2026
30th Anniversary Concert
Bios, Texts, and Translations
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Dr. Joshua Habermann
Artistic Director Dr. Joshua Habermann is in his fifth season as Artistic Director of the O'ahu Choral Society. Under his leadership, the OCS Symphonic Chorus has grown to include over 85 members and taken on collaborative projects with the Hawai'i Symphony Orchestra, community and collegiate choirs, and professional singers and instrumentalists. A native of California, Habermann is a graduate of Georgetown University and the University of Texas at Austin where he studied under Craig Hella Johnson. Habermann has led honor choirs and choral festivals in North and Latin America, Europe and Asia. As a singer (tenor) he has performed with the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus (Eugene, Oregon), and Conspirare (Austin, Texas) and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. Recording credits include three projects with Conspirare: Through the Green Fuse, Requiem (a Grammy nominee for best choral recording), and Threshold of Night (a Grammy nominee for best choral recording and best classical album). Habermann is in his eighteenth season as Artistic Director of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, one of the nation's premier professional chamber choirs, and was director of the Dallas Symphony Chorus from 2011 to 2022. Previously he taught on the faculties of the University of Miami and San Francisco State University, and led the Masterchorale of South Florida. He is a frequent guest with symphonic and professional choirs, and in 2023 prepared the San Francisco Symphony Chorus for performances of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe. In 2024, he was a guest of the Houston Symphony, preparing the chorus in Czech Rhapsody of Bohuslav Martinů, and John Adams’s nativity oratorio El Niño. |
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Dr. Alec Schumacker
Associate Director Dr. Alec Schumacker is the Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. He presently serves as the Vice President of the Hawai'i Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. He completed his DMA in Choral Conducting at the University of Miami, where he studied with Joshua Habermann and Karen Kennedy. An active educator and sought-after presenter, Schumacher has delivered lectures at the 2023 and 2019 International Kodály Symposia in Los Angeles and Malaysia, the 2020 Western Division ACDA conference in Salt Lake City, the 2018 and 2016 Asia Kodály Symposia in Taiwan, the 2017 National ACDA conference in Minneapolis, and various others. His written work on incorporating popular music in the choral curriculum was recently published by GIA in the textbook Becoming Musical. An award-winning composer and arranger, Schumacher’s choral music is published by Alliance Music Publications, earthsongs, ECS publishing, Hinshaw Music, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and World Projects. |
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Dr. Thomas Yee
Pianist Dr. Thomas Yee from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, has won First Prizes in over 20 national and international competitions. Yee earned an unprecedented distinction from his alma mater, Memorial University of Newfoundland: he was presented with the Horizon Award for Lifetime Achievement under the age of 35 for extraordinary professional, volunteer, and academic achievement. Highlights of his career include winning top prizes at the Josef Hofmann International Piano Competition where he was also awarded a special prize for the best performance of the imposed piece, Ludmilla Kneskova International Piano Competition. He has performed as a guest soloist with orchestras throughout Canada and the United States, and has performed extensively as a soloist, chamber musician, and collaborative artist in China, Taiwan, and Japan. Notable past engagements include a performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Honolulu Symphony and the Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 with the UH Symphony Orchestra, Liszt’s Totentanz with the UH Band, Grieg Concerto with the Hawai'i Youth Symphony, and Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra (NSO). More recent engagements include performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the NSO, and the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra. Yee is a Professor of Music (piano) at University of Hawai'i Mānoa, and has also served on the faculty at the State University of New York at Buffalo. As a respected teacher, his students have won top prizes in state and regional competitions, including five winners of the Honolulu Symphony Concerto Competition and two winners of From The Top’s Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Young Artist Award. |
