Year 2020 is already a busy one for Amy Hanaiali‘i. The multi-Hoku Award-winning entertainer returns to the Blaisdell Concert Hall on Friday for a major concert with the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra. On Feb. 26, she’ll be in Los Angeles for the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards — her critically acclaimed album, “Kalawai‘ianui,” which was released last June, is a finalist in the Best Regional Roots Music category.
She’s the recently elected president of the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts, and she has a mission in this regard: Hanaiali‘i said she would like to pursue a partnership with a progressive health care provider to make affordable health care available for working musicians.
She is also working on genealogical research going back several generations.
“Kalawai‘ianui” takes its name from Hanaiali‘i’s lineage, she said last Sunday, on the phone from Maui where she was singing at the Century PGA Tournament.
“Kalawai‘ianui is probably around my eighth- or ninth-great-grandfather — we’re still confirming that — and it’s a genealogy name we’ve been looking for for a long, long time. To now understand why my family went to Moloka‘i, why it’s been such a secret in our family for so long — we knew we went all the way back, but there was that certain piece missing.”
The lyrics of the album’s title song were written by Hanaiali‘i’s cousin, Micah Kamohoali‘i, and they speak obliquely of the importance of genealogy and ancestral knowledge. Hanaiali‘i will be sharing that message Friday evening in the Concert Hall.
“You know me, I love performing with the Symphony,” she said. “To hear my own compositions and Hawaiian music with (the Symphony) behind it is so magical. It’s really like working on a movie, when you trust the director, or musical theater and you trust the director for guidance. It’s the same with the pieces that the orchestra leader has arranged for me for this special concert. I’m excited to hear them on that day.”
Her performance on Friday will be another milestone for Hanaiali‘i and the music she loves. Hawaiian music has had connections with Western classical music for almost 150 years, and tomorrow night’s program adds to that legacy.
“I’ve worked the album with my cousin, kumu Micah Kamohoali‘i. He helped me with a lot of lyric writing and his halau is going to perform with me,” she said.
“The symphony has underscored a piece and they are going to actually come out and do migrational chants of tutu Pele to start the show. That’s really, really exciting because I don’t know if there’s ever been an orchestra to underwrite a halau before.”
NEXT WEEK, Hanaiali‘i will be preparing for her sixth trip as a Grammy finalist. She was in L.A. recently to see a long-time friend and supporter, actor Jamie Foxx.
“He just hosted me a listening party at his house in California, and that was really exciting to bring all the media in and really tell my story with the album,” Hanaiali‘i said. “This is my sixth time going to the Grammys, and we’ve always been in contact. He’s one of my oldest friends — we met in college when we were 17.”
In February, Hanaiali‘i will be performing at the Cotton Club in Tokyo. In May she’ll be performing on the West Coast leading up to the Hoku Awards, May 23 in the Hawai‘i Convention Center. As HARA president, she will preside over the event.
Hanaiali‘i is taking her leadership role seriously, noting that HARA has a new, revamped office, at 521 Ala Moana Blvd., and a renewed emphasis on bringing recognition to Hawaiian music and its performers.
“I’m really focusing on trying to get medical (coverage) for our entertainers,” she said, explaining that many island musicians work non-musical “day jobs” to get employer-provided health insurance.
“I also want yo work really tight with the hotel association, to make a certain amount of Hawaiian music mandatory” in hotels, she said.
AMY HANAIALI‘I
With the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra
>> Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
>> Cost: $27-$79
>> Info: 800-745-3000, 946-8742, ticketmaster.com, hawaiisymphonyorchestra.org
