Page 2 - MidWeek Kauai - July 20, 2022

2 KAUA‘I MIDWEEK JULY 20, 2022
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Kaua‘i Midweek is published every Wednesday
by Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd.,
Suite 7-500 Honolulu, HI 96813.
with Michael- Thomas Foumai
T he saga of returning to the artist’s roots is a widespread tale and is as old as time. Many of my teachers and colleagues have taken that road home. It is
Back in Honolulu, I joined the faculty at the University of Hawaiʻi and began com- posing a choral-symphony to celebrate Hōkūleʻa’s Māla- ma Honua homecoming. I thought (out of shame for my ignorance) that the necessary research of looking into my Polynesian roots would be uncomfortable. The reality was astonishing and empow- ering. The sheer perseverance in reclaiming Polynesian wayfinding was breathtaking. The more I learned, the more assertively compelling was the music being called forth.
also my story.
I was very far from home
seven years ago, having trad- ed Oʻahu’s sunny beaches for Michigan’s snow-cov- ered dunes. The five years of studying with Bright Sheng were coming to an end. A protégé of Leonard Bern- stein and a MacArthur Fel- low (among many honors), this conductor-composer-per- former’s music channeled his heritage and experience of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
The Raise Hawaiki show premiered in 2019. PHOTO COURTESY KAIPO KIAHA
In our final session, Bright did not talk about technical things but asked about my future plans. I floundered, mumbling awkwardly. In re- sponse, he encouraged me to look inward, toward home: “Your music needs to say something unique to you.”
The Final Session
Let your thoughts carry you back to the birthplace of your truth.
— Dodinsky
I learned that there was a role for me in the Polynesian stories to be told. Setting to music the words of Nainoa Thompson and Eddie Aikau produced Raise Hawaiki. Its March 2019 premiere brought together 10 institu- tions statewide with the Ha- waiʻi Symphony Orchestra. The performance marked my true homecoming and an awakening. Triumphant horns opened the symphony, their ancient skyward-bound force reaching back and for- ward into time. Now em- bracing, and embraced by,
my ‘ohana, I at last felt the mana of my teacher’s parting words. I had found my place, identity and purpose; I had found my way home.
Michael-Thomas Foumai lectures at the Academy for Creative Media at University of Hawai‘i – West O’ ahu. His music spans the commercial to the avant-garde and has been performed by the Phil- adelphia Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Ameri- can Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra.
Chasing The Light is pro- duced by Lynne Johnson and Robin Stephens Rohr.
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in Kauai Midweek on July 27th and
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