S. Morris Wise
2018 is Mr. Wise’s debut season as Director of the Kauai Chorale taking over for Lois Ricciardi after her 30-year tenure at the podium.
Biography
Originally from the east coast I was involved in music from a young age, with both voice or piano lessons and singing in choirs or shows or with my record player. I did not like piano when I was young but came to do so as I got older and was always thankful my mom made me practice “by the clock”. In other words, I had to “play” the practice time and could not get out of it by just sitting there. She figured if she was paying for lessons, I had better do the work! Anyway, I started in Ohio with Mrs. Cessna (yes, THE Mrs. Cessna of Cessna Aircraft) who was a really fun lady with a big red beehive hairdo and who had many pianos at her farmhouse, one of which was treated specially to play “honky tonk” music. She also gave me my first voice lessons. She is the one who made me love music, because she did. She was an outstanding musician who played for shows, etc. When we moved back to Curwensville Pa., I continued lessons with Eileen Brown who was the only serious piano teacher in the area and that was her sole business. Curwensville is a very small town, even in its heyday.
After high school, I attended Penn State University as an Electrical Engineering major, but quickly realized that I was not cut out for that profession. Meanwhile, I was in several choirs and took organ and voice lessons for credit. Eventually, I realized that music was what I wanted to pursue and I changed majors and pursued a voice degree. His choirs performed most every major work with every major conductor of the day, Previn, Levine, McArthur and Michael Tilson Thomas to name a few. I had decided on Penn State for Electrical Engineering as it was one of the best schools in the country at the time, so when I decided to change majors, I decided to go to a great music school, North Texas State University which had at the time, the 2nd largest music school in the nation and had a reputation of excellence. I was given a scholarship and accepted with immediate entry into the upper level program bypassing all of the entrance exams and juries and gained entrance to the voice studio of Dr. Baird who was at the time the President of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and an International Chair. I was able to secure doing a minor in organ and completed my BMUS voice degree in two years. I also have a teaching certificate in ministry from Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa (done after my undergraduate degree).
I moved to Denver and decided to continue with my voice lessons. The teacher I studied with was Larry Glenn. He was Judith Christin’s husband and my connection to him was that I had done performances with the Tulsa Opera where she was the star Mezzo Soprano (what a voice!). After a few lessons and some chats, I found that the University of Denver was actively seeking some men’s voices for the Master’s of Music program. I was given a full scholarship to attend as well as a graduate teaching assistantship, and completed all of the degree requirements for both a Master’s degree in Voice and a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting in 2.5 years. It was a wonderful time where I sang a lot and performed frequently, taught voice, did musical direction for shows and was engaged in educational theatre opportunities for children.
I have done some other wonderful things in my life, all of which were passionate things for me. I was an operations/training specialist for Seattle’s Best Coffee and grew with them from about 10 cafes until they had around 200. I managed a café, and also was interim district manager and the West coast training specialist. I helped Franchise Partners train and learn how to run their business. I was also responsible for café quality assessments and helped to create recipes, training procedures, communication procedures and café quality assessment programs and standards. All during this time since high school, I maintained organist/choral conducting/music director jobs. At a time of turmoil in my life, I decide that a career change was right for me, and that something in music was again calling me. I turned my attention to what I had been interested in since high school, the pipe organ. I was fortunate enough to work for one of the great organ builders of our day, Manuel Rosales in Los Angeles. He is considered one of the brilliant pipe-voicers and tonal designers of our time. Pipe organ service work and building suited my needs in that it engaged both sides of my brain, the technical and the artistic. Organ Builders need to have skills in many crafts such as metals, woodworking, electrical, engineering, as well as architectural and fine arts knowledge such as the physics and acoustical properties of sound. I enjoyed all of these things and it was the perfect match for me.
In 2006, I met Byron Barth, my husband at an organ concert in LA. We were married in 2008 and I found out that Byron had always wanted to live in Hawaii. I thought, “Why not make it happen?” and we started our investigations into real estate and Hawaii living, making the move to the island the day after Thanksgiving 2009. I realized that there was not enough pipe organ business in Hawaii to keep me busy, so I decided to create a product that I would sell here. I decided on tropical biscotti, as that had not really been done and there was so much coffee in Hawaii, so I thought a good pairing. We started selling Hula Baby Biscotti April 15th, 2011 (my first two customers were Koa Kea Hotel and Kojima Store, accounts I got that day). We did really well and in 2012 met Chris and David who had moved from Washington, D.C., with the intention of opening a bakery on Kauai. We started talking and with Kauai being so small, decided to combine forces. In 2013 we changed the name to Kō Bakery. We are in the process of building a new bakery in Puhi across from Mark’s Place. Anticipated opening is October 2018.
After having moved to Kauai, I participated with Goddess Chant helping Ronda Rice with the conducting and preparation. After that, I did musical direction for the Hawaii Children’s Theatre production of Godspell. Then again, I did music direction for HCT’s Willy Wonka and my last production as Music Director was for HCT’s production of Les Miserable. Also, I am the project consultant for All Saint’s Church’s organ project, as well as for St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Honolulu as they move forward toward an organ project there.
There is so much more to share, but I risk boring you! I hope you have enjoyed getting to know me a little, and I look forward to meeting you and making beautiful music together.
Love, light and aloha to each of you!
S. Morris Wise, Music Director