Events Calendar - March 2010
This calendar is subject to change. Please check back often for updates.
A Light Hearted Look at Classical Music with Howard Dicus & Friends
Thomas Yee, piano * NEW DATE *
Julius Galanto, trumpet * NEW TIME *
'Ukulele Jazz with Benny Chong and Byron Yasui * NEW ENTRY *
Victor Wooten in Concert (Hawaii Contrabass Festival)
John & Gerald Clayton in Concert (Hawaii Contrabass Festival)
UH Bands Spring Concert
Grant Okamura, conductor
Monday, March 1, 2010
7:30 p.m., McKinley High School Auditorium
$10 general / $6 students & seniors
view the flyer
(*Mus 199 credit for Music Majors)
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Urara Morioka, flute
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
12:30 p.m., Orvis Auditorium, free
Urara Morioka, flute, a student of Sabrina Saiki-Mita, will present a junior recital as part of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Arts in Music.
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AURA-J
Saturday, March 6, 2010 and
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
7:30 p.m., Orvis Auditorium
Sunday March 7, 2010
4:00 p.m., Imin Center-Jefferson Hall, at East-West Center
$12 general / $8 students & seniors
view the flyer
Visit www.etickethawaii.com, charge by phone at 944-BOWS (2697) or visit any UH Ticket outlet (UHManoa Campus Center ticket office, Stan Sheriff Center ticket office, or any Rainbowtique Store).
Tradition has a new face, as this exciting 9-member Tokyo group presents concerts of both contemporary and traditional pieces for shakuhachi, biwa, shamisen, koto, shinobue and Japanese percussion. This professional performing ensemble, founded by Minoru Miki, one Japan's most famous composers, is noted for utilizing Japanese instruments in innovative ways.
Audio Samples
| Miki | Danses Concertantes |
| Womack | A Glinting Edge of Sky
Walk Across the Surface of the Sun |
March 6 (Saturday): an evening of contemporary chamber pieces for Japanese instruments will be presented at 7:30 p.m. in Orvis Auditorium, UHM Music Department, corner of University and Dole Street. This intimate concert will include works by major Japanese composers, as well as works by UH composers.
March 7 (Sunday): a performance with traditional repertoire and contemporary pieces inspired by tradition will be presented at 4:00 p.m. at Imin Center-Jefferson Hall, at East-West Center (opposite UHM Kennedy Theatre).
March 9 (Tuesday): a concert of new music for the full AURA-J ensemble will feature works of composers from Japan and from UH, including concertos for shakuhachi and for koto, as well as a world premiere. 7:30 p.m. at Orvis Auditorium, UHM Music Department, corner of University and Dole Street.
In addition to the three public performances, the group will reach out to the Honolulu community through several performance-demonstrations, including a presentation to introduce Japanese music to Hawaii's schoolchildren. All events are open to the public. For a schedule of educational/outreach events, please contact dwomack@hawaii.edu.
This residency is sponsored by the UHM Music Composition Area, with support from the Japan Foundation, The East-West Center, the UHM Outreach College, the UH Diversity and Equity Initiative, the UHM Music Department, and the Consul General of Japan in Honolulu.
This event is part of Manoa Arts & Minds, an initiative of the UHM Office of the Chancellor.
(*Mus 199 credit for Music Majors at Orvis performances)
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A Light Hearted Look at Classical Music
From Mozart to Madonna
with Howard Dicus and Friends
Sunday, March 7, 2010
4:00 p.m., Orvis Auditorium
$20 general admission, $10 students & senior citizens
Presented by the Hawaii Performing Arts Festivals (HPAF) and the UH Music Department.
view the flyer
Did your mind wander during Music Appreciation class? Or maybe you forgot to take that class altogether?
Do you marvel at the historic nature of music…how it is possible to listen today to a Mozart creation from 200 years ago?
Do you wish you understood classical music a little more?
Honolulu broadcaster Howard Dicus has answers for you. Dicus is joined by musicians Ignace "Iggy" Jang and Green Sneakers, the string quartet founded last summer at HPAF, and broadcast personality Ben Gutierrez, who perform on the synthesizer. In a uniquely entertaining way, Dicus and the musicians will chronicle the history of classical music from Madonna to Mozart, punctuated with brief musical illustrations.
- Howard Dicus, narrator. "The Explainer" on Hawaii News Now (KGMB/KHNL/KFVE), Howard Dicus is also the host of "Howard’s Day Off." It airs 5am-7am live Saturday mornings on Hawaii Public Radio.
