During the April 10 "fireside" portion of the BYU-Hawaii Golden Jubilee's two-day choral reunion, Dr. James A. Smith reminded his former students that President David O. McKay said we use music and other art forms for the "feelings in the human breast that cannot be expressed in any language or words...which speak the language of the soul."
Dr. Smith, who is retiring in July after teaching choral music at BYU-Hawaii for 30 years but is known for his eclectic appreciation of music, also quoted jazz musician Dave Brubeck who said, "Music is the most profound form of communication. Its influence, sometimes subliminal, often times supersedes language."
He also noted that Brigham Young said music "can lead and guide and point you toward truth. I discovered this wonderful thought when I was thinking about the power of music and its place in the gospel."
"The ultimate experience of beauty is so closely related to joy that we have difficulty distinguishing the difference. When we experience joy, it is beautiful. When we experience beauty, it brings joy. This joy is the object of all art, and the portrayal of it is art's reason for existing," Dr. Smith said. "It may be man's too, because men are that they might have joy."
After sharing memories of several international choral tours, including the most recent in 2004 which included the first-ever performance by a Christian group inside the heart of the Shinto Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, Dr. Smith thanked the alumni for coming. "I look at you, and I just have such warm family feelings for all that we have shared... You will always be family to us."
During the fireside, the choral alumni sight-read several hymns under Dr. Smith's direction. On the preceding Saturday evening he led approximately 200 alumni — including the current Concert Choir as well as former members of the A Cappella Choir, Showcase Hawaii, the Seaside Singers and community-based Laie Choral Union members who sang with Dr. Smith for approximately15 years — in a two-hour concert in the Cannon Activities Center.
"The marvelous thing about your last concert is that I was able to choose everything I wanted," said Dr. Smith, whose selections ran from a Gregorian chant, Over the Rainbow, jazz, modern Hawaiian music and the early Baroque genius of Giovanni Gabrieli's In Ecclesiis to a stirring Battle Hymn of the Republic finale.
At the beginning of that concert, BYU-Hawaii President Eric B. Shumway thanked Dr. Smith for his "unique talents and uncommon spirituality," his "elegant and warm stage presence," and his "ability to lift and inspire students and audiences. He has been a wonderful representative of the music department, Brigham Young University Hawaii and the Church." And State Representative Colleen Meyer presented Dr. Smith with a House resolution honoring him for his years of service and innumerable artistic contributions.
President Shumway also noted that two of his four youngest children met their spouses in Dr. Smith's choirs, and two others sang with their spouses in his choirs.
At a fun reunion luncheon on Saturday at the Polynesian Cultural Center, it was noted other alumni also met their spouses in Dr. Smith's choirs, including his daughter Maylani Smith and her husband, Joel Kongaika, who organized the choral reunion and played a key role putting together the 2004 Concert Choir tour to Japan and Korea.
Other factoids that came out: Several alumni had children who also sang in Dr. Smith's choirs. BYU-Hawaii political science professor Dr. Dale Robertson sang with Dr. Smith in a BYU choir in 1964. Smith's daughter, Amy Smith Rodriguez, came the farthest — from her home in Hartford, Connecticut — to attend the reunion. Others came from Florida, Colorado, Utah, California, and his son, Michael Smith and his wife, Shawna, who are both choral alumni, came from Austin, Texas.
Keith Nako, a 1980 graduate who now lives in Honolulu and was in the A Cappella choir when Dr. Smith first came in 1976, said "at first it was intimidating, because we had to go through auditions, but Brother Smith taught us we had talent." Nako also later sang with the Seaside Singers, a vocal jazz group.
Terry Stietzel Eskaran, also a 1980 graduate and member of Dr. Smith's first BYU-Hawaii A Cappella choir, recalled "he really pulled it out of us. Most importantly, he taught us how to blend and gave us confidence."
"Dr. Smith was really very much like a father figure to me," added John Philpotts, who went on from BYU-Hawaii to earn a master's in vocal performance. "I was inspired by him daily as I watched him embrace his profession."
When the combined alumni came together for the first time that morning in the BYU-Hawaii Stake Center chapel and sang Draw Near Unto Me, Dr. Smith joked, "You all passed the audition." Then added, more seriously, "That was worth the whole reunion. It's so wonderful to see you all again."