Pe‘a and the Maui Pops perform on Sunday
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Grammy winner Kalani Pe'a loves performing live for audiences.
"I want to provide the best experience for anyone," he explained calling from a tour stop in Las Vegas. "I always believe your live performance needs to be better than your recording. The recording is what we hear, but live is what we see and hear and feel. When you go to live concerts, you're not just listening to an album, you're feeling spiritually, you're reconnecting. It's soul invigorating. Music is healing, and we need that, especially during these times with the wildfires."
This acclaimed artist will sprinkle some Christmas magic on Sunday when he performs with the Maui Pops Orchestra, under the baton of James Durham, at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center.
The "Holiday Pops" concert will feature holiday favorites including selections from his wonderful, Na Hoku Hanohano Award winning album, "Purple Hawaiian Christmas."
"I'm singing the majority of those with the orchestra and my original song 'Wrapped in a Bow,'" he said. "Also 'Oh Holy Night' and 'White Christmas.'"
Joined by singer Nalei Pokipala and Halau o ka Hanu Lehua at the show, "the award-winning Maui halau, under the direction of Kumu Kamaka Kukona, will be dancing to four out of my nine songs with the orchestra."
On his mini Mainland tour he has been enjoying "especially doing this Christmas tour, reconnecting with family and friends. The tour is about reconnecting our culture and bridging that gap and diaspora between the Hawaiians that live here and the Hawaiians that live back in Hawaii. We reconnect. We rebuild that bridge."
The only Hawaii musician to win a Grammy (three in a row) since the separate category of Best Hawaiian music album was eliminated in 2011, Pe'a recently released an original new single, "Kuini" (Queen).
The title track of a forthcoming album, it celebrates the gift he received of a special Niihau lei. "It's a song for my childhood friend Leialoha Ka'ula and Kaleialoha Beniamina of Niihau. I wrote this song to honor them and their love of making Niihau lei. It's a song to honor all matrilineal powers, to honor matriarchs in various families."
Set to begin recording in February with Makawao-based producer Michael Casil, Pe'a explained, "this album is about women. I'm writing music about matriarchs and matrilineal power. I'm honoring Kihawahine, the mo'o goddess, the protector of Moku'ula Mokuhinia of Lahaina. So that is honoring Lahaina and the people of Lahaina. I want to honor Keopuolani and Ka'ahumanu, the chiefesses or wives of Kamehameha, who come from Maui. I want to honor Queen Emma, and I want to honor composers that have written music about their mothers. My mom and my grandmother are role models in my life. I just lost my grandmother right after the wildfires. She passed away in her sleep from Alzheimer's. So I want to honor the beautiful women who have shaped my identity. And then the next album is going to be about kane, men."
In January he will head to New York City's Carnegie Hall to take part in a unique series of "Musical Explorers Family Concerts," collaborating with Iraqi violinist/ singer Layth Sidiq, and Dominican musician Yasser Tejeda.
"We are all collaborating and providing culturally and developmentally appropriate practices and curriculum, pedagogy and epistemology that is rigorous in our own culture. I get to perform there and see my work being done at Carnegie Hall, and it's 10 shows. I'm going to live out in New York City with my band and my team for 10 days. It's a dream come true."
Previously collaborating with the Maui Pops for their 2023 Spring concert he is excited to celebrate Christmas at the MACC. "I cannot wait to be with the orchestra. To sing with strings, it's so heavenly for me. My hula dancers feel like they're dancing in the skies. It's very airy, very heavenly. As a trained classical vocalist, this is what I love."
The Maui Pops Orchestra's "Holiday Pops" concert is presented on Sunday at 3 p.m. at the MACC's Castle Theater. Tickets are $22, $35, $55, and $65 (plus applicable fees). Tickets for students 18 and under are half-price (except for $22 tickets). Available online at mauiarts.org.