handbell ringers will perform in a farewell concert as part of their 29th Goodwill Tour of Hawai‘i.

Arai strategies to retire from his long and illustrious vocation, and 2023 will be the ultimate handbell choir live performance in Hawai‘i, marking the choir’s 35th anniversary. The once-a-year Handbell Choir Concert, co-sponsored by Hakuoh University and the UH Local community Colleges, is one of the several cooperative pursuits undertaken among these establishments. 

These cost-free concerts for the local community have been held per year considering the fact that 1990. The UH Neighborhood Colleges commenced coordinating the concerts in 2007 at Windward CC’s Palikū Theatre and at Leeward CC’s Leeward Theatre. The concert events were paused from 2020–22 because of to COVID-19. 

Arai acquired the art and science of handbell new music from scratch. He arranges the new music, and his purpose has also been to rearrange well-regarded well-known and modern day tunes. 

“Handbell is astonishingly odd and a wondrous musical products,” claimed Arai. “The handbells can bring forth a limitless variety of tones and seems. Taking mostly classical tunes as essential products, and with no ruining the impression of the authentic new music, I experimented with methods to make handbell-unique appears and musical preparations. I wished to make the Hakuoh brand name of handbell audio.”

The choir will complete a variety of choices from classical standards such as W. A. Mozart’s “Turkish March” to modern hits, these kinds of as Disney’s Frozen “Let it Go,” as properly as a Hawaiian favored “Hawai‘i Aloha.” The choir has the capacity to ring seven octaves of handbells, and their devotion to practice and general performance has produced globally need for their “Hakuoh Brand” of handbell new music.

From their household in Oyama Town, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, Hakuoh’s choir has participated in more than 14 entire world competitions in England, South Korea, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong, and has entertained audiences such as the emperor and empress of Japan and the king and queen of Belgium. 

Given that 2008, Hakuoh University has collaborated with the UH Neighborhood Faculties as a result of an global cooperative agreement for college students, faculty, students, workers and directors and annual brief-phrase instruction packages for their college students.

For far more facts about the choir’s performances, connect with (808) 956-0321.