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Georgine Stark
Soprano Georgine Stark, an award-winning soprano from Buffalo, New York, now calls Hawai'i home. She holds a master’s degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, and has performed extensively in opera, concert, and theater. Highlights include her Diamond Head Theatre debut in Masterclass, solo appearances with the Hawai'i Symphony Orchestra, and performances with Hawai'i Opera Theatre. In New York City, she has held leading roles in Carmen, La Bohème, and Madame Butterfly. A passionate advocate for music education, Stark has taught and performed internationally, and regularly presents vocal masterclasses, with her students appearing in leading local productions. She also performs with Early Music Hawaii, and with her husband as The Stark Duo. Beyond the stage, Georgine has appeared in film and television, including Jurassic World, Next Goal Wins, and Hawaii Five-0, and serves as a board secretary for CHATS, a local nonprofit founded by her son. |
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Kasey Nahlovsky
Baritone Kasey Nahlovsky is originally from San Diego, California, and began studying voice and opera in 2012 at the University of Denver. A recent transplant from Chicago, Kasey holds a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, where they focused on music related to race, gender, and sexuality. Locally, Nahlovsky has performed with Diamond Head Theatre, Mosaique Vocal Ensemble, and OCS. Upcoming projects include a recital featuring works by composers affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, as well as another highlighting composers connected to mass media and the film industry. A dedicated student of voice and vocal pedagogy, Kasey currently sings as an Orvis Choral Scholar at the Cathedral of St. Andrew, and maintains a private voice studio. |
Texts and Translations
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Chichester Psalms (sung in Hebrew)
Urah hanevel v’chinor! Airah shachar! Hari’u l’Adonai kol ha’arets. Iv’du et Adonai b’simcha. Bo’u l’fanav bir’nanah. D’u ki Adonai Hu Elohim. Hu asanu, v’lo anachnu. Amo v’tson mar’ito. Bo’u sh’arav b’todah, Chatseirotav bit’hilah, Hodu lo, bar’chu sh’mo. Ki tov Adonai, l’olam chas’do, V’ad dor vador emunato. Awake psaltery and harp, I will raise the dawn! Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endureth to all generations. |
Requiem (sung in Latin)
Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis Te decet hymnus Deus in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem. Exaudi orationem meam, ad te omnis caro veniet Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. A hymn is due to thee, O God, in Zion, and a vow shall be paid to thee in Jerusalem. O Lord hear my prayer, all flesh shall come to thee. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy |
Symphony of Psalms (sung in Latin)
Exaudi orationem meam, Domine, et deprecationem meam. Auribus percipe lacrimas meas ne sileas. Quoniam advena ego sum apud te et peregrinus sicut omnes patres mei. Remite mihi, ut refrigerer priusquam abeam et amplius non ero. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and my supplication. Receive my tears with your ears; do not be silent. For I am a stranger before you, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. Spare me, that I may be refreshed before I depart and am no more. |
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Raise Hawaiki
Hear his dream, raise Hawaiki. Stand for our children. Hōkūleʻa is the light that shines the way. Protect the earth, mālama honua. Go, go Eddie, you are starlight. Hear his dream! We look to you, when we most fear. A star to bring us home. Go Eddie, go! Go Hōkūleʻa! Sail around the world, See and feel the earth, our blue island earth. Join with humanity, this is why we sail. Go around the world, sail for our children. It is time to share with our young people. Lei around the world, take our hopes and dreams, And sail across our blue island earth. Kindness and compassion for our mother earth. This is why we sail. This is why we say: Care for our land, homeland, our seas Oceans, all life, care for our children, mankind, mālama! Go Hōkūleʻa! Go around the world, Go for our children and our future, Go forth and bring peace around the world. Go! Long live Hōkūleʻa, our star of joy. Feel the ocean blue and let your sails unfold! Long live Hōkūleʻa, our star of gladness shine bright Born again may you live long! Hōkūleʻa, Hawaiʻi’s pride, she sails with the wind And proud are we to see her sail free, Feelings deep and so strong. Hōkū, For Hōkūleʻa! The stars that shine guide her straight path down to Tahiti she sails. And proud are we to see her sail free! Long live Hōkūleʻa! |
