You can’t guess what Makana is up to at any particular moment, unless you ask him. That’s one of the appealing things about this musician, a “changeling,” as one fellow musician called him, with quicksilver appetites and an innate talent for connecting with audiences.

He’s an artist in motion, driven to change things up, to learn more, to avoid being bound by commonplace boundaries. Approaching 40, Makana retains the energy and curiosity of a young man, propelled by his passion for music and creativity.

Ever since his youthful start in music, Makana has been close to genius, mentored by the transcendent Sonny Chillingsworth, then determined to play at the level of concentration and illumination that his heroes achieved. Once he had earned acclaim as a slack-key performer, he expanded his interests, delving into spirituality, producing stage shows that incorporated storytelling, hula, rock ’n’ roll — and in recent years, music as activism.

On Friday, he presents “Sinfonia D’Amore,” an ode to passion. The dramatic production with the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra incorporates classical and world music with Makana’s original songs and storytelling.

“THE SHOW is really a multicultural journey through the many faces of what we call love,” Makana said. “There’s Balinese, there’s Indian, there’s Italian. It’s Portuguese. There’s Spanish. There’s Celtic. There’s of course American.”

Makana has rearranged some of his own early songs so that they can be played with the orchestra.

“The Hawaiian pieces, they’re very dynamic,” he said. “Of course I’ll be doing my song from ‘The Descendents’ with the symphony. That will be beautiful, with an ancient Hawaiian chorus.

“I’m a big proponent of the ’60s and ’70s folk era, so one of the songs I have, called ‘Makani,’ from one of my previous albums, is very — I would say it’s very Moody Blues, so we’re going there too. Very fun. Very big.

“I might throw some Sinatra in there. And of course there’ll be some comedy too.

“I’ve worked with the conductor, who is coming in from Philadelphia — Stuart Malina — we worked together to select a few pieces that the orchestra will do on their own, within the theme. … We’re having a blast!

“And I’m also going to be doing a little bit of classical with the orchestra, which will be a first.”

Makana will perform with the orchestra and solo, on guitar and piano. He’s also bringing in musical guests, including Lopaka Colon, who Makana called “Hawaii’s finest percussionist,” and vocalist Yoza.

On top of that, he’s working with a symphony percussionist to incorporate sounds from a bamboo gamelan that he brought back from Bali.

He plays a few notes on it, and as the warm tones bounce through his Honolulu studio, he explains that he wrote a love song about Bali in Hawaiian, which he plans to perform at the concert.

Several Hawaiian songs are included in the program, Makana said, but they contain original music.

“It’s not hula music,” he said. “These are complex, dynamic, sometimes dark — very passionate.”

For one, he adapted a story from Hawaiian composer, performer and slack-key guitar master Aunty Alice Namakelua.

“It’s the story of a boy and a girl that are passionate about each other, but their parents will not allow them to be together. …

“The recorded versions are very basic,” he said, breaking into a Hawaiian song with clapped rhythm. “But my version is, like — it’s full symphony.”

He also incorporates hula implements for percussion. “So it builds this whole ancient-sounding hula accompaniment. And then the symphony comes in.

“Of all the things in my life, let me tell you, there is nothing more exhilarating than having an orchestra around you as you sing and play,” he said, his face lighting up with enthusiasm.

“It’s like what I would imagine surfing Waimea is — that exhilaration, that power. It’s an incredible feeling.”

The concert is meant to be passionate — a word that Makana repeatedly uses to describe it.

“This is not a show of just love songs,” he said. “It’s nothing like that. What it is, is a musical journey through all the different faces of what we call love. … Each song that I’ve chosen represents a different experience.”

His program roams not only across the globe, but through time.

“We’re also going on a journey of ancient views of love, toward contemporary views of love,” he said, describing a story that he conceived, set in an ancient country that predates Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It’s called ‘Dance of the Red Poppies.’ It’s about a woman who keeps on entering relationships in which she’s abandoned. … She starts having these dreams. And in her dream she sees this field of red poppies, blood red. …

“It comes to her in a dream: In ancient times, she had a lover, and he was called by his brothers to go off to war, but his brothers actually killed him. He never came back, and she never got news. She went to her grave not knowing if he loved her.

“Throughout many lifetimes, she kept reliving the experience of being abandoned. And finally, her lover came to her in a dream and said, ‘I never abandoned you. … I love you, I love you, I love you. I will always love you.’ And when she learned that in her dream, she healed.”

Makana added: “I never told that story before. The song is so passionate! It’s a combination of slack key with bluegrass, with Indian raga, with Bollywood. It — it’s intense.”

He’s been experimenting with global sounds for years, he said, and the songs he’ll perform in this concert are evidence of that. “I keep on going deeper into it. Mining it.”

Surprises will be in store on Friday, Makana said, holding back some information on the program. But what he did give away was that he explored “very, very, very deeply passionate,” edgy compositions, as exemplified by composers such as Stravinsky and Wagner.

The idea is to both move and jar listeners, prodding them to feel and to consider the emotions evoked by the music.

He’s been performing for 32 years — pretty much all of his life, he said. At this stage, he recognizes the value of holding on to a childlike view of some things, being surprised and grateful for life’s possibilities.

“I renew myself every day,” he responds. “It’s really important, physically, emotionally — so that allows me to be available to new energy, new inspiration.”

If that sounds philosophical, it is. Makana’s been delving into philosophy and developing his own over the past year, and he’s been writing it down. In fact, he’s close to completing his first book.

He’s not impressed with contemporary, popular music at the moment; instead, he’s in a phase where, he said, “I’m just realizing I’ve hardly done anything with music — and I’m totally OK with that! I feel like I’m just beginning, again.”

“Can music be more than an entrancement of rhythm and a repetitious melody — is there something more to music than that? That’s the question that I’m allowing to be inspiration for this new phase of exploration in art.”

As we spoke, music by classical quartets played in the background: Ravel, Debussy …

“I really lean toward the less systematic, predictable melody structures,” he confessed.

“I used to think, ‘Oh! When you create a perfect circle and everything fits where it should and loops around and ends up where it started, that’s a masterpiece. And now I realize how messy life is!’” At this, he let out an abrupt laugh.

“Life is incredibly messy! So do we want our music to reflect our impossible ideal of what life will never be, or the beauty of life itself?

“Like relationships, right? Do we want to hold our partners to this conditioned expectation of what we think they ought to be, or do we want to see them for who they are?”

When it’s suggested that he’s going to explore the tension between structure and passion, he agrees. “There’s a lot of structure, yeah,” he said. “But I have some wiggle room.” Again, he erupted in a laugh.

“This is definitely a show that you will want to bring a date to,” Makana said. “It will put everyone in the mood.”