Shows & events
Kona Songwriters Showcase tonight
Daylight Mind Coffee Co. hosts the Kona Songwriters Showcase this evening at its Waterfront Row location off Alii Drive in Kailua-Kona.
From 6 to 9 p.m., the event will feature original music by local singer-songwriters. Attendees will get to know the writers, songs and the stories of how they came to be. The evening is hosted by Kimberly June.
Songwriters are welcome to an open mic at 6 p.m. with sign-ups starting at 5:30 p.m. The evening will continue with a “round” style show. This month’s featured songwriters are June and Lopaka Rootz.
A $5 donation is suggested.
Info: julia.berman@daylightmind.com.
Jazz in the Forest summer series kicks off
The 2017 Jazz in the Forest summer series kicks off with two performances on Saturday featuring Bub Pratt with Jean Pierre Thoma and The Jazztones at Volcano Art Center.
The Jazztones led by Jean Pierre Thoma on saxophone and flute will feature special guest guitarist, vocalist and virtual trumpeter Bub Pratt, bassist Matt Spencer, guitarist Fed Hee, as well as master drummer Steve Bader. Pratt’s invisible trumpet will be soloist, and also with duets including other instruments.
The program for Saturday will include compositions from all periods of jazz history from blues through the big band era to modern jazz by Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
Pratt is achieving renown as the creator and leader of the Kukuau Studio in Hilo, which is a center of all the arts, and hosts jazz sessions every week.
Thoma is a world-traveled professional musician on flute, saxophone clarinet and piano, with experience throughout America, France, Japan, India, and Israel. He is the leader of “The Jazztones” and “Raga Jazz,” and member of “Royal Kona Harp Ensemble” and “Volcano Trio,” and a performer at Holy Cross Church, a pianist at restaurants, and charity performances and a music teacher at The Pacific Academy of Music and Kukuau Studio.
Spencer is a longtime professional musician and multi-instrumentalist who has enjoyed a dynamic career primarily as a freelance musician, touring, recording and writing music with many different groups in many different styles. Playing bass, guitar and percussion, he covers a wide range of musical vocabulary from jazz to African, Brazilian to funk, and salsa to spiritual. He has led his own 10-piece salsa band, was musical director for the Cleo Parker Robinson dance company, toured with the Motet, Tony Furtado, and Kyle Hollingsworth, and worked as a studio musician in Los Angeles and as a dance accompanist for dance schools around the country.
Hee is originally from Honolulu and now lives in Volcano. He began playing at age 17 while at Punahou School, and has been active ever since in America, Canada, and the Bahama Islands, including traveling with “Solid Gold” and playing in Hawaii with numerous groups.
Two shows will be offered, with a matinee at 4:30 p.m. and an evening performance at 7. Tickets for both shows are $18 for VAC members and $20 nonmembers. Tickets are available online at www.volcanoartcenter.org, at the VAC administrative office, and Volcano Art Center Gallery within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Tickets, if still available, will also be for sale at the door.
Info: 967-8222.
Domingo to share feather lei making
Renowned artist Kilohana Domingo will demonstrate his master of the fine skill in making lei hulu (feather lei) on Wednesday in Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park.
The free demonstration runs 10 a.m. to noon on the Kilauea Visitor Center lanai. It is part of the park’s ‘Ike Hana No‘eau “Experience the Skillful Work” workshops.
Info: www.nps.gov/havo.
Russian realist hosts art show
Treat yourself to an evening of art and culture with Russian Realist Larissa Morais will host an art show on June 17 at Lahaina Galleries at The Shops at Mauna Lani.
The event takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. Morais’ paintings capture true beauty and are moving, filled with lush imagery and sensuality.
Reservations recommended; call 885-7244 or emailing Lgi@maui.net.
Info: www.lahainagalleries.com.
Ohrlando’s Chamber Ensemble offers 2 concerts this month
Ohrlando’s Chamber Ensemble will share Baroque and Early Classic Chamber Music during two afternoon concerts this month in West Hawaii.
The performance will feature Ursula Hesse on harpsichord and Roland “Ohrlando” Maurer on oboe, oboe d’amore and bassoon. The program includes, among other compositions, a concerto serenata by Domenico Cimarosa, an archaic late Renaissance fantasia, a sonata by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and a special arrangement of “Italian Concerto” by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Admission is free, however, a $15 donation per person is suggested.
The first concert is slated at 4 p.m. on June 18 at a private resident in Kona. The second performance will be held at 4:30 p.m. on June 25 at the Holo Holu Ku Gatehouse at 67-5000 Holo Holu Ku Way.
For reservations and directions, contact Maurer at roland.maurer@gmx.ch or 315-7666.
Film screenings
‘Aloha from Lavaland’ screens Thursday
“Aloha from Lavaland” will be screened at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Honokaa People’s Theatre.
Following a volcanic eruption, a Hawaiian community under pressure shows its spirit and resilience. This 55-minute documentary chronicles the community of Pahoa’s reaction to the 2014 Kilauea lava flow.
“Aloha From Lavaland” explores what it really means to live in such an unpredictable paradise, and what the incident can teach the rest of the world about community, sustainability, harmony, and aloha. It was created by four Big Island-based filmmakers and has a soundtrack featuring Big Island artists.
The film premiered at the Hawaii International Film Festival, has won three awards and has played at several film festivals across the country and internationally.
Following the film there will be a Q&A with the filmmakers.
