The Hawaii Symphony Orchestra returns to Hawaii Island for the first time in nearly a decade to perform on the Kahilu Theatre stage.
The orchestra, formerly known as the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, was founded in 1900, and is the second oldest in the USA west of the Rocky Mountains. In the 1980s and 1990s the orchestra performed at the Kahilu Theatre nearly every year. Recently, the renewed Hawaii Symphony Orchestra has received state funding to tour neighbor islands. The symphony last played Kahilu seven years ago.
The Waimea show is 7 p.m. April 8.
Artistic Advisor JoAnn Falletta will conduct the orchestra in an evening of musical masterpieces, including Suite from Pelleas and Melisande by Faure the Czech Suite by Dvorak, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2.
Falletta is internationally celebrated as a vibrant ambassador for music and an inspiring artistic leader.
An effervescent and exuberant figure on the podium, she has been praised by The Washington Post as having “Toscanini’s tight control over ensemble, Walter’s affectionate balancing of inner voices, Stokowski’s gutsy showmanship, and a controlled frenzy worthy of Bernstein.” Acclaimed by The New York Times as “one of the finest conductors of her generation,” she serves as the music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the Brevard Music Center.
Falletta’s recordings have won two Grammy awards, and 10 nominations, and she was awarded the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductor’s Award for exceptionally gifted American conductors, the coveted Stokowski Competition and the Toscanini, Ditson and Bruno Walter Awards for conducting, and the American Symphony Orchestra League’s prestigious John S. Edwards Award.
She has introduced more than 500 works by American composers, including 110 world premieres. Hailing her as a “leading force for the music of our time,” the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers has honored her with a dozen ASCAP awards.
Kahilu Theatre doors open at 6 p.m. for the performance. The “Art Off The Wall” exhibit will be showing in the Kohala Gallery.
Tickets are $20-$85 and can be purchased online atwww.kahilutheatre.org, by calling 885-6868, or at the theater box office 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Info: www.kahilutheatre.org. ■
