Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra Broadcasts
HPR and Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra have partnered to broadcast performances from the 2021-2022 Masterworks Series.
Each show is hosted by John Kalani Zak and features performances recorded live at Hawaii Theatre Center, Waikiki Shell, Neil S. Blaisdell Concert Hall and Kawaiaha'o Church.
These performances will air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on HPR-2, your home for classical music. Ways to listen & station locator.
Sponsored by Honolulu Financial Partners.
May 2 - Handel’s Messiah
Rejoice! From Handel’s Baroque epic comes the greatest story ever told, a Messiah of our time. Journey with Jesus of Nazareth, abiding in voices of prophecy, seraphic declaration, and apostolic revelation. The sacred and secular come together, forging a trinity of the divine-human experience. Temptation and betrayal slither in the "Passacaglia" from Rodrigo, Bach’s beloved "Air" from the Orchestral Suite No. 3, is a vision of the earthly and eternal. Finally, divine design offers a final parable in the resurrection of Brandenburg Concerto No. 5.
May 9 - Joshua Bell
American masters take center stage to celebrate an American experience, fearless women, impossible virtuosity, and unforgettable journeys. Violinist Joshua Bell and Soprano Larisa Martinez join your Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra in a program of the unshakable American spirit with Barber’s sweeping Violin Concerto, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Bernstein’s West Side Story, Gershwin’s tour de force An American in Paris, and more!
May 16 - Haydn, Fung, Stravinsky
Inspiration and re-imagination unite in a program traversing a world’s theatre of memory, comedy, and the ancient new sounds of the Gamelan. Violinist Kristin Lee and conductor Andrew Gram join your Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra in the Hawai’i premiere of Vivian Fung’s Bali-inspired Violin Concerto No.1, Haydn’s Symphony No. 60, and Stravinsky’s gateway to musical time travel, Pulcinella Suite.
May 23 - Hungarian Rhapsodies
2019 National Sphinx Competition winner Sterling Elliott and maestro Dane Lam join forces with your Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra in a program with six degrees of separation. A lost treasure rediscovered, Mahler's "Blumine," once part of the mammoth First Symphony, sounds once more along with Popper's electrifying Hungarian Rhapsody, Brahms's radiant Symphony No. 2, and the spellbinding "Clockwerk" of Australian composer Maria Grenfell.
May 30 - Beethoven Piano Concertos
At the turn of the 19th century, a young Beethoven dazzled the world stage with keyboard virtuosity. Mozart foresaw this master talent and prophesized that "one day he will give the world something to talk about." Journey through Beethoven's early trials and triumphs in the fiery Piano Concerto No. 2 and the vigorous No. 3. Anne-Marie McDermott plays and conducts from the keyboard for a tale of two concertos and the world premiere weekend of Leilehua Lanzilotti's evocative meditation on "Hawaiʻi Aloha, koʻu inoa."
June 6 - Mozart’s Requiem
Take solace in the harmonious sound of symphonic voices, celebrating imperishable resilience in the face of oppression. Your Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra and Oʻahu Choral Society join forces with conductor Joshua Habermann, soprano Martina Bingham, mezzo-soprano Maya Sypert, tenor Michael St. Peter and baritone Leon Williams, in Mozart’s eternal Requiem in D minor, and the Hawaiʻi premiere of Jean Sibelius’s epic cantata for Finnish independence, "The Captive Queen," at the historic Kawaiaha'o Church.
June 13 - Birds and Angels
Keitaro Harada leads the HSO in our final indoor Masterworks concert of the season. The performance features three selections from prolific Japanese composer, Takashi Yoshimatsu. Todd Yukumoto plays Nikolai Kapustin’s jazz-inspired Concerto for Alto Saxophone.
June 20 - The Planets
Described as "the most ferocious piece of music in existence," Gustav Holst's galactic and sonic depictions of The Planets comes to the Waikiki Shell. Surf the symphonic solar system with JoAnn Falletta leading your Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra and acclaimed pianist Joyce Yang in the thunderous, flourishing and Nordic melodies of Edvard Grieg's impassioned "Piano Concerto in A-minor."