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BYU-Hawaii Concert Choir: Related Facts & Story Ideas

•    The 64 student members of the Concert Choir come from 13 different countries, including: USA, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand

•    Two of the choir members come from China: Ning Sun (Frank), Shanghai; and Lau Kit Ming (Hong Kong)

•    Four of the choir members come Mongolia: Dashdavaa Bayarma, Enkhbaatar Narangarvuu, Purevsuren Enkhtugs and Purevsuren Erdenebileg.

•    16 or about one-fourth of the choir members speak English as a foreign language

•    34 or just over half of the choir members are at least bilingual. The languages they speak — in addition to English — include Armenian, Cantonese, French, Hawaiian, Japanese, Korean, Malagasy, Mandarin, Mongolian, Pampanggo, Portuguese, Russian, Samoan, Spanish, Sign Language, Tagalog, Thai, Tongan, and Ukrainian.

•    2 couples among the choir members are married and on tour together; and six other members of the choir are married (but traveling singly)

•    Choir member Will Ellis from Laie, Hawaii, learned to speak fluent Mandarin while serving as a representative of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Taiwan.

•    Choir member Levin Gunter, from South Carolina, learned to speak fluent Mongolian while serving as a representative of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mongolia.

•    Choir member Stephen Lowe has sung professionally

•    11 of the choir members currently work part-time at the world-famous Polynesian Cultural Center

•    Bayarmaa Dashdavaa, a student from Mongolia, will serve as an intern to the Mongolian Ambassador to the United States in Washington, D.C.

•    2 choir members — Timothy “Cooper” Johnson, a composer, and Rinda Perry — have taught English in China

•    The choir’s emcee — Wei Minzhi, a BYU-Hawaii freshman from China — has acted in six movies and directed two others. In 1998 Chinese director Zhang Yimou — who is famous for Not One Less, Hero, Raise the Red Lantern, The Story of Qui Ju, To Live and House of Flying Daggers — literally selected her off the streets and cast the 13-year-old in Not One Less, which won the Golden Lion Award at the 1999 Venice Film Festival. In 2005 Wei won Shanghai Oriental Satellite TV station’s “best director new star” prize. She previously studied playwright directing at the Xi’an International Studies University.