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http://www.bigislandweekly.com/articles/2010/07/14/read/a_and_e/arts02.txt
HPAF Kicks Off Its Sixth Season With A Grand Concert
By Hadley Catalano
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 11:02 AM HST
The musical sounds of a midsummer's evening in Paris filled the theater at the Gates Performing Arts Center at HPA on July 10 as the sixth season of the Hawai`i Performing Arts Festival (HPAF) commenced.
The opening night concert titled "Oo-La-L'Aloha!" showcased festival faculty members Val Underwood, Jennifer McGregor, Tod Fitzpatrick, Juliana Gondek, Brett McMunn and Iggy Jang.
The beginning of the month-long distinctively French inspired festival, dubbed "Paris in Paradise" will be part of the HPAF's inaugural run at a Parisian-themed program. For the past six years, the nonprofit educational and performance organization has been instrumental at providing both internationally known musicians in concert on the Big Island as well as offering unparalleled classical musical training and coaching. This season, the HPAF tips its beret, in both student and faculty performances, to the French traditional, impressionistic and contemporary music and composers.
"We wanted to offer the public something different this season," said Underwood, pianist and the festival's Artistic Director, about the HPAF's attempt to vary the programming. "As well as to allow our students to study French. A difficult language that students usually don't have much training in."
The opening program, sponsored by The Blue Dragon Coastal Cuisine and Musiquarium and Karen and Carl Miller, displayed the diverse musical prowess of the classical arts through voice, piano and violin with translation explained by individual performers.
The first piece, "Je te veux" an operatic piece by Erik Satie, an eccentric composer known for his colorful, light works, was sung by soprano McGregor and accompanied on the piano by Underwood.
In between pieces, HPAF Executive Director Genette Freeman introduced each composer, telling briefly about the history, style and musical influence of French greats such as Jacques Offenbach, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Jules Massenet and Edith Piaf. Freeman also took the opportunity to divulge about the accomplishment of the performers, a peek into what type of musical background each brings to the festival's workshops and student classes.
McGregor is a vocal teacher and member of Opera Australia; Underwood, a renowned pianist and vocal instructor; Jang, the concertmaster of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and mezzo-soprano Gondek, professor of voice and opera at UCLA and the festival's Programming Chair, who all have participated in the HPAF for a number of years. This season Freeman welcomed two new teachers to the festival, vocal coach and pianist McMunn and baritone and vocal teacher Fitzpatrick.
McMunn is the Conductor/Music Director of Opera at University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music, has conducting many operatic productions, has worked extensively with student programs and has been a faculty coach at both the Juilliard School and the Aspen Music Festival. Fitzpatrick is an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has performed for a variety of philharmonics and operas throughout the country and founded the Big Bear Lake Song Festival.
Both McMunn and Fitzpatrick debuted their classical talents in a number of songs including a three-part piano/baritone piece of Maurice Ravel's "Don Quichotte a Dulcinee."
In addition to what Freeman referred to as a "rich sampling of faculty performance," in the second act she introduced bass-baritone Tyler Simpson, one of the HPAF's four professional fellow, as he sang "Vous qui fait l'enormie" (Faust) by Charles Gounod. Simpson, who recently earned his Masters from Yale School of Music and will be performing with the Metropolitan Opera, will appear as Escamillo in "La Tragedie de Carmen," a highly anticipated HPAF opera presentation to be held July 16 at 7:30 p.m. at HPA.
The two-hour concert brought the 250-seat theater to almost full capacity and was attended by a large majority of the festival's 48 students, who after intensive lessons, will be performing later in the month.
"We have a majority of vocal students this year," said Underwood, who noted that there will be a number of student-oriented show's this season including TropicGlee, based on the popular TV show "Glee" and an one-act musical comedy opera based on "Sleeping Beauty" called "Tales and Fables." "We have some piano students and we'll have 12 more piano students coming from Honolulu as well as a student string quartet from Honolulu."
The second weekend of the HPAF will feature the "Tragedie de Carmen" on Friday, July 16, at 7:30 p.m. and on Saturday, July 17 the "Tales and Fables" at 2 p.m. and "Chopin/Shumann Bi-Centennial Concert" at 7:30 p.m. All three shows will be at HPA and free to the public. Check website http://www.hawaiiperformingartsfestival.org for Sunday, July 18 performances and future events.
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