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- Visiting Instructor in Music Education
- Founder and Artistic Director, Bel Canto Children's Chorus
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jhirokawa@moravian.edu
Joy Ondra Hirokawa is the Founder and Artistic Director
of the Bel Canto Children’s Chorus. She earned a Bachelors
degree with honors in Music Education from Temple University,
Philadelphia, PA and a Masters degree in Choral Conducting, also
from Temple University. She has completed postgraduate work in
children’s choral conducting and is currently a DMA student
in Music Education at Boston University. She was honored to be
selected as a Conducting Fellow at the first Chorus America Orchestral
Conducting Workshop for Children’s Choir Directors held
in Chicago in June, 2004, and was a Conducting Associate at the
2006 Chorus America Choral-Orchestral Conducting Masterclass.
Prof. Hirokawa is a frequent guest conductor and clinician, presenting
regularly at MENC and PMEA conferences and conducting numerous
middle school and elementary honors choirs.
In 2001, Prof. Hirokawa was awarded the high honor
of 2001 Middle School Teacher of the Year by the Pennsylvania
State Middle Schools Association as well as the 2001 President’s
Award for Leadership in Education from the Upper Perkiomen Chamber
of Commerce.
Under her direction, the Bel Canto Children’s
Chorus has performed locally, nationally and internationally.
The choir was a featured ensemble performing for Liberty In Motion,
the celebration surrounding the moving of the Liberty Bell in
Philadelphia. The choir has had the privilege to sing under noted
children’s choirs directors Jean Ashworth-Bartles, Doreen
Rao, and Henry Leck to great acclaim. Most recently, the Bel Canto
Children’s Chorus appeared in concert at the Eastern Division
ACDA Conference in New York City in February 2006. In March 2005,
the choir traveled to Baltimore as a featured performer at the
Eastern Division Conference of MENC, the National Association
for Music Education, having previously sung for the conference
in 2001. They have also performed for the Pennsylvania Music Educators’
Association Annual Conference in 2001 and 1996. The choir has
been featured by the Allentown Symphony Orchestra and has sung
in Carnegie Hall, New York City. Tours have taken the choir to
Oregon, England, Brooklyn, Canada, Disneyworld, and Ohio. The
choir had the distinct privilege of attending the Pacific Rim
Children’s Choral Festival under the direction of Henry
Leck in Hawaii in both 2001 and 2005. They traveled in 2007 to
the Coastal Sound Festival in Vancouver, BC, where they worked
with Bob Chilcott, and will be traveling to Italy in 2009. Under
Prof. Hirokawa’s guidance, Bel Canto Children’s Chorus
has initiated a program of commissioning new music for treble
voices. Beginning with the celebration of the choir’s tenth
anniversary season in 2002-03, the choir commissioned composer
Nick Page to write There Something Sings. Their 2005 commission
was written by master hammer dulcimer player Malcolm Dalglish,
who performed with the choir in concert in February 2005. In October
2006, the choir hosted a regional children’s choral festival
which featured composer Stephen Hatfield in residence, conducting
several guest choirs on his own compositions. The choir launched
its first Children’s Choral Festival conducted by Prof.
Hirokawa in April 2004, which took place in Allentown, PA, and
continues biannually. This festival was designed to provide opportunities
for local students to participate in a larger scale choral festival
at a local venue.
Prof. Hirokawa is also a published arranger, specializing
in authentic jazz arrangements for treble voices. Her arrangement
of My Favorite Things is available from Hal Leonard.
