Helemano Keiki


Ka Waihona o ka Na'auao 


Daniel Shaver, Orchestra director

The Symphony of the Hawaiian Birds was a great experience for my students. Professors and Music Education students from UH came and visited our school and worked with our students. During this visit, our students learned about the different instrument families in a symphony orchestra, about different Native Hawaiian birds, and how to do a hula that was written about one of these birds. The students loved working with the visitors from UH and really enjoyed the wealth of knowledge both the music professors and the music education students brought with them. The students are really looking forward to working with them again in the future.

 

During the concert, the students were able to watch the Hawaiʻi Symphony perform original music written for the performance as well as participate in a group performance of the hula. The video animations also helped tell the story about each of these birds along with the music. The Symphony of the Hawaiian Birds performance was a great experience for the students to watch a professional orchestra perform contemporary music written by local composers.This performance inspired many of the students to go and see future performances of the Hawaiʻi Symphony.  

 

Many of my students have parents who are in the military, so most of them did not grow up in Hawaiʻi. Both the school visit and the performance were great opportunities for them to learn about a side of Hawaiʻi that they wouldn't have otherwise. Many of them did not have any prior knowledge of Hawaiian culture and were unaware of the dire situations that many of the Native Hawaiian Birds face. The visit and the performance allowed them to learn about and gain a new perspective of both.

 

We enjoyed our experience with the Symphony of the Hawaiian Birds and look forward to brining even more students to the next performance.