“It’s what musicians do.”
That’s what Marie Lickwar said on Wednesday night, when I was at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, my former parish, along with scores of others. It was a benefit concert for the victims of the Maui wildfires, and was presented by jazz and classical musicians in addition to members of the congregation.
Thirty professional musicians volunteered their talents to put this concert together, organized primarily by Marie Lickwar, Alex Hayashi and Barry Wenger. Musicians included the Makani Quintet (Julia Richter, flute; Alex Hayashi, oboe; Adam Ebert, clarinet; Marie Lickwar, horn; and Shelly Li, bassoon); Barry Wenger, organ; Casey Tamanaha, trumpet; Steve Hoover, handbells; Aubrey Aikens, soprano; Nick Kabel, piano; Mark Russell, harpsichord and piano; Megumi Pulido, piano; the Galliard String Quartet (Helen Liu and Hung Wu, violins; Anna Womack, viola; and Kathleen Long, cello); Willow Chang, vocalist; Bobbie Ishida, guitar; a brass quintet: DeShannon Higa and Casey Tamanaha, trumpets; Marie Lickwar, horn; Gabriel Cruz, trombone; Morris Kainuma, tuba; The Gemini Duo: Duane Padilla, guitar; Daniel Padilla, violin; and a jazz quintet: Allen Won, saxophone; DeShannon Higa, trumpet; Noel Okimoto, drum set; Robert Shinoda, guitar; and Dean Taba, bass.
Wow, what a line-up!
The repertoire ran the gamut from soup to nuts, from classical, to jazz, to Hawaiian, to pop. The church is in the process of posting video clips from the concert on their Facebook page, but in the meantime, my favorite piece was “Metamorphosis No. 2” by Philip Glass, played by Mark Russell. Here is a performance by the composer himself:
To me this piece epitomized what we are all feeling right now—it is a mixture of sadness, despair, and just a glimmer of hopefulness. Even though the wildfires were not on our island, the whole state is feeling its effects. Here are some of the comments on that video:
I feel it perfectly captures the beautiful growing pains that life brings to all, but at a pace and emotional depth that only the fortunate are able to experience.
psychedelic music that immerses you in reflections on the transience of life
Simplistic or not, it takes a lot of focus, dedication, energy and creativity to create good tunes with a instrument like a piano. Sometimes simple is better in music. Something that lacks in today’s popular music and have been lacking for a long time.
… heartbreaking
Another piece which impressed me was “Ancient Cities” composed by Isaac Nagao, played on the harpsichord by Mark Russell.
The concert ended with Marsha Schweitzer’s arrangement of “Hawaii Aloha,” with all musicians performing.
On all counts, the concert was remarkable for several reasons. That so many musicians completely volunteered their time and talent to participate in this concert was amazing in itself, plus the fact that the program was put together in less than a week. It was promoted strictly through social media, email and the radio. The concert was long — over two hours, and yet all the musicians stayed to join together in “Hawaii Aloha.” To me it was astonishing that performers did not leave after playing their set.
My only small disappointment was that more people did not sing “Hawaii Aloha,” but it was perhaps the lyrics were printed in a very small point size in the program! So, here’s the song, sung by the Rose Ensemble.
