Kaʻū News Briefs Jan. 6, 2025

                 Half-ton Treasured Steinway Comes to Pāhala for School & Concerts

  A nine-foot 1000 lb. Steinway & Sons piano, built more than a century ago, arrived in Pāhala last Friday.

A carefully wrapped concert size
Steinway arrives for music school
 and concerts. Photos by Julia Neal

    The mission is to produce music for the Garcia School for classical singers, pianists, violinists and for concerts, one of them this weekend.
    A highly trained crew cared for the piano during its journey along Hwy 11 through Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park to Pāhala, after an extensive refurbishment in the last year by nationally top rated master tuner and repairer Alex Czerny, of Hilo. The moving crew is led by Jim Elliot, of Ho'okena, himself a harpist. He was assisted by Honu and other musicians who have taken up the craft of piano moving. Some of them, like the Steinway concert piano, are beasts.
    The piano, owned by the Hawai'i International Music Festival non-profit hosting the music school, will be in concert with singers and musicians this Saturday, Jan. 11 at 7 p.m. at Pāhala Plantation House. See more and make reservations at himusicfestival.com.

Carlton Moe, star of Phantom of the Opera on 
Broadway, performs in Kaʻū this Saturday.
Photo by Greg Mills

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA BROADWAY STAR CARLTON MOE will perform twice in Kaʻū this week, 12:30 p.m Saturday at Ocean View Community Center and 7 p.m. Saturday at Pāhala Plantation. House. Moe played Ubaldo Piangi in Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running hit show Phantom of the Opera that ran on Broadway for 35 years of performances. Phantom of the Opera was the longest running show in Broadway history and spawned the popularity of such songs as Masquerade, Music of the Night, All I Ask of You, and Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again.
    Moe is one of the instructors at Hawai'i International Music Festival, which is conducting its Garcia School for classical singers and musicians from around the world at Pāhala Plantation House this week.
    Faculty members for the García School Hawai'i include Hawai'i International Music Festival cofounders virtuoso violinist Eric Silberger and Metropolitan Opera soprano Amy Shoremount-Obra of the Rusty Obra Kaʻū Coffee family in Pāhala.
   They are joined by renowned pianist, music director, coach and Hawai'i Island resident Maika'i Nash and Professor of Voice, Associate Vocal Department Chair of University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Maya Sypert, who is an acclaimed mezzo-soprano. Joining them are Metropolitan Opera star, soprano Audrey Luna, acclaimed Kaua'i-based pianist Monica Chung, and Hawai'i-based violist/violinist, educator and chef Duane Padilla. Participating in the workshop, master classes and concerts are 13 local and international singers from U.S. Mainland, Mexico, England and China. Also performing and collaborating is Farley Sangels, founder of South Hawai'i Symphony.

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Trojan Girls Basketball team beat big school Hilo High on Monday on Hilo's own home court.
Photo by Assistant Coach Precious Jara

KAʻŪ TROJANS GIRLS BASKETBALL TEAM STOOD UP TO ANOTHER BIG SCHOOL, BEATING HILO on Monday, 40-26. High scorer was Jasmine Navarro with 17 points. 

    Coach Troy Gacayan  said it was a very close game going into halftime, but we had a great locker room talk to never give up and played til the final buzzer. We added some extra pressure on defense and was able to pull away with the win.

   "In life, sometimes things get hard, but the girls are learning a lot of life lessons to give their 100 percent best, play as a family and team and to never give up."

    The next game is at home on Wednesday, Jan. 15 against Pāhoa, followed by Saturday, Jan. 18 when Kaʻū heads to Hawai'i Preparatory Academy for play at 3:30 p.m., followed by another game on the road on Monday, Jan. 20 against Christian Liberty Academy, and finishing the season at home on Wednesday, Jan. 22 against Parker School.    

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Kaʻū News Briefs Jan. 5, 2025

Artist Stan Rillon's depiction of the tsunami in 1868 which wiped out Hawaiian villages up and down the coast, including Punalu'u and Honu'apo. The M7.1 earthquake, with epicenter in Keaiwa, buried thatched and wood homes in Wood Valley with a landslide, killing some 31 people. The Pacific Tsunami Museum educates the public about all of the devastating tsunamis that have come to this island. Located in Hilo, it is slated to receive $200,000 from Olson Trust and more from other business leaders.

OLSON TRUST DONATES $200,000 TO PACIFIC TSUNAMI MUSEUM. The announcement came Sunday on the cover of Hawai' Tribune-Herald newspaper in a story by John Burnett. The story quotes Paul Alston, the head of the newly created Edmund C. Olson Family Foundation, and notes that the non-profit Pacific Tsunami Museum was closing its doors in Hilo until the Olson funding came through.

