Whirl Of WW Choral Concerts

The 100-voice Windward Choral Society will perform two free concerts in the area during the first week of June.

And since a few members will cruise down the Danube River this summer with the Kona Music Society, the spring concerts will carry out that theme, featuring music about rivers and water from around the world.

(The choral society’s European trip will include singing in several historic churches along the Danube.)

“We’re doing a wonderful Celtic piece called River Song, and we’re also doing Ukrainian River Song,” said WCS founder and artistic director Susan Duprey. Other “river” songs will spring from the British Isles, the Republic of Cameroon, Hawaii, Israel and the U.S. Mainland.

The “Cruising Down the River” concerts are set for 7 p.m. June 1 at Kaneohe Marine base (for those with base access) and 5 p.m.

June 3 at First Presbyterian Church at Koolau. Donations are welcome at the June 3 event to offset performance costs at Koolua Golf Club.

Guest performers include members of the Marine Forces Pacific Band and the Windward Children’s Chorus, under the direction of Tim Schulz. “We’re excited that this new youth chorus will be participating,” Duprey said of the children’s group.

The shows will end with a rousing choral, organ and brass rendition of Gustav Holst’s Jupiter theme from The Planets, and Duprey’s father, famed organist John McCreary, will play the organ.

This last piece will be dedicated to the returning Marines and sailors of the 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines.

For more information, visit thewindwardchoralsociety.org.