It is Enough
It is enough! O Lord, now take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers. I desire to live no longer; now let me die, for my days are but vanity. I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts, for the children of Israel have broken Thy covenant, and thrown down Thine altars, and slain all Thy prophets, slain them with the sword. And I, even I, only am left: and they seek my life to take it away! Carmina Burana (sung in Latin and Old German) O Fortuna velut luna statu variabilis, Semper crescis aut decrescis vita detestabilis Nunc obdurat et tunc curat ludo mentis aciem, Egestatem, potestatem, dissolvit ut glaciem. Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, Status malus, vana salus semper dissolubilis, Obumbrata et velata mihi quoque niteris; Nunc per ludum dorsum nudum fero tui sceleris. Sors salutis et virtutis mihi nunc contraria, Est affectus et defectus semper in angaria. Hac in hora sine mora corde pulsum tangite; Sternit fortem, mecum omnes plangite! O Fortune like the moon you are changeable, Ever waxing and waning; hateful life First oppresses and then soothes as chance dictates; Poverty and power, it melts them like ice. Fate, monstrous and empty, you turning wheel, You are malevolent, your favor is passing and always fades, Shadowed,veiled, you plague me too. I bare my back for the sport of your wickedness. In prosperity or in virtue fate is against me, Both in passion and in weakness fate always enslaves us. So at this hour pluck the vibrating strings; Because fate brings down even the strong, Everyone weep with me. Fortune plango vulnera stillantibus ocellis, Quod sua mihi munera subtrahit rebellis. Verum est, quod legitur, fronte capillata, Sed plerumque sequitur occasio calvata. In Fortune solio sederam elatus, Prosperitas vario flore coronatus; Quicquid enim florui felix et beatus, Nunc a summo corrui gloria privatus. Fortune rota volvitur: descendo minoratus; Alter in altum tollitur; nimis exaltatus Rex sedet in vertice caveat ruinam: Nam sub axe legimus Hecubam reginam. I bemoan Fortune's wounds with weeping eyes, For the gifts she gave me she perversely takes away. It is true, what is written, opportunity has hair on her brow, But from behind she is bald. On fortune's throne I once sat, raised up And crowned with the blossoms of prosperity; Though I once flourished, happy and blessed, Now I fall from the peak, deprived of glory. The wheel of fortune turns and I descend, debased; Another rises in turn; raised too high The king sits at the top, let him fear ruin: For below the axle we see Queen Hecuba. Veris leta facies mundo propinatur, Hiemalis acies victo iam fugatur; In vestitu vario Flora principatur, Nemorum dulcisono que cantu celebrantur. Flore fusus gremio Phebus novo more Risum dat, hoc vario iam stipata flore. Zephyrus nectareo spirans in odore. Certatim pro bravio curramus in amore. Cytharizat cantico dulcis Philomena, Glore rident vario prata iam serena, Salit cetus avium silve per amena, Chorus promit virginum iam gaudia millena. The merry face of spring turns toward the world, Sharp winter now flees, vanquished; Clothed in diverse garb Flora reigns, The sweet sounds of the woods praise her in song. Reclining in Flora's lap Phoebus once again Smiles, now covered with many-colored flowers. Zephyr breathes nectar-scented breezes. Let us rush to compete in the race of love. With harp-like tones the sweet nightingale sings, The meadows now laugh covered with many flowers, A flock of birds takes flight through the pleasant forests, A chorus of virgins promises a thousand joys. Swaz hie gat umbe, daz sint allez megede die wellent ân man, allen diesen sumer gan! Chume, chum, geselle min, ih enbite harte din, Suzer rosenvarwer munt, chum un mache mich gesunt. Those who dance around are all maidens who want to do without a man the whole summer long! Come, come, my love, I long for you. Sweet rose-red lips, come and make me whole. Were diu werlt alle min von dem mere unze an den Rin, des wolt ih mih darben, daz diu chünegin von Engellant lege an minen armen. Were all the world mine from the sea to the Rhine, I would give it all up to have the queen of England lie in my arms. |
Hawaiʻi Aloha (sung in Hawaiian)
E Hawaiʻi e kuʻu one hānau ē Kuʻu home kulaiwi nei Oli nō au i nā pono lani ou E Hawaiʻi aloha ē E hauʻoli e nā ʻōpio o Hawaiʻi nei Oli ē, oli ē Mai nā aheahe makani e pā mai nei Mau ke aloha no Hawaiʻi O Hawaiʻi, o sands of my birth, My native home, I rejoice in the blessings of heaven, O Hawaiʻi, aloha, Happy youth of Hawaiʻi Rejoice, rejoice! Gentle breezes blow Love always for Hawaiʻi |