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!

Hilo Concert

Our formal concert at UH Hilo Performing Arts Center was a lot of fun. The audience seemed to enjoy the whole program, especially Malulani, which we used as an encore. (Malulani was commissioned by the City & County of Honolulu - mahalo nui loa to Mayor Mufi Hannemann and the Mayor's Office of Culture and Arts.) The hall has a nice ring to it and felt comfortable to us, even though we were a little tired after rehearsing the same morning in order to get acclimated to the hall. We saved just enough energy for the Maslanka and then three encores: After "Malulani" and "Nani Ha'upu" we played "Hilo March"!

There was a lovely party after the concert where we were able to unwind and spend some more time with the fabulous Hawaii Concert Society folks. All too soon, though, we had to say goodnight and return to the hotel to rest up for our early departure for Ka'u Friday morning.

For Malulani

May 2. Mauna Kea. The summit. The top of the tallest mountain on earth, measured from the bottom of the sea floor. The place in Hawaii where land and sky meet. In all my 35 years of life in Hawaii, I had not made it all the way up, until now.
Just before we left, I scurried around looking for an appropriate Hawaiian offering to take to the top of the realm of Poliahu. I wanted to commemorate the birth of Keola Beamer’s Malulani: ‘Neath the Shadows of Stars, written for us, there at the point where Hawaii is closest to the stars, and to show respect for this most sacred of Hawaiian places. I found a flower shop run by two charming Hawaiian gentlemen near our hotel where a fitting Hawaiian offering could be prepared; we chose a maile lei wrapped in ti leaves. In addition to showing respect and honor, maile is a symbolic plant of Laka and the hula – appropriate, I thought, to celebrate a new work of Hawaiian art.
By the time we got to the top, it was nearly sunset, and the thinness of the air at 13,000 feet was not conducive to moving fast. Jim tried to make it to the summit with our maile and ti puolu, but because of extreme cold and approaching darkness, it was not safe to go all the way, so he stopped at a rocky point along the path, composed a short prayer of thanks and aloha, and left the offering nestled in the rocks.

May the gods accept our humble gift and celebrate with Keola, the Spring Wind Quintet, and our new child, Malulani. As we perform this new creation here on the island of Hawai'i, itself being created anew, let us reconcile in harmony the mind and the spirit, the ancient and the modern, the sound and the silence.
-- Marsha Schweitzer

Tsunami Alert!

Don't worry, we're OK, but we woke up this morning to a Tsunami Alert. Apparently there was an earthquake somewhere in the Pacific region that triggered an alert. Unfortunately, the school where we were to perform this morning is in a tsunami inundation zone and had to cancel classes for the day just in case. None of us have ever experienced a Tsunami cancellation, but we were glad that it worked out for us to play at our second school, St. Joseph's Elementary.


Clarinetist Jim Moffit, a graduate of St. Mary's School, enjoys this moment with future St. Joseph's graduates.

This evening we had dinner with Tom Geballe and his wife Carole, both flutists as it turns out, and Judy and Chuck Wakely, neither of whom play flute! (Judy played piano and Chuck played trumpet in former lives.) We discussed a possible return trip for Chamber Music Hawaii musicians in the fall of 2006.

Tomorrow is our formal concert at UH-Hilo Performing Arts Center at 7:30pm. We hope to see you there!

The Keiki and the Mountain

Wow, what a day! We started it off at Chiefess Kapiolani Elementary School performing for grades K-3 in the cafeteria. It was a big crowd, but they were very attentive and had excellent questions for us. We started off with a little Ligeti and Zemlinsky followed by individual demonstrations of our instruments. The kids always love the bassoon and Marsha really gave them a good idea of its character. We then played "Nani Ha'upu," one of the beautiful new tunes written by Keola Beamer for us to perform with him. Marsha has also prepared a version that we can use when Keola is not available. We also played Marsha's arrangement of the "Hilo March," which they all recognized.

The second school we visited, Keaukaha School, provided us with an even larger audience, this time in a brand new gymnasium. We played at center court on the home team side. Part of this audience was from a Hawaiian Immersion program. Before we played Keola Beamer's "Nani Ha'upu," we asked if anyone knew where Ha'upu is located. One young man knew that it is a mountain on the island of Kauai and that it is a very sacred place. I think they really enjoyed the song while imagining the mountain a few hundred miles away.

A tune they all knew and sang with us was "Hilo March." That received a very enthusiastic response. It really is gratifying to perform for so many students and to see them react to the music and to the musicians. They followed us to the car asking us questions about music and about ourselves, but we had to go so we could prepare for a Big Island adventure- something you can only do here.

Dr. Tom Geballe, President of the Hawaii Concert Society, our presenter and host in Hilo, is an astronomer who works at the Gemini Observatory at the top of Mauna Kea. 13,000 feet!! He kindly agreed to guide us up the windy road to the top and show us around. So we arranged for a 7-passenger SUV and tried to forget about the amount of gas it uses and headed up. I mean up! About 90 minutes later we arrived at the windy and cold top of Mauna Kea surrounded by many telescope facilities from around the world. The Gemini project is a joint project of 7 different nations. Anyway, we got there just before sunset and it was spectacular.






After sunset we were given a tour of the Gemini facility where there were many engineers and scientists working very hard. Something about pointing a laser into the sky in order to focus better, but who knows? The air is very thin up there, so we were not entirely understanding everything. Now that we are back at sea level we feel much better, or at least have different excuses. It is kind of late and we have more keiki to entertain tomorrow.

The Big Trip

After an exhausting 33 minute flight we have arrived in Hilo on the Big Island. As we made our approach to Hilo International we enjoyed some terrific views of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, the twin volcano peaks that make produced most of this incredible island of Hawaii. Here is a photo of Mauna Kea as it soars above the clouds in the waning light of the day.



We were met by our friends Judy and Chuck Wakely who helped us get settled in our hotel and then joined us for a late dinner at Cafe Pesto in Hilo town. After a nice dinner and healthy conversation we retired early so that we will be well-rested for our school appearances tomorrow and whatever other adventures come our way.