
Gene Schiller
Music Director; Host, Morning ConcertGene Schiller joined HPR in September, 1993 as a board operator. His first break came when he was asked to fill in for Music Director Alan Bunin. Six months later, he became the new host of Evening Concert, a program that runs on HPR-2 from 6 to 8 p.m. on weeknights.
In 1996, Gene was invited to take over the Sunday morning classical program, Sunday Brunch, which at the time was scheduled from 10 to noon. "About three years later, I turned it into a request program," he recalls, "and soon after that it was expanded to run from 9 to noon, still in the request format."
Gene, who continues on Sunday Brunch, now hosts Morning Cafe and Morning Concert every morning from 8:00 a.m. to noon. All three are regularly scheduled local classical programs heard on HPR-2.
Gene was named HPR's Music Director in 2001.
He was born in Los Angeles, and his family moved to Hawaiʻi in 1959 just as he entered the third grade. He's lived here ever since, attending St. Louis and then Kaimuki High School. Gene has been in radio for 18 years. He originally joined KORL as a host for a big band show. "I come from a family of musicians," he recalls, "and I am the only member who isn't a musician, doesn't read music or play an instrument - but I've always been a good listener."
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Chamber Music Hawaiʻi’s Jim Moffitt and Tommy Morrison stopped by Morning Café to preview Saturday’s Spring Wind Quintet concert, featuring selections from Mozart’s Harmoniemusik and the Gran Partita.
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Eric Silberger and Josh Nakazawa of the Mana Music Quartet stopped by Morning Café ahead of their concert with the Honolulu Chamber Music Series, featuring works by Queen Liliʻuokalani, Eddie Kamae, and Antonín Dvořák.
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Up-and-coming organist and social media sensation Lukas Hasler joined Morning Café to preview his upcoming recital presented by the Hawaiʻi Chapter American Guild of Organists.
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Scott Fikse, choral director of Early Music Hawaiʻi, discusses the inspiration behind their upcoming program "From New England to Honolulu," which explores the fusion of New England hymns with Hawaiian music.
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Trumpet players JoAnn Lamolino and Casey Tamahana of the Honolulu Brass Quintet stopped by Morning Café ahead of their program “Dances Around the World” with two performances this weekend on Oʻahu. Originally scheduled for March 2020, the concerts feature modern and traditional works, including Enrique Crespo's Suite Americana.
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Michael-Thomas Foumai joins Gene Schiller to discuss the successful Beethoven Festival by the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra (HSO), which concludes with a free concert at the Blaisdell Concert Hall on Wednesday, Feb. 12. The event features a collaboration with the Hawaii Youth Symphony Orchestra.
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Cellist Mark Votapek and pianist Jonathan Korth, along with Mark Butin and Iggy Chang, will perform a chamber music concert at Orvis Auditorium, featuring the Cello Sonata by Rachmaninoff and the Dvorak Piano Quartet. The program also includes Schumann's Five Pieces in Folk Style and a suite by Spanish composer Gaspar Casado. This is Voltapek's first full public recital in Hawaii since 2008.
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Michael-Thomas Foumai visits Gene Schiller ahead of the final Beethoven Festival concerts. Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra returns to the Blaisdell Concert Hall on March 6 to perform Beethoven’s fifth and eighth symphonies.
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Chamber Music Hawai‘i (CMH) violinist Helen Liu and bassoonist Tommy Morrison joined Morning Café to preview this weekend’s Beethoven Fest at Doris Duke Theatre. The chamber music group’s performance accompanies Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra’s monthlong Beethoven Festival, which presents all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies.
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Galliard String Quartet violist Anna Womack and violinist Helen Liu join Morning Café to discuss the group’s upcoming concert "Reflections on Americana." The program includes works by George Gershwin, George Walker and Charles Ives, and showcases a newly commissioned composition by Donald Womack.