Tickets are $6 at the theater.
Info: www.facebook.com/AlohaFromLavalandFilm.
Kealakekua Public Library to show ‘Beauty and the Beast’
The Kealakekua Public Library will host a free screening of “Beauty and the Beast” on June 16.
In the 2017 release, Disney’s animated classic takes on a new form, with a widened mythology and an all-star cast. A young prince, imprisoned in the form of a beast, can be freed only by true love. What may be his only opportunity arrives when he meets Belle, the only human girl to ever visit the castle since it was enchanted.
The PG film will be shown from 1 to 3 p.m.
Info: 323-7585.
Classes & workshops
Beginning acrylic painting classes offered
Akamai Art Supply hosts beginning acrylic painting classes starting June 21 in Kailua-Kona.
This class for adults focuses on everything needed to start acrylic painting with success. It will cover techniques such as mixing color, applying paint with brush and knife, how to clean and take care of brushes, and more in a fun and encouraging environment.
This six-week course has classes from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesdays starting June 21. Cost is $120, in addition to materials.
Info: 334-0292.
Angel Prince offers salsa, tango classes
Angel Prince will offer a six-week series of salsa and tango evening classes. These classes will run Thursday evenings from June 23 through Aug. 3 at Kahilu Theatre. These classes are geared for all levels, and no partner is necessary for these classes.
Prince has been teaching salsa and tango for more than 15 years (12 on the Big Island) and is the artistic director of Prince Dance Institute at Kahilu Theatre, as well as Prince Dance Theatre. She has a bachelor’s degree in dance and psychology and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in tendencies of contemporary dance. Her training for salsa was completed in New York, and she studied Argentine tango in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Salsa classes will run from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and cost $75. Tango classes will run from 6:45 to 8:15 p.m. Cost is $100 for series; $20 to drop-in.
Info/register: info@princedance.org or 217-3008.
Stained glass workshop series offered
Ready to take your take your Stained Glass skills to the next level? Now you can try your hand at creating your own stained glass table lamp during a six-part workshop series that gets underway June 24 at Volcano Art Center.
In “Stained Glass II: Panel Lamp Project,” participants will explore the design and construction of triangle shaped table panel lamps. Instructor Claudia McCall will provide the patterns, although students are welcome to bring their own designs.
Classes will be held June 24, 25 and July 1, 2, 8 and 9 from 9 a.m. to noon. Cost is $135 for VAC members and $150 for nonmembers, in addition to a $15 supply fee. Students should have previous experience working with stained glass using the copper foil technique.
McCall started working with stained glass in 2006 after a friend gave her a glass panel. She loved the way sunlight played through the different types of glass, and wanted to explore the possibilities. She has been exploring ever since. She creates stained glass in the copper foil technique when not occupied with her family farm in Volcano.
Advance registration is required and this workshop will be limited to 6 adults. To register call 967-8222 or visit www.volcanoartcenter.org.
Info: www.volcanoartcenter.org.
Announcements
DMAC announces new leadership
Donkey Mill Art Center in Holualoa recently announced new leadership to strengthen the fast-growing nonprofit.
Andi Campognone is the incoming executive director, Kristin Mitsu Shiga is the new core program director, and Moriah Smith Kramer is a new member of the Holualoa Foundation for Arts and Culture board of directors.
Campognone was hired on a six-month appointment crafted by the Holualoa Foundation for Arts and Culture board to capitalize on her skills and address the changing needs of the center. While splitting her time between Kailua-Kona and Los Angeles, she has had a productive history as a Donkey Mill volunteer and activist.
She brings with her more than 25 years of experience in arts management both in the commercial gallery and nonprofit sectors. She was the principal at AC Projects, and has worked as the photography coordinator at the Millard Sheets Center for the Arts, Associate Director and Curator of the Riverside Art Museum, Museum Manager and Curator for the Lancaster Museum of Art and History, and served as appointed Cultural Arts Commissioner for the City of Pomona. She is an expert in the field of cultural arts, community engagement, and social practice through the arts.
She is also a professional curator and serves as a director on the Lancaster Museum and Public Art Foundation, an advisor to the Los Angeles Arts Association, an advisor to ArtLtd Magazine, serves regularly on granting panels, and is an active member of ArTTable. Most recently she organized the 2016 Donkey Mill Art Center Kipaipai professional development workshop and is the executive producer of “MANA The Film,” which was shot on the Big Island and debuted at the Kona Surf Film Festival in 2015.
Originally from New York City, Shiga comes to the Donkey Mill Art Center after 20 years living and working in Portland, Oregon. Her various professional roles have included gallery director at Museum of Contemporary Craft, extension program director at Oregon College of Art and Craft and conference director for the Society of North American Goldsmiths. She currently serves as chairwoman of the board of trustees of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine.
Shiga also comes from a long line of teachers, and has taught classes and workshops in various craft media and mindfulness practice around the world since 1992. She has established successful metalsmithing programs at art centers in Portland and New York, and is looking forward to returning to the metals studio at DMAC, which she helped launch during her Laila Twigg-Smith residency in 2015.
Kramer was born and raised on the Big Island and is a passionate believer in the arts as a vital part of a healthy education and has been involved in the growing contemporary art scene in both Los Angeles and Oahu for more than 17 years. As vice president at Friends of Sunset Beach, she led a fruitful arts advocacy campaign which included fundraising to keep arts in the classroom.
Info: www.donkeymillartcenter.org.