The Southernmost Wind Quintet in the US

We got an early start out of Hilo so we could be in Pahala in time to perform for some of the students at Ka'u High School. On our last tour to the area in 2001 we played for a band class in their very new band building. Unfortunately there is no band program at Ka'u HS now and the band room is now a Social Studies classroom. But we played for a great group of very curious students nevertheless. There were some very good questions and enthusiatic reactions to our music, so it worked out well. Maybe on a future visit we will find the band program has been re-established.

Our accommodations were just a block from the school in Pahala – a nice vacation rental house called Paniolo Cabin. After dropping off our bags we headed over to Na'alehu to get some lunch at the Shaka Cafe and scope out the theatre. Shaka Cafe is a great place to stop if you are driving between Hilo and Kona. It's at about the midpoint of the trip and offers a good menu and friendly atmosphere. Even Jim and Sue found something on the menu. I seem to recall that Jim had a veggie burger with no cheese. (Strange the details that stay with you for no apparent reason!)

Na'alehu is the southenmost town in the US, so that would make us the southernmost wind quintet in the US when we are there. We're not bragging or anything, but on Tuesday we were the highest wind quintet in the world at 13,500 feet on Mauna Kea, and now we're the southernmost in the country! What's next?!

The Na'alehu Theatre is almost next door to the Shaka Cafe. Actually, almost everything in Na'alehu is next door. :) So we dropped in and found the flowers being set up for our concert. Beautiful, huge arrangements on each side of the stage!

The hall itself is rustic and historic at the same time. You can really imagine the days when it was a movie house showing what are now considered classics. The floor is wooden and ceiling is high, so the acoustics are very favorable for music. In fact we were trying to figure out how we could record there. Maybe late at night when there is less traffic, but if a car goes by you can hear it inside, so the soundproofing would need to be better. However, for our concert the acoustic worked very well. For this program we played the Malulani songs before the Maslanka and then offered "Aloha Oe" as an encore. A small but delighted audience made us feel very welcome. The audience might have been a little larger, but there was some confusion in the Ka'u newspaper about the date of the concert. Luckily, the concert was free so no one purchased tickets that had to be refunded, but next time we will hope for an even larger turnout.

The Na'alehu Theatre also has a cafe out front that serves a very nice dinner menu for pre-concert meals. They made a couple meals for Scott and Jim to have after the show and even put together some bagels and fixings for our breakfast the next day. It was great to have everything so convenient and tasty.

After the concert we returned to our house, toasted a successful tour, and watched some of the video from the trip. It will soon become a short tour-a-logue and we will post it on our webpage so everyone can see it all in action. Keep an eye out for that, and thanks for following along on our adventures. I hope this blog gives you a sense of how much we value these opportunities to reach a broader audience in our islands and how these experiences help us to grow as an ensemble and as artists. Stay tuned for more adventures... just as soon as we figure out what they will be!