On Thursday, March 28, the HSO will perform Raise Hawaiki, by local composer Michael-Thomas Foumai and Brahms Requiem with the Oʻahu Choral Society led by Esther S. Yoo (OCS Artistic Director) and joined by the choirs from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (Nola Nahulu, Director of Hawaiian Chorus, Dr. Jace Saplan, Director of Choral Activities) and with the choral programs from the Kapiʻolani Community College and Windward Community College.
This is the world premiere of Michael-Thomas Foumai’s complete work of Raise Hawaiki.
Presented in collaboration with the University Hawaiʻi Foundation, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Music Department, Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra, Oʻahu Choral Society, Polynesian Voyaging Society, IONA Contemporary Dance Theatre, Kapiʻolani Community College and Windward Community College, go aboard the Hōkūleʻa on a symphonic voyage celebrating the legacy of Polynesian voyaging in the world premiere of Honolulu composer Dr. Michael-Thomas Foumai’s Raise Hawaiki.
A modern epic of Hawaiʻi, the story of Hōkūleʻa embodies Hoʻāla with the awakening of the Hawaiian consciousness and movement to care for our blue-island Earth. Told through words inspired by navigators Nainoa Thompson and Mau Piailug, legendary waterman Eddie Aikau, and Hōkūleʻa’s voyaging crew members Sam Kaʻai and Sam Low with text edited by Dr. Puakea Nogelmeier, experience the 1976 maiden voyage to Tahiti, navigate the seas by stars, relive the heroism and dream of Eddie Aikau, and celebrate the hope of Hōkūleʻa’s worldwide voyage, Mālama Honua.
http://hawaiisymphonyorchestra.org/hoala/