MĀLAMA

 

  

 

YEAR

2018

 

INSTRUMENTATION

Orchestral Version:

3(3.picc).3(3.eh).3(3.bass).3(3.contra)/

4.3.3.1/Timp+2/Hp/Str

 

Wind Band Version

3(3.picc).2.3.2(bc).2.2.1.1

3.4.3.1.1/Timp+4

 

DURATION: 4 minutes

 

FIRST PERFORMANCE

May 9, 2018; 

Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra

Jeffrey Boeckman, conductor

 

PROGRAM

PROGRAM NOTE

Over a hundred endemic birds once inhabited the Hawaiian Islands. Today, few residents of the Hawaiian Islands have even seen a native forest bird. Hawai‘i’s native birds continue to face a number of threats through diseases, loss of habitat, and competition with non-native species. Because surviving endemic forest bird species represent a considerable value to both the integrity of Hawai‘i’s natural ecosystems as well as cultural and intrinsic value, it is important to educate the importance of learning how to protect them. 

 

Coordinated by composer Takuma Itoh, Symphony of the Hawaiian Birds brings together six Hawai’i composers (Takuma Itoh, Michael-Thomas Foumai, Daniel Houglum, Jon Magnussen, Thomas Osborne and Donald Reid Womack) collaborating with visual artists to create a symphony program to educate Hawai’i’s youth on the history of native birds and what can be done to stem the tide of extinction.

 

Mālama is the sixth and final movement of the work with projections of artwork by Hawai’i’s school children animated by Pawel Nuckowski (Oahu Films). 20 images were selected from a state wide art competition with the propmt, Mālama Hawaiian Forest Birds. A symbol of the future and whose hands have the power to stop natural and cultural extinction, it is with the children of Hawaiʻi for which the symphony leaves its message of hope and awareness.

 

For more information of the the complete work and educational program:

 

PERFORMANCE HISTORY

October 17, 2019: Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra

November 14, 2018: Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra

November 1, 2018: Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra

October 31, 2018: Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra

May 9, 2018: Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra

 

 

 FROM SYMPHONY OF THE HAWAIIAN BIRDS