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Chamber
Music Hawaii
Founded, 1982
Mission
Statement To
promote appreciation, understanding, and learning of chamber
music in Hawaii and to create opportunities for chamber music
performances by Chamber Music Hawaii’s three ensembles.
This is accomplished through several concert series at different
performance spaces in Hawaii, and through seminars, group and
private instruction and other public concerts.
History
of Chamber Music Hawaii
The seeds
of Chamber Music Hawaii were planted in 1974 when five Honolulu
Symphony musicians began playing wind quintet concerts separate
from their symphony work. They called themselves the Spring Wind
Quintet. At first the group played only one or two concerts per year,
plus a few school concerts, and their budget was about $3,000
per year.
Then in 1979,
three major changes occurred that not only brought the Spring
Wind Quintet (SQW) into prominence, but also revolutionized
the presentation of chamber music in Hawaii. First, the Spring
Wind Quintet was awarded a $6,500 C. Michael Paul residency grant
through Chamber Music America, which had the effect of increasing
the Spring Wind budget from $3,000 to $18,000 in a single year.
Public concerts grew in number and attendance along with the
school residency activities at Kamehameha Schools, Hawaii Loa
College, Chaminade University, (Leeward Community College was
later added), and the Hawaii Association of Music Societies (HAMS).
Also in that year the SWQ incorporated as a non-profit corporation
and received a tax-exempt determination from the IRS soon thereafter.
In the meantime,
other musicians from the Honolulu Symphony, encouraged by the
success of the SWQ, had begun formation of the Honolulu Brass
Quintet (HBQ), and the Galliard String Quartet (GSQ). With the
SWQ paving the way, these new ensembles became more and more
active and sought to work together and collaborate with the SWQ.
In 1980, the three ensembles joined forces to produce the Monday
Night Candlelight Concerts. That first season consisted of twelve
concerts, three by each ensemble, and three by the “tresemble” a
new word coined to describe our combined ensemble of mixed instrumentation
drawing from all three of the standard ensembles. Due to good
music, good marketing, a good location, and the allure of “music
by candlelight,” the Candlelight Concerts were an instant
success. As more concerts,
including a new pops series, were added and the school residency
activities continued, it became clear that the musicians could
not run this growing business by themselves. They needed a manager
and volunteer support to set up the performances, do the bookkeeping,
ticket selling, fundraising, and help at the concerts as box
office personnel, stage crew, and ushers. The Board of Advisors
that the SWQ had established to help with its Chamber Music America
Residency formed the nucleus of this volunteer support group
and gradually evolved into Chamber Music Hawaii’s first
Board of Directors. In 1982 Chamber Music Hawaii incorporated
into as a non-profit presenter and support organization for Hawaii’s
resident chamber ensembles, and absorbed most of the projects
previously carried out through the SWQ.
Soon
thereafter, CMH was awarded Hawaii’s second Chamber
Music America Residency grant, this time hosted by the
Honolulu Academy of Arts, and as part of the residency,
inaugurated its second major concert series, “Sound
in Light” at the Academy. “Sound in Light”
was a multimedia performance format: visual images such
as artworks or landscapes were projected behind the musicians
on stage to complement the music, and the visuals, the
music, and the history that connected them were brought
together by a knowledgeable host-commentator. The combination
of visual, musical, and sometimes also dramatic or literary
art was an instant hit with audience and artists alike.
Over CMH’s
25-year history, a myriad of other concert series, educational,
and outreach programs, tours, and special events were developed.
CMH became one of the largest presenters of chamber music in Hawaii,
developing at its peak a schedule of over 100 concerts and other
events per year in thirteen separate projects, tours throughout
Hawaii and into Asia and the Pacific, an annual budget of over
$100,000 and an endowment fund of almost $200,000. CMH has enriched
thousands of people in Hawaii and beyond, presenting performances
in concert and recital halls, libraries, hotels, schools, churches,
auditoriums, parks, private homes, prisons, the Hawaii State
Capitol, hospitals, consulates, museums, theaters, retirement
homes, on a three-masted sailing ship, and on tape, CD, radio,
and television.
CMH has collaborated
with virtually every arts organization in Hawaii and many artists
from outside Hawaii, including the Annapolis Brass, the Kronos
and Sequoia String Quartets, pianist Anton Kuerti, and Dutch
Mozart scholar Dr. Bastiaan Blomhert. CMH has been the recipient
of grants from major foundations in Hawaii such as the State
Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the Hawaii Community Foundation,
the Cooke, Atherton, and McInerny Foundations, and also from
the National Endowment for the Arts, the C. Michael Paul Foundation
and the Atlantic-Richfield Foundation.
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