MUSIC
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Karen Kennedy presides over rehearsals with the Honolulu Symphony and international choruses at the Blaisdell Concert Hall, where she is readying for her final performance.
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Mozart gets multicultural
Choral groups from around the world take the stage for 'Requiem'
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's glorious, timeless, soaring music is still a core part of the world's musical nervous system, particularly in this, the 250th year of his birth.
Honolulu Symphony
Performing with the Honolulu Symphony Chorus
In concert: 8 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Sunday
Place: Blaisdell Concert Hall
Tickets: $22 to $73
Call: 792-2000 or Ticketmaster, 877-750-4400
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The Honolulu Symphony and Chorus' presentation of Mozart's deathbed work, the haunting "Requiem," is such a big undertaking that choral groups from around the world are being added to the stage. Also on tap is Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony and Jacques-Francois Ibert's "Hommage a Mozart," the Friday and Sunday concerts capping the ninth annual Hawaii International Choral Festival.
Joining the Honolulu musicians are the Oral Village Ideas Theater Choral Group from Ghana, West Africa, drawn from a half-dozen churches in the city of Kumasi; the Hamilton Civic Choir of New Zealand, a leading voice in Kiwi classics since 1946; and the Merveille Chorus of Osaka, Japan, an organization equally versed in Japanese and Western musical styles -- and if they sound familiar, that's because this is their eighth consecutive choral festival appearance in the islands.
Taking a final bow Sunday will be choral conductor Karen Kennedy, who also teaches chorus at the University of Hawaii-Manoa and is leaving for a faculty position at Towson University, near Baltimore. Sunday's performance will be a "bittersweet" denouement for Kennedy.
"I'm leaving the islands with mixed emotions," said Kennedy, a bit breathless between rehearsals. "It's sad to leave such wonderful people at the symphony and at the university."
Wrangling an international herd of choristers has its upside as well: "After doing this for several years in a row, we're all pretty simpatico. Everybody comes prepped well ahead of time -- very few come and sing Mozart for the first time -- but the combined power of the various voices is marvelous. So powerful that it takes you aback."
No matter what their national origin or cultural affiliation, the genius of Mozart makes it all harmonious, she explained. "Wherever you come from, the way you pronounce vowels is different, but that's also true if you're from New York or Texas. With 'Requiem,' we all get to sing in ecclesiastical Latin!"