FRIDAY
>> Musicians to honor fallen HPD officers
Some top Hawaii entertainers will join together to pay tribute to Honolulu police officers Tiffany Enriquez and Kaulike Kalama, who were shot and killed on Jan. 19 as they responded to a call for assistance at Hibiscus Drive in Waikiki.
The concert features three popular local bands, along with guest artists.
Kapena, headed by Kelly Boy De Lima, is one of the seminal Island Contemporary groups, with more than 20 albums over the last 30 years. Originally a trio of high school friends but now a family band, the group won four Hoku Awards for its 2018 album “Palena Ole.”
B.E.T., or Big Every Time, is a Polynesian reggae-rap group with hits like “Trust in Me,” “Good Ol Days” and “Your Love.”
Maoli (meaning “Native” in Hawaiian), started on Maui by Glenn Awong in 2007, had a breakout with debut album “Groovin,” which featured the hits “No One,” “Write Me A Letter” and “So Incredible.” Subsequent albums “Rock Easy” and “Arise” brought them to national attention.
Hawaii’s Finest, the fashion company and promoter of island contemporary music events, is sponsoring the event. Shirts memorializing the two officers will be on sale, with proceeds from the concert and shirt sales going to the officers’ families.
TIFFANY ENRIQUEZ AND KAULIKE KALAMA FUNDRAISER
>> Where: The Republik
>> When: 8 p.m. Friday
>> Cost: $25-$35
>> Info: 941-7469, jointherepublik.com
SATURDAY
>> Singer Olivia Thai celebrates new tune
Olivia Thai has, as usual, been pursuing her unusual interests.
The singer/songwriter, who made waves in Hawaii with her soulful songs, left the islands two years ago to participate in a singing contest in China, and she is now studying linguistics at the University of California-Berkeley. (She spoke three Chinese dialects until learning English in school and has studied a half-dozen other languages.) She’s also signed to music publishing service Marmoset, a connection she made through her work with Creative Lab Hawai’i, writing songs for film and TV.
Thai returns to Hawaii this weekend for the release of her latest single “Down to Earth Cool Chick,” and to renew ties with fans here. The song stems from a remark to a songwriting mentor she made years ago about writing songs about “my stance on materialism and what I think about it,” she said, by phone from California. That evolved into a song about “being comfortable with yourself and not worrying about what society thinks about you.”
She’ll be doing the song twice; once in a looped version, and again in a fully orchestrated version, which she called “pop-py, vibey, and danceable and fun.”
Thai developed a devoted fan base with her performances at Hawaiian Brian’s (now HB Social Club), using looping technology to blend her guitar, violin, keyboards and beatbox playing to back up her melancholy vocals. She hopes to return to Waikiki regularly, releasing a new tune every month, which will then collected into an album.
“If this first show works out, then we’ll be coming back,” she said, calling her following here “amazing.”
‘DOWN TO EARTH COOK CHICK’ RELEASE PARTY
With Olivia Thai
>> Where: Hyatt Centric Waikiki, 349 Seaside Ave.
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
>> Cost: $10-$20
>> Info: 808ne.ws/oliviathai
SATURDAY
>> Plantation Village celebrates ethnic holidays
Firecrackers and lion dances are telling us that it’s time to celebrate Chinese New Year. The Year of the Rat officially began on Jan. 25, and festivities continue.
Meanwhile, the Christian celebration known as Shrove Tuesday officially falls on Feb. 25 this year. Here in Hawaii, it’s celebrated as Malasadas Day by the local Portuguese community.
Hawaii’s Plantation Village will combine the two holidays on Saturday with a multiethnic celebration, said Evelyn Ahlo, director of the outdoor museum of structures representing the Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Okinawan, Portuguese and Puerto Rican communities.
While admission is free, visitors can buy a $1 “passport,” which they can get stamped at each of the village’s houses to collect prizes. There will also be “old school” games like marbles, and a Korean game called Tuho that uses arrows, for keiki to play, Ahlo said.
“There will be make-and-take (activities), like Chinese headbands,” she said, “and then we’ll have food-tasting at each house. The Puerto Ricans will have music on their porch, and the Portuguese will be selling malasadas.”
The day starts off with a lion dance, with more entertainment including Korean dancing and takedaiko, a kind of Japanese percussion performance where large bamboo stalks are used as drums.
YEAR OF THE RAT & MALASADAS DAY
>> Where: Hawaii’s Plantation Village, 94-695 Waipahu St., Waipahu
>> When: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday
>> Cost: Admission free, game pass $1
>> Info: 677-0110, hawaiiplantationvillage.org
TUESDAY
>> Classical concert features top talent from China
China has been the source of some of the world’s best classical musicians in recent years, and some of that talent will be on display at the Hawaii Spring Festival Gala Concert on Tuesday, courtesy of Maui opera singer Jim Price and some high-powered friends from China.
The program at Hawaii Theatre includes maestro Long Yu, pictured at bottom, of the Shanghai Symphony conducting the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra, with featured soloists Siqing Lu, pictured at right, on violin, Jaya Sun on piano, cellist Lin Zhu, soprano Bing Bing Wang and tenor Warren Mok, a graduate of the University of Hawaii Music Department and a major opera star in China.
The program blends East and West, featuring Western music such as Dvorak’s “Sun to the Moon,” Saint-Saens’ “Rondo Capriccioso,” and the popular Puccini aria “Nessun Dorma” from the opera “Turandot,” along with Chinese music like the “Spring Festival Overture,” a tune commonly heard this time of year in China.
“It’s an incredible lineup,” said Price, who co-organized the concert and will be performing “Nessun Dorma” with Mok.
“Long Yu is coming directly from the New York Philharmonic. Lu Siqing is the first Asian, not just the first Chinese, but the first Asian to win the Paganini Competition (in 1987). Lin Zhu went through Juilliard and is the principal cellist of the Shanghai Symphony. Warren was the last act on National Day (a Chinese holiday) — that’s 1.1 billion people watching him on TV. … All of these people would get sold-out audiences in China.”
The concert came together when Price visited China and met some Chinese business people, among them Wang Boming, a key figure in the establishment of the Chinese stock exchange in the 1990s. Wang, a major supporter of the arts in China, bought a condo in Honolulu a couple of years ago, Price said.
“We got talking about how they should be spending a little money on the arts in Hawaii since they’re part-time residents,” he said. “They came out last January when I was doing Beethoven’s Ninth with the symphony, and they said ‘We want to do that.’”
HAWAII SPRING FESTIVAL GALA CONCERT
>> Where: Hawaii Theatre
>> When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
>> Cost: $28.88-$128.88
>> Info: 528-0506, hawaiitheatre.com
