The 25th Anniversary (2007-2008) Choir

The choir celebrated its 25th anniversary and because of that, director Maquette Kuper decided in 2006 to organize something special. City Council members Ruth Asmundson and Don Saylor introduced her to Yoshio Kobayashi, president of the Friends of Davis from Inuyama, Japan, Davis’ sister city. All four decided that it would be spectacular to send the Davis Youth Flute Choir to Inuyama to represent the city of Davis in the first-ever cultural exchange involving a Davis group. The choir was most honored to represent Davis in June 2008 when it traveled to Japan and performed three major concerts in Inuyama.

In preparation for this event, the flute choir, which historically was a summer music program, began practicing and performing year-‘round.  It performed in many venues to raise funds for and promote awareness of the group. It played at Woodland Memorial Hospital in a memorial service in December for patients who had lost their lives in 2007. It performed in a Patriotic Concert in Sacramento in which a video was made to send to troops in Iraq for holiday entertainment. It played at various holiday parties, including the Davis Sunrise Rotary party. It performed in the lobby of the Veterans Memorial Theater at the Holiday Concert benefiting the Davis Arts Foundation. It appeared free to the public at Watermelon Music in Davis and presented a flute workshop for the young flutists of Davis on Sunday, March 9 and it performed free to the public at the Davis Farmers’ Market on Saturday, March 15.  Finally, the choir performed a benefit concert on Saturday, March 22 at Davis High School’s Brunelle Theater where they premiered jazz works by Adam Jenkins, Awa Adori and Sakura, Sakura. Prior to the concert that evening, there was a silent auction in the choir room and hors d’ouevres in the lobby. In May, the choir performed a jazz concert at the Davis Community Church over Memorial Day weekend, at the same time as the nationally famous Sacramento Jazz Jubilee festival.