Our Mission

THE WINDWARD CHORAL SOCIETY (WCS) is one of the only non-auditioned community-based choruses on O‘ahu and the only large community chorus on the Windward side, including Waimānalo, Kailua, and Kāne‘ohe.  The chorus is made up of mixed voices (SATB) from high school ages and up who are residents throughout the Island of O‘ahu. The chorus currently is comprised of 90+ singers, who rehearse weekly to prepare music to present at free concerts, either alone or in partnership with other choral and orchestral groups.  The group is a registered 501(c)(3) corporation and is in its fourth year.

The primary mission of the Windward Choral Society is to promote the joy, love and appreciation of multi-cultural choral music within the Windward O‘ahu community. 

WCS has performed choral music in many different venues in the local and surrounding communities. Free Winter and Spring Concerts have been offered to the community each year to standing room only crowds. 

Other performances include:

• American Cancer Society Relay for Life
• Pohai Nani Retirement Community
• Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival
• Joint Community Concert at the First Chinese Church of Honolulu
•  Centennial Celebration at the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Honolulu
• Joint concert with the Marine Forces Pacific Band at the Hale Koa in Waikiki
• Christmas Tree Lighting ceremonies at Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i
• Guest performers at the Honolulu Chorale’s Spring concert
• Annual O‘ahu Community Chorus Festival
• Fourth of July patriotic concert in Kailua, O‘ahu
• International Church summer concert in Nu‘uanu
• WCS annual fundraiser, “Joy of Music”

Concerts are comprised of music from many genres, including African, Folk, Gospel, Latin American, Spirituals, and Western European, as well as Classical. The challenging repertoire includes music in many different languages: African languages including Bemba, Swahili, and Zulu; Hawaiian; Hebrew; Korean; Latin; Mandarin; Spanish; Samoan; a Taiwanese Mountain People dialect and various dialects of English.

Our Director 

  Susan M. Duprey was born and raised in Honolulu and graduated from ‘Iolani School.  While at ‘Iolani, she sang under her father, local organist and composer, John McCreary.  She attended Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania where she majored in Spanish.  Her undergraduate studies took her to Spain and Mexico.  While in Mexico, she studied voice under Tenor Flavio Becerra.  Her musical studies continued at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ, where she earned a Master of Music.  She studied voice with Tenor Thomas Faracco and conducting with Dr. Joseph Flummerfelt.

            As a singer, Ms. Duprey sang, recorded, and toured with the renowned 40-voice Westminster Choir.  She has sung with leading orchestras; including the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's and has sung under Maestros Kurt Masur, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Helmut Rilling, and Zdenek Macal.

            As a choral conductor, she has prepared choruses for such noted conductors as Joseph Flummerfelt, John Rutter, Timothy Sharp, and Sir David Willcocks.  She has conducted members of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and has led performances of Mozart’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Bruckner’s Te Deum, and excerpts from Handel’s Messiah.  She has also served as choir director in both Hispanic and African-American churches and performed several years with Kawaiolaonāpūkanileo, an ensemble created to perpetuate Hawaiian choral music.

In January 2002, she founded the Hawai‘i Pacific University International Chorale and Vocal Ensemble, the state’s first choral program specializing in international choral repertoire.  In June 2004, she prepared the International Vocal Ensemble for their Carnegie Hall debut in a musical tribute to composer Morten Lauridsen.

            Ms. Duprey keeps busy serving as Artistic Director of the Windward Choral Society (a chorus she founded in 2008), Artistic Director of the Kona Music Society, and paddling with her outrigger canoe club, Lanikai Sunrise.  She and her husband Bryan (an active duty Marine) live in Kailua, O‘ahu.