This Okoe Bay home was destroyed by the 2011
trsunami from Japan. Photo by Kai Kahele

   Alston, who was the late Ed Olson's attorney during most of Olson's time doing business in Hawai'i, told The Tribune Herald that Olson Trust donated $100,000, will give another $100,000, and will challenge "big companies in Hilo" to also donate funding. 

    Cindi Preller, the museum’s director, called the Olson Trust "an absolute godsend for us." Preller, Alston and his wife Tanya met with Mayor Kimo Alameda last week and reported support from 
the mayor.
    Alston told the Tribune Herald that the museum is very meaningful to his own family since his wife is a survivor of the Hilo tsunami caused by a 9.5 earthquake in Chile. The tsunami, with its eight-foot waves, some as high as 35 feet, killed 61 people and wiped out the Hilo waterfront and business districts on May 23, 1960.
    Tsunamis have killed people and destroyed seven Hawaiian villages and remote homes on the Kaʻū Coast, South Kona Coast and north at Laupāhoehoe. The Pacific Tsunami Museum is a place of learning about all of the devastating tsunamis that have come to this island during ancient Hawaiian and modern times. Learn more about the Pacific Tsunami Museum at https://tsunami.org.

A November, 1975 tsunami destroyed this home at Punalu'u.

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Kaʻū News Briefs Jan. 4, 2025

A close-up view of an active lobe of pāhoehoe lava flowing in Kaluapele, the summit caldera of Kīlauea volcano, on
 Jan. 3. The lava halted that evening. USGS photo by M. Patrick 

THE VOLCANO TURNED OFF HER LAVA FAUCET FRIDAY night, but particulates and S02 in the air remained high in Pāhala until the wind shifted and blew both to Ocean View, Kona and Waikoloa. USGS reported that the eruption at Kīlauea volcano that began on Monday, Dec. 23 paused at approximately 8:40 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 3, as the remaining lava fountain from the south vent shut down rapidly. Glow from the crater floor remained persistent as breakouts and overturning crustal plates exposed molten lava. This glow could persist for days. No unusual activity has been noted along Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone or 
Southwest Rift Zone.

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VOLCANO AWARENESS MONTH IS HERE with events in Kaʻū including a talk story opportunity with HVO staff this Wednesday, Jan. 8 at Nāʻālehu Public Library from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.; a talk summarizing eruptive activity and earthquakes over the past year at Cooper Center in Volcano village on Friday, Jan. 10; a coffee talk at Kahuku Unit of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park on Saturday, Jan. 11 at 9:30 a.m. regarding the 2019–2020 water lake at Kīlauea summit; an opportunity to learn the art and science of geologic mapping in Hawai‘i during a talk at Volcano Art Center in Volcano village on Thursday, Jan. 16; and a talk in Pāhala at Kaʻū District Gym Recreation Room on Monday, Jan. 27 at 5:30 p.m. about earthquakes happening deep beneath that region since 2019.
   A new USGS art and poetry contest for Volcano Awareness Month 2025 is open through Jan. 20. Submit a haiku poem or art in any medium, no larger than 16x24 inches in size, related to volcanic landscapes or eruptions in Hawai‘i. Winners in several categories will be announced in a Volcano Watch article at the end of January, and a selection of entries will be on display at a scientific conference on caldera-forming eruptions, such as Kīlauea's in 2018, set for Hilo in February 2025.

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HAWAI'I INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL has arrived to Kaʻū and students, vocal coaches,  pianists, violinists began classes on Sunday and preparation for concerts in Kaʻū and 
beyond this week.
    Founders Amy Shoremount Obra, a renowned opera singer from the famed Obra Kaʻū Coffee family, and internationally renowned virtuoso violinist Eric Silberger will present a concert at Ocean View Community Center this Saturday from 12:30 to 2:15 p.m.
    Called Stars of Broadway, Opera and Ballet, it will include performances by Carlton Moe, Star of Broadway's Phantom of the Opera; Monica Chung, renowned pianist from Kaua'i; Maika'i Nash, pianist and music director from Hawai'i; and Farley Sangels, Ocean View's trumpet virtuoso. Opera stars of the future from the Garcia School will also perform, as well as Anastassiya Neznanova, a ballerina from New York.
    The Ocean View concert will be followed by a concert at Pāhala Plantation House at 7 p.m. See more and make reservations for Pāhala at
www.himusicfestival.com.

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