Hawaii Performing Arts Festival Celebrates 20th Anniversary Beginning Next Week

Since the summer of 2005, Hawaii Performing Arts Festival (HPAF) has continued to bring world-class music to Hawai'i Island. Over the past 20 years, HPAF has garnered an international reputation as a premiere training and performance program for aspiring young artists worldwide, many of whom have gone onto significant careers as singers, conductors, directors, orchestral musicians, and teachers. Alumni have recently appeared on Broadway and National Tours, and with venues including The Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, and more. Each season, HPAF assembles an exceptional roster of faculty artists who provide instruction and appear in a series of public concerts for the Big Island community.

"I have been immensely grateful that Hawai'i Performing Arts Festival has remained such a significant part of my life since I first arrived as a student in 2009. Though fifteen years later, it feels like just yesterday," shares HPAF Executive Director Justin John Moniz. "I have been fortunate enough to see this organization continue to grow in ways unimaginable and hope the community has, too. We are especially grateful for the continued trust and enthusiastic applause of our beloved Ohana as we look towards HPAF's biggest celebration to date."

From June 27 through July 21, HPAF will present the 2024 Festival, "A Season of Celebration," which includes a diverse offering of chamber music, cabaret, and fully-staged musical theatre and operatic productions featuring Little Women: The Broadway Musical and Monterverdi's timeless opera, The Coronation of Poppea. All performances are presented at various venues across the island including Kahilu Theatre, Blue Dragon Tavern & Cosmic Musiquarium, Gates Performing Arts Center, and more.

On June 27, HPAF will celebrate its season opener with A Return to the Stork Club. Festival favorites Ashley Lambert (vocals), Justin John Moniz (vocals), Phil Kadet (piano), and Jason Gamer (trumpet) return to the historic Stork Club. A Return to the Stork Club will celebrate one of New York City's most iconic landmarks of all time, featuring music made famous by Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, among others. The program will also celebrate favorites from the Great American Songbook, including works by Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers.

During its years of operation, the Stork Club was visited by many political, social, and celebrity figures. It counted among its guests the Kennedy and Roosevelt families, and The Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Food and drink will be available for purchase at The Blue Dragon Tavern & Cosmic Musiquarium on June 27. All proceeds from this evening will support the HPAF Scholarship Fund for local high school students.

HPAF will also continue its Hawaiian Cultural Initiative. For the third season, HPAF will offer a series of classes aimed to strengthen faculty, staff, and students' engagement and understanding of the rich culture of Hawai'i. Led by local faculty members, this summer's curriculum will include kukui and Lāiʻī lei making, the history of Hawai'i, Hawaiian language, and hula instruction. It is the aim of this initiative to provide a greater sense of community and appreciation for the native land and its people.

HPAF's commitment to music education reaches beyond the training of its participants. The Festival's "Behind the Curtain Series," will welcome audience members before all performances of Little Women: The Broadway Musical and The Coronation of Poppea at Kahilu Theatre. These pre-performance discussions will offer an opportunity for attendees to engage with HPAF artists on thematic material and the process of moving a story from the page to the stage.

Hawaii Performing Arts Festival's production of HAIR at Kahilu Theatre (2022) // Photo: Michael Hull

"During the past 20 years, we've presented over 200 world-class concerts and performances in 12 different venues around Hawai'i Island, offering all kinds of music...from jazz to classical, chamber music to show tunes, opera to Hawaiian," says Co-Founder and Executive Director Emerita Genette Freeman. "It was hard work. Some people asked, 'Why do you do it?' There were times when I could think of no reason! Until one night, squirming in the stern pews of Davies Chapel, I realized I was part of a team that transports the audience to another place, where our everyday cares and woes disappear, a place where beauty, tragedy, melody, laughter and love come together."

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