FRIDAY-SUNDAY
>> Festival celebrates the music diversity of Hawaii
Hawaii-born baritone Quinn Kelsey, pop legend Engelbert Humperdinck and kumu hula Robert Cazimero are among headliners of this weekend’s ANA Honolulu Music Week, which brings an all-star cast of performers in a diverse range of genres and styles to various venues around town.
Sponsored by Japanese airline All Nippon Airways, the three-day music festival is intended to represent the cosmopolitan culture of Honolulu. “Through music we can communicate, and feel things we cannot express in words,” said a statement from Shunichi Tokura, senior executive director of the festival. “Just by listening to a melody, people can share its joy or sadness.”
Performances, many of which will be free, will be held at various venues in Honolulu. Visit hnlmusicweek.org for details.
Featured events include:
>> ANA Gala Celebration, featuring Cazimero, Kelsey, star New Zealand tenor Pene Pati, Danny Kaleikini, Japanese-American violin prodigy Ryu Goto and Japanese pop star Kiyotaka Sugiyama, with acclaimed maestro Keitaro Harada conducting the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra, at 7 p.m. Friday, Blaisdell Concert Hall. $30-$100
>> Violinist Goto, performing with local student and professional musicians, in concert at Kawaiahao Church, 2 p.m. Saturday, $35
>> Leo Pasifika (Voices of the Pacific), featuring Kelsey, Pati, Maui vocalist Maria Ka‘ai and Blythe Kelsey in an intimate recital, 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Kawaiahao Church, $35
>> Engelbert Humperdinck, fresh off a nostalgic visit to Hawaii Theatre Center last year, at 8 p.m. Saturday at Blaisdell Concert Hall, $45-$100
>> Final concert, featuring Sugiyama with longtime collaborators Kalapana, along with members of the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra, Hawaii Youth Symphony and the University of Hawaii Orchestra, conducted by UH music professor Joseph Stepec, at 4 p.m. Sunday at Blaisdell Concert Hall, $5.
ANA HONOLULU MUSIC WEEK
>> Where: Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, International Market Place, Ritz-Carlton Residences, Kapiolani Park Bandstand, Blaisdell Concert Hall, Kawaiahao Church, Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives.
>> When: Free concerts from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Royal Hawaiian Center and International Market Place. See hnlmusicweek.org/en/ for a full schedule and ticket prices for other concerts.
>> Info: hnlmusicweek.org/en
FRIDAY
>> Korean pop stylists to sing their hearts out at convention center
Korean music fans, trot out to the Hawai‘i Convention Center on Friday for the “Miss Trot” USA Tour.
Trot (“teuroteu” in Korean) refers to a style of music that originated in early- to mid-20th-century Korea as a blend of Western and Asian music. Trot artists usually sing with a rasp in the voice, emphasizing its romantic sentimentalism. It’s enjoying a renaissance of sorts these days.
“Miss Trot” is a South Korean reality TV singing competition in the vein of “American Idol” and “The Voice.” The TV show started in February with 100 contestants, singing both solo and with groups, advancing through battle- round matchups and winning votes from judges, and online and live audiences. The show was one of the highest-rated programs in South Korea and prompted another contest for male singers, “Mister Trot,” scheduled to shoot next year.
The winner of the contest, Song Ga-in, pictured at right, along with a few of the runners-up, have been touring the U.S. this summer. Honolulu is one of five U.S cities to host the show, along with New York, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.
“MISS TROT” HAWAII CONCERT 2019
>> Where: Hawai‘i Convention Center
>> When: 7-9 p.m. Friday
>> Cost: $35-$250
>> Info: 922-1122, 808ne.ws/misstrot
SUNDAY
>> Fado-style singer brings melancholy moods to Manoa
Fado is a style of a traditional singing from Portugal, where it is often heard in bars and cafes performed by small ensembles.
Believed to have originated in the 1820s, fado is an expressive, passionate music, with the songs usually about the struggles of life — one fado singer described its broad themes as “love, hate, shame, separation, hurt, sadness, despair, betrayal, destiny, disgrace, solitude, luck, travel, memory, anxiety, bitterness, fatalism, forgetting, politics, tears, hope, passion, happiness, the human condition, time, life, death, saudade (longing), and fado itself.”
Ramana Vieira, who grew up in California listening to the music enjoyed by her immigrant parents, has developed into a popular fado singer of the day. A classically trained singer, she traveled to Portugal and committed to studying and spreading fado, eventually forming a band that plays traditional fado and original songs.
“Ramana Vieira deserves a prominent place in the front rank of today’s fado singers,” said a review in the Boston Globe. “You will feel transported to another place … maybe Bairro Alto, Lisbon.”
Vieira performs at Medici’s at the Manoa Marketplace on Sunday with local musicians Duane Padilla on violin, Sonny Silva on guitar and Dean Taba on bass.
RAMANA VIEIRA
>> Where: Medici’s at Manoa Marketplace
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday
>> Cost: $20-$25 (dinner buffet $25)
>> Info: 351-0901, honolulumusicatmedicis.com
WEDNESDAY
>> Manchester Orchestra commemorates 2009 album
Manchester Orchestra, an alternative rock band from Atlanta, brings its layered sound and moody attitude to The Republik on Wednesday.
The band will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its 2009 album “Mean Everything to Nothing,” its first to chart with a peak position of No. 11 on the Billboard Rock Albums chart. Reviewer Tim Karan of Altpress.com praised the album while providing an appropriate description of the band’s sound, calling it “deceptively complex and overtly Southern, giving the impression of a straight-ahead rock album, but riding countless dynamic shifts, instrumentation changes and separate song movements.”
The band, established in 2004, is led by singer/guitarist/pianist Andy Hull, who began writing and recording music while homestudying during his senior in high school. Three years later, the band came out with its first studio album “I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child,” which propelled them into the limelight.
While Manchester Orchestra has had a few changes in membership since then — current membership consists of Hull, lead guitarist Robert McDowell, drummer Tim Very and bass guitarist Andy Prince, the band has enjoyed continued success, with three more albums — 2011’s “Simple Math,” 2014’s “Cope” and 2017’s “A Black Mile to Surface” — reaching the top 10 on the alternative and rock charts. The group also has nearly a dozen appearances on various late-night shows, and is known for its touching, nostalgic videos, often shot home-movie style.
10 YEARS OF “MEAN EVERYTHING TO NOTHING”
With Manchester Orchestra
>> Where: The Republik
>> When: 8 p.m. Wednesday
>> Cost: $32-$37
>> Info: 941-7469, jointherepublik.com