- Ben Gutierrez, synthesizer. A member of the National Weather Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts, and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Ben Gutierrez joined Hawaii's Severe Weather Team (KGMB/KHNL/KFVE) in 2009.
- Green Sneakers. A string quartet featuring Ignace "Iggy" Jang, violin, Yana Bourkova, violin, Anna Womack, viola, and Joanna Morrison, cello. All are members of the Honolulu Symphony.
(*Mus 199 credit for Music Majors with ticket purchase)
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Alan Evans, tuba
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
1:30 p.m., Orvis Auditorium, free
Alan Evans, a student of Jared Lantzy, will present a junior recital as part of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Education in Music.
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Erin Tabali, trumpet
Thursday, March 11, 2010
1:30 p.m., Orvis Auditorium, free
Erin Tabali, a student of Grant Okmaura, will present a junior recital as part of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Education in Music.
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Philip Thomson, piano
Sunday, March 14, 2010
4:00 p.m., Orvis Auditorium
$12 general / $8 students & seniors
view the flyer
Philip Thomson was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. He began piano studies at an early age with Carol O’Neil, who remained his teacher until he entered the University of Toronto as a student of the Swiss pianist Pierre Souvairan. He pursued his master’s degree in piano performance at The Juilliard School under the celebrated pianist Abbey Simon. While still a student, he was already concertizing widely in his native country; he has played with all the major orchestras and in every important center in Canada. While at Juilliard, he won that school’s Franz Liszt concerto competition, and performed the Liszt E-flat concerto in Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center.
Mr. Thomson came to international attention in 1991, when he made the world premiere recording of Liszt’s De Profundis, a 40-minute tour-de-force whose manuscript had been kept in the Goethe-Schiller archives in Weimar, and which, astoundingly, had escaped the serious attention of musicologists for over a century and a half. Philip Thomson’s recording of this work with the Hungarian State Orchestra on the Hungaroton label won wide acclaim in musical journals throughout the world, and its success secured for him the opportunity to perform the Italian, Hungarian, Canadian, and American premieres of De Profundis during the following year.
Mr. Thomson was subsequently invited by Naxos records to record three CDs of the solo music of Liszt. These recordings, released in 1995 and 1996, and containing among many other works the complete set of “Harmonies Poetiques et Religieuses,” also received international critical praise.
In 1998, Mr. Thomson began to research the music of Felix Blumenfeld. In his time (1863-1931), Blumenfeld was one of the most influential musical figures in Russia, well known as a pianist, composer, conductor, and teacher. For unknown reasons, the music of this pianistic genius – the teacher of Vladimir Horowitz and Simon Barere, among other titans of the era – disappeared from concert halls after his death, and his works are no longer in print. Mr. Thomson was, however, able to discover and gather much of his music from several archival sources. The Ivory Classics label invited Mr. Thomson to record a CD of Felix Blumenfeld’s piano music, and the result was the release, in 2000, of the complete preludes and impromptus of this important and surprisingly neglected composer. This CD contains thirty-four works, none of which had ever been recorded before. As with Mr. Thomson’s Liszt CDs, it has garnered wide critical acclaim.
Besides his coast-to-coast Canadian concertizing, Mr. Thomson has also performed in the United States, England, Ireland, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Italy, and China.
Since 1994, Mr. Thomson has been on the piano faculty of the School of Music at The University of Akron.
Mr. Thomson's recital will include:
| Ludwig van Beethoven | Sonata in C minor, op. 13 ("Pathetique") |
| Felix Blumenfeld | Prelude in B-flat minor, op. 17, No.16 |
| Heitor Villa-Lobos | Dansa do Indio Branco |
| Franz Liszt | Invocation
Resignazione Cantique d'amour Ave Maria Miserere (d'apres Palestrina) Romance St. Francois de Paule Marchant sur les Flots |
For additional information and music samples, visit http://www.cyloong.com/thomson/
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Alina Jiménez, soprano
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
12:30 p.m., Orvis Auditorium, free
Alina Jimenez, a student of Maya Hoover, will present a junior recital as part of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance.
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Thomas Yee, piano
* NEW DATE * (hopefully, no tsunami warning this time)
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
7:30 p.m., Orvis Auditorium
$12 general / $8 students & seniors
view the flyer
UHM faculty pianist Thomas Yee will perform a recital including solo works by Chopin and Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 23 in B-flat minor, with Jonathan Korth.
