Nola A. Nāhulu – Interim Chorus Director, Honolulu Symphony Chorus

Nola A. Nāhulu is the recently appointed Interim Chorus Director for the Honolulu Symphony Chorus and Artistic Director of the Hawai`i International Choral Festival. She is a native of Mākaha, O’ahu. A graduate of Kamehameha Schools, she has a BA in psychology from Whitman College and an MA in Music Education with an emphasis on choral conducting from University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

Ms. Nāhulu has been a respected conductor and teacher of choral music in Hawai’i since 1979, serving with the Unitarian Church, Bishop Memorial Church, Moloka’i Children’s Chorus, and the Kamehameha Alumni Glee Club. She has taught choral music at Our Redeemer Lutheran School, the Kamehameha Schools, the University of Hawai`i Laboratory School, and currently is a lecturer at University of Hawai`i at Mānoa Music Department where she teaches Hawaiian choral music.

She is presently Executive and Artistic Director for the Hawai’i Youth Opera Chorus (HYOC) a community chorus that focuses on music education through choral music. Since assuming leadership of the HYOC, the organization has grown from twenty singers to over 195 children grades K-12 in eight graded ensembles. HYOC also provides internships to high school students and college students as well as teachers interested in developing their choral conducting skills.

Serving as director of the Kawaiaha`o Church Choir, the Pearl Harbor Hawaiian Civic Club, she is also the co-director of the Hawai’i Opera Theatre Chorus. She is the founder and director of the Kawaiolaonāpūkanileo, a choral ensemble dedicated to the preservation of the Hawaiian choral music.

Her performance groups have performed nationally and internationally at such prestigious festivals as the Eisteddfod in Llanglollen, Wales, International Children’s Chorus Festival in Beijing, China and conferences such as the ACDA divisional held in Sacramento and Honolulu as well as a recent presentation at the Music Educators National Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah in April 2006.

Ms. Nāhulu is a member of the Hawai’i Music Educator’s Association, Treasurer for Society for General Music and is past president of the Hawai`i chapter of the American Choral Directors Association and sits on the board of the Hawai`i Arts Alliance and Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame.

Honolulu Symphony Chorus • Oahu Choral Society
650 Iwilei Road, Suite 202
Honolulu, Hawai'i 96817
tel: (808) 524-0815 ext. 257
e-mail: symphonychorus@gmail.com