Students travel for chorus festival
By:Sarah Winkelman
A week of fun in the sun can be great when it’s spent on local beaches, but it can be even better when those beaches are in Hawaii.
Two Cranbury School students, Jessica Charwin, 14, and Reva Geier, 12, recently participated in the Pacific Rim Children’s Chorus Festival in Hawaii.
From July 6 to July 14, the girls joined eight choirs from across the United States on the shores of Oahu to sing songs, learn native dances and enjoy the warm, salty waters of the Pacific.
The girls went to Hawaii with 37 other members of The Princeton Girlchoir. This is Jessica’s first year with the group and Reva’s fourth.
"I had a great time," Reva said. "I got to learn a lot about the different cultures of Hawaii and I got to learn a lot of great music from all the Pacific Islands."
Jessica said she also thought the trip was amazing.
"I’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii since I was really young so I was really excited about the trip," she said.
She said the choirs sang songs from Japan and Korea and watched native performers and drummers.
"We also got to learn a lot about the other choir members from other states," Reva said. "People do things a lot differently then we do in New Jersey."
Exploring the island was also on the itinerary. The girls also got to climb Diamond Head Crater, which Jessica said was a great experience.
"When we went on the hike up the crater we got to see the view from the top," she said. "It was really amazing."
The girls also spent a great deal of time at the Polynesian Culture Center. Reva said she was part of the group that learned about the Samoan villagers.
"We learned some of their dances and performed for them," she said. "They told us about their history and how they live. We also had a welcoming ceremony and they told us how the men do all the cooking in their village instead of the women."
She said the Samoans are known in Hawaii as "the happy people" and "the heart of the Pacific Islands."
The girls also made Polynesian musical and dancing implements and learned languages and chants from native speakers.
When it came to the food, the girls said, the one thing that stood out for them was the rice.
"They eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner," Jessica said. "I ate a lot of pineapple, too. They also cook with mango and macadamia nuts but I can’t eat those because I’m allergic to them."
Reva said the food wasn’t really exotic, except for the poi, which is ground and roasted taro root that is added to meat, fish and vegetables for flavor.
Throughout the week, the girls and their fellow choir members rehearsed songs in a variety of languages to perform in two choir concerts that were open to the public. One was held at the Brigham Young University Cannon Center and the other at the Blaisdell Concert Hall in Honolulu.
"It was really hard to learn all the songs because a lot of them were in other languages," Jessica said.
In addition to rehearsing and learning dances and songs at the Polynesian Culture Center, the girls attended an aloha sunset cookout dinner at the Turtle Bay Resort lagoon, went to Pearl Harbor and made friends and shared music with other choirs.
"Going to Pearl Harbor was a really great experience," Reva said. "It was amazing to watch a video of what happened and then go to the memorial. I really liked that part of the trip."
Jessica, however, said being at Pearl Harbor made her sad.
"It made me think a lot about things," she said.
The girls also spent time sunbathing and enjoying the warm Pacific waters.
"Whenever we had a free moment we were on the beach," Jessica said. "It was just so beautiful. You could see the mountains come down and touch the shore and the water was so blue. One time we went out before dawn and swam all day until after dark. The water is really warm, too."
Jessica is also a member of the regular and advanced choirs at the Cranbury School. Reva had been a member of both school choirs for the past three years. She will be attending The Peddie School in the fall and will remain a member of The Princeton Girlchoir next year.
The trip to Hawaii was the first trip the girls took with The Princeton Girlchoir.
"You have to be in seventh grade in order to go," Jessica said.
Both girls said they are looking forward to next year’s trip, although neither knows where she will be going.
"We go to a different place each year," Reva said. "It’s pretty nice. That way we get a chance to travel around the world."
Jessica said the trips alternate between traveling in the United States and heading to an international destination.
Jessica’s mother, Joann Charwin, a guidance counselor at the Cranbury School, was one of the trip’s chaperones. She said both girls learned a lot about independence on the trip.
"The girls had so much fun," she said. "They got to meet so many new friends and learn a lot about other cultures."
She said the girls learned 14 songs in 11 different languages representing the countries along the Pacific Rim. Those countries include Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Fiji, New Zealand, Thailand and Indonesia.
For more information about the festival visit www.pacrimfestival.org.