(*Mus 199 credit for Music Majors)
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Asuka Okamoto, piano
Thursday, March 18, 2010
1:30 p.m., Orvis Auditorium, free
Asuka Okamoto, a student of Jonathan Korth, will present a junior recital as part of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance.
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Julius Galanto, trumpet
Thursday, March 18, 2010
2:30 p.m. * new time *
Orvis Auditorium, free
Julius Galanto, a student of Kenneth Hafner, will present a junior recital as part of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Education in Music.
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David Hirano, saxophone
Friday, March 19, 2010
7:30 p.m., Orvis Auditorium, free
David Hirano, a student of Todd Yukumoto, will present a graduate recital as part of the requirements for the degree Master of Music in Saxophone Performance.
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'Ukulele Jazz with Benny Chong and Byron Yasui
Saturday, March 20, 2010
7:30 p.m., Orvis Auditorium
$12 general / $8 students & seniors
Don't miss this opportunity to experience ‘ukulele jazz in a concert setting!
Benny Chong is the world’s premiere jazz ‘ukulele player, period. As a guitarist, Benny Chong was a founding member of the Ali`i’s, the group that backed up Don Ho during Ho’s rise to international fame in the 1960s. After a short break from music, Benny returned to play guitar and ‘ukulele for Don Ho until Ho’s passing. Many jazz musicians have come to regard Chong as the world’s premiere jazz ‘ukulele artist. His repertoire includes some of the most complex jazz standards, with their demanding harmonies, chord progressions, and changes of keys. Listen to his fresh reharmonizations and watch his intricate and virtuosic left and right hand techniques and revolutionary open chord fingerings that involve the use of the left thumb on the ‘ukulele. Benny’s CD, ‘Ukulele Jazz, shows the many sides of his ‘ukulele playing.
Byron Yasui has been on the UH music theory/composition faculty since 1972 and will retire at the end of the spring, 2010, semester. This concert is his farewell gift to the music department and all his students who have helped to keep him thinking young. In this concert, he will play jazz bass, a few ‘ukulele solos, and even ‘ukulele duets with Benny Chong. Since 1987, Yasui has been a classical guitar duo member with the Brazilian virtuoso Carlos Barbosa-Lima in annual Honolulu recitals. For many years, a number of Yasui’s solo guitar pieces have been included in Barbosa-Lima’s world concert tour programs, CDs, and even a DVD. Yasui also has a solo ‘ukulele CD, Anahola, which was released in 2006.
THE DUO. Benny and Byron have worked together as a duo since about 2004 and have performed in Japan, California, and in many concerts throughout the Hawaiian islands. They were even featured with the Honolulu Symphony Pops at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. Benny, Byron, and Jake Shimabukuro make up the three principals in U.H. student Chad Pang’s 2008 master’s thesis, Virtuosic ‘Ukulele: Recreating Ethno-musical Identities in Hawai’i. It may be interesting to note that as an ‘ukulele and bass duo, Byron and Benny have never ever rehearsed.
(*Mus 199 credit for Music Majors)
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Victor Wooten in Concert
Friday, March 26, 2010
7:30 p.m., Orvis Auditorium
$25 general / $15 students with ID
Presented by the Hawaii Contrabass Festival with support from the UHM Music Department
Victor Wooten is an innovator, composer, arranger, lecturer, producer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. He is a skilled naturalist and teacher, a published author, a magician, husband and father of four, and a five-time Grammy award winner. Known for his solo recordings and tours and as a member of the Grammy-winning super group, Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, he has won most every major award given to a bass guitarist. He was voted Bassist of the year by Bass Player Magazine three times and is the only person to have won the award more than once.
More information about Victor Wooten and the Hawai'i Contrabass Festival.
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John & Gerald Clayton in Concert
Saturday, March 27, 2010
7:30 p.m., Orvis Auditorium
$25 general / $15 students with ID
Presented by the Hawaii Contrabass Festival with support from the UHM Music Department
Bassist John Clayton, award-winning performer, arranger, composer, and educator, with a career spanning nearly half a century, performs with his son, pianist Gerald Clayton, 24, a 2009 Grammy nominee for "best improvised jazz solo."
The list of accomplishments of both father and son are too numerous to list here. Please visit the Hawaii Contrabass Festival website for more information.
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