Venue, time dictate isle musicians’ attire

Hawaii’s orchestra musicians wear a range of concert attire depending on the performance time and venue. For evening concerts, musicians wear traditional formal clothes.

"It’s livery, basically. It’s ‘Downton Abbey’ wear, what the housemen wear," said Jonathan Parrish, executive director of the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra.

Sunday matinee concerts call for dark suits because "you don’t wear white tie in the afternoons," he said. Aloha wear is needed for outdoor concerts. A "pit black" suit is used for ballet or opera performances when the orchestra is meant to be heard, not seen.

"The main thing about concert wear is that you want to look good, and you want to not distract the audience too much," he said.

Parrish was a horn player in the orchestra before becoming executive director and knows the discomforts of traditional concert clothing.

"Wearing all black, and a tie and jacket on stage, under the lights, it can be pretty hot," he said. "You’re exerting yourself. It may not seem that way when you’re just sitting still, but we’re exerting ourselves and under these heat lamps. There are certainly times when you wish you could be in your short sleeves.

"I wish we could wear aloha wear all the time."