Led by Maui’s Kisa Uradomo, the Koa String Quartet will perform Friday at the ProArts Playhouse in Kihei. The quartet includes violinists Leah Pernick, Devin Cowan and Uradomo and cellist Heewon Lee. Courtesy photo

With a program that features works by Joseph Haydn, Paul Wiancko, