Support young musicians
The Niu Valley Middle School Percussion Ensemble will travel to Dayton, Ohio, April 17-22 to compete in this year’s Winter Guard International Percussion World Championships.
To help prepare for the contest, the ensemble will hold a fundraising concert at 4 p.m. Sunday in the Kaimuki High School auditorium. Proceeds will go toward purchasing and renting instruments for the competition.
The group will compete in the Scholastic Concert Open division along with more than 11,000 students from around the world. Its competition piece will be the challenging "Rochambeaux," by Brian S. Mason.
"We have the distinction of being the first and only middle school to enter from Hawaii, and possibly the only middle school at the entire competition," says the ensemble’s website, niuvalleypercussion.com.
Sunday’s concert, "Feel the Beat," will feature guests Noel Okimoto, Gabe Baltazar, Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra percussionist Steve Dinion, and Kenny Endo and the Taiko Center of the Pacific.
Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at the door. A $25 ticket includes a post-concert dinner.
Shop hosts sweet pau hana
Take your chocolate obsession to another level at a new pau hana event at Madre Chocolate in Kailua.
The free gathering from 5 to 6 p.m. today will offer tastings of new single-origin chocolates from around the globe as well as the shop’s experimental varieties, which include jaboticaba (a Brazilian fruit tree) and calamansi.
Participants also are welcome to bring wine, beer, whiskey, cheese or other food or drinks to find a suitable chocolate pairing. Shop owners promise fruit for dipping into freshly made Hamakua chocolate.
For a more formal education, sign up for Madre’s "Bean-to-Bar Chocolate-Making Class" with Slow Food Oahu from 1 to 4 p.m. March 17.
The class will cover the varieties of cocoa beans and chocolate, Aztec and Mayan uses of chocolate, and how to make chocolate bars from the bean. Participants will whip up a bar from scratch and take home recipes.
The cost is $50; $45 for Slow Food members. The class is limited to 20 people. To register, email sfo.reservation@gmail.com by Wednesday. Madre Chocolate is at 20-A Kainehe St.
Mall offers flu vaccinations
Windward Mall will partner with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide flu immunizations from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Walgreens will provide licensed staff to administer the immunizations at the Kaneohe mall. While many insurance companies cover the immunizations, free flu shot coupons will be provided to those without coverage.
The CDC encourages people to get vaccinated throughout the flu season, which lasts as late as May. For more information, visit windwardmall.com; for flu guidelines, visit www.cdc.gov/flu.
