Events
Bishop Museum Presents, “Kaula Piko: Leʻa I Ke Kani Concert, Featuring the Legendary Ledward Kaapana and Very Special Guests”
The free concert will broadcast live on ʻŌlelo channel 53 and on social media to celebrate the holidays
In the spirit of the holidays, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum and Kealakai Center for Pacific Strings will present "Kaula Piko: Leʻa I Ke Kani Concert, Featuring the Legendary Ledward Kaapana and Very Special Guests" Alan Akaka, Pōmaikaʻi and Mālie Lyman, Douglas Poʻoloa Tolentino, Bobby Moderow Jr, Kamuela and Kaʻihi Kimokeo, Kenneth Makuakāne, Ocean Kaowili, and Halehaku Seabury. This free concert based on the museum's exhibit, Kaula Piko: The Source of Strings, features the award-winning artists taking the audience on a musical journey through time. The concert will bring to life stories from the exhibit, illuminating Hawaiʻi's pivotal contributions and long-running legacy of excellence, innovation, and global influence in the modern musical arts. The concert will be broadcast and livestreamed from the museum's historic Hawaiian Hall. The community can tune into the concert broadcast on Dec. 12, 2020 from 7-9 p.m. on ʻŌlelo Community Media channel 53, or watch a livestream of the show on Bishop Museum's and ʻŌlelo's Facebook accounts (Facebook.com/BishopMuseum, Facebook.com/OleloCommunity).
The concert will also include special presentation on Hawaiʻi's own ʻūkēkē by Mahi La Pierre and Hui ʻŪkēkē Aʻo, and a sharing of the ʻIpu Heke by Marques Hanalei Marzan.
"We're honored to partner with some of our island's most gifted musical artists for this holiday concert. We hope, with their performances and content from our exhibit, to bring some of the magic and history of live Hawaiian music into families' homes this season," said Melanie Ide, president and CEO of Bishop Museum.
"The Kaula Piko exhibition has endeavored to illuminate a long-running legacy of Hawaiian music and musicians, a legacy that today spans many centuries, oceans, and continents," said Kilin Reece, concert co-producer, exhibit co-curator, and president of the Kealakai Center for Pacific Strings. "The most famous stringed instruments in the world trace their origins to this Hawaiian lineage, and today form a common bond shared between many generations of practitioners in the Hawaiian musical arts. The 'Leʻa I Ke Kani Concert' brings the stories of Kaula Piko to life in live performance, and gives our most legendary and award-winning artists a chance to share their stories of song and string with you. We invite you to join us for a musical journey to the Source of Strings!" said Reece.
"ʻŌlelo is honored to be able bring this very special concert live to the community illuminating Hawaiʻi's contributions, long-running legacy, and global influence in the world of musical arts," said Sanford Inouye, President and CEO, ʻŌlelo Community Media.
"Kaula Piko: Leʻa I Ke Kani" draws inspiration from Bishop Museum's Kaula Piko exhibit, which explores the lineage of Hawai'i's lasting contributions to world music, in particular through the pioneering influence of Hawaiian musicians in both performance styles and the actual design and construction of stringed instruments, showing how they ultimately shaped the soundscape of today's popular music. The concert will showcase key elements of Hawaiian music presented by leading practitioners carrying on their family traditions. With detailed insights into the Hawaiian born innovations that have defined the sound and shape of modern music, from the acoustic Kī Hōʻalu (Slack Key) to the electric Kīkā Kila (Steel Guitar), from the ʻukēkē to the ʻukulele.
Between each performance, historical background and select highlights from the Kaula Piko exhibit will be presented by Mr. Reece and Bishop Museum's own historian, DeSoto Brown. Interspersed with musicians' stories of song and strings will be detailed historical insights into the evolution and Hawaiian origins of the world's most iconic stringed instruments that have shaped the modern musical soundscape.
The concert will be headlined by legendary slack key guitar player Ledward Kaapana. In addition to his guitar mastery, Kaapana is known for his extraordinary baritone and leo ki'eki'e (falsetto) singing.
"Kaula Piko: Leʻa I Ke Kani Concert, Featuring the Legendary Ledward Kaapana and Special Guests," is a joint production of Bishop Museum and Kealakai Center for Pacific Strings, and is generously supported by Servco Pacific Inc. and Morgan Stanley.
To watch the "Kaula Piko: Leʻa I Ke Kani Concert," tune into ʻŌlelo Community Media on channel 53, or on Bishop Museum's and ʻŌlelo's Facebook pages from 7-9 p.m. on Dec. 12, 2020. For more information, visit www.BishopMuseum.org/KaulaPiko.
About Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, the State of Hawaiʻi Museum of Natural and Cultural History
Bishop Museum’s mission is to inspire our community and visitors through the exploration, celebration, and perpetuation of the extraordinary history, culture, and environment of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. The Museum was founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in memory of his wife Bernice Pauahi Bishop, a royal descendant of King Kamehameha I. Today, the Museum thrives as an educational center for the community and is widely regarded as the world’s premier institution for Hawaiian and Pacific content.
Bishop Museum’s vast collections of more than 25 million objects and specimens represent nine disciplines and include more than 22 million biological specimens, over 2 million cultural objects, 115,000 historical publications, and 1 million photographs, films, works of art, audio recordings, and manuscripts. These collections tell the stories of the cultures and biodiversity of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific as well as the proud legacy of scholarly research spanning 130 years.
Bishop Museum proudly serves more than 200,000 visitors each year, including 20,000 children on school visits. Guests are encouraged to pre-plan their trip to #HawaiisMuseum with its free digital guide, available through Bloomberg Connects.
To learn more about the Museum’s research, collections, exhibits, and programs, visit BishopMuseum.org, follow @BishopMuseum on Facebook and Instagram, visit Bishop Museum’s YouTube channel, or call (808) 847-3511. Bishop Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Bishop Museum is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer, and welcomes applicants from the military, veterans, and those with disabilities. Learn about careers at Bishop Museum at BishopMuseum.org/Careers and on its LinkedIn page.
Bishop Museum Press is Hawaiʻi’s oldest book publisher and one of the first scholarly publishers in the Western Hemisphere, and has published over 1,200 titles and distributed over 1 million books in 72 countries worldwide. Bishop Museum hosts a restaurant and gift shop on campus, Tūtū’s Place by Highway Inn and Shop Pacifica by Nā Mea Hawaiʻi.