SUNDAY
Mokuleia festivities open polo season
The ponies will be running again as the polo season gets started Sunday.
The Hawaii Polo Club will get the chukkers chukking along with a parade of horses, colorful pa‘u riders and other festivities. The season includes matches every Sunday at its spectacularMokuleia facility through Sept. 4, with teams visiting from England (April 24 and May 1), New Zealand (May 22 and 29) and India (Aug. 21 and 28), and U.S. Polo Association cup matchesheld in July.
Ceremonies on Sunday feature the Legends and Legacies program, honoring Ronnie Tongg and Elizabeth Dailey. Tongg was a member of two national open championship teams in the1960s and was ranked among the top 15 players in the world in his prime. Dailey and her late husband Fred were local polo champions who established the Hawaii Polo Club in Mokuleiaand the Waikiki Polo Club, which used to play in Kapiolani Park.
Pau Unit ‘Aha Pulama Pa‘u Holo Lio and the cowboys of its halau will entertain, with music and barbecue following the matches.
Where: Hawaii Polo Club, 68-411 Farrington Highway
When: Lot opens at 11 a.m.; match begins at 2 p.m.
Cost: $10-$25
Info: hawaii-polo.org or 220-5153
FRIDAY, SUNDAY
Violinist Midori returns to the isles
Look up “Classical Music Fail” on YouTube and you’ll see violinist after violinist breaking strings.
One could only wish to “fail” as well as Midori has. At age 14 the prodigy staked her claim to worldwide fame when she broke a string while performing Leonard Bernstein’s “Serenade” at the Tanglewood Music Festival in 1986. After switching from her three-quarter-sized violin to the concertmaster’s full-size instrument, she broke yet another string. Nonplussed, she exchanged violins with the associate concertmaster, not even missing a beat as the music continued, and finished the piece. The two violinists and Bernstein, who was conducting, gave her a huge hug afterward.
Now 44, the Japanese-born violinist has piled up a slew of impressive accomplishments since, with and without a violin, winning music-related awards in the U.S. and Japan, performing throughout the world and performing Hindemith in a Grammy-winning recording in 2014. She’s also received recognition as an international goodwill ambassador for her work bringing music to underprivileged communities and her performances in schools and hospitals. She’s a full-time professor, too, teaching violin at the University of Southern California, and alsohas a master’s degree in psychology.
Midori’s been here for a residency, holding master classes with young violinists, and for two concert performances. Today she joins the Hawaii Youth Symphony in two movements of the Bruch Violin Concerto, a standard, and will join three symphony violinists in Bach’s Double Concerto, probably the most popular two-violin work in the repertoire. Henry Miyamura conducts the program, which includes Respighi and a world premiere by University of Hawaii composition professor Donald Womack.
On Sunday Midori performs the Brahms Violin Concerto at the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra’s Spring Gala. The Brahms is known for a lovely second movement (which begins with an extended oboe solo, annoying some violinists) and its dancelike, gypsy-inspired third movement. Symphony artistic director JoAnn Falletta conducts the program, which includes Faureand Dvorak.
Hawaii Youth Symphony performance: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Blaisdell Concert Hall, $8-$18, ticketmaster.com or 866-448-7849
Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra Spring Gala: 4 p.m. Sunday, Hawaii Theatre Center, $12-$105, hawaiitheatre.com or 528-0506
SATURDAY
Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame presents top-tier steel guitar performers
Slide into the sweet sound of steel guitar Saturday, courtesy of the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame’s Na Mele Mae‘ole (Never-fading Songs) series.
Historic Kawaiaha‘o Church has an intimate yet resonate chamber for this kind of music, and the hall of fame has brought in top-notch talent to fill its hall. Greg Sardinha is well known locally and abroad and is recognized for blending traditional and contemporary Hawaiian with reggae, country, folk and jazz. His 2014 CD “Stainless” was awarded the Na Hoku HanohanoAward for Instrumental Album of the Year. Bobby Ingano, pictured, was mentored by David “Feet” Rogers of Sons of Hawaii and performs in a traditional Hawaiian style. His solorecordings include “Steel ‘n Love,” “Steel Reflections” and “Stranger Here,” and his work was featured on three Grammy Award-winning Hawaiian music compilations.
The younger generation of steel guitar players will be represented by Alexis Tolentino, a 16-year-old junior at Kalani High School. She is studying steel guitar with Alan Akaka and has performed in steel guitar festivals throughout the islands.
Where: Kawaiaha‘o Church, 957 Punchbowl St.
When: 6 p.m. Saturday
Cost: $20-$30
Info: hmhof.org or 392-3649
SATURDAY
Festivities mark Thai New Year
Time to come clean. It’s Songkran, the traditional Thai New Year, where participants joyfully splash water on each other as a purification ritual.
The all-day festival opens with a Buddhist ceremony at 10:30 a.m. and an opening ceremony at the auspicious time of 11:11 a.m. The ceremony includes the tradition of making offerings to Buddhist monks, releasing caged animals and paying respects to elders. The traditional water ceremony, which in Thailand is sometimes done by elephants spraying water through their trunks, will be at 1 p.m.
Thai kickboxing demonstrations (2 p.m.) and Thai folk singing (3:15 p.m.) and dancing will be featured, with some of Honolulu’s best Thai restaurants providing spicy traditional cuisine throughout the day. Miss Songkran 2016 will be selected in a pageant at 4 p.m.
Songkran is the Thai word for “relocate” and denotes a day when the sun changes position on the zodiac. It is common day to celebrate New Year’s for many Southeast Asian cultures.
Where: Kapiolani Park
When: 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday
Cost: Free
Info: 456-4176 or 384-9730
TICKER: Party with the Boys Bunch for their annual April Foolish party and raise funds for Make-A-Wish Hawaii. 5 p.m.-2 a.m. today, M Nightclub. $40. hawaii.wish.org or 537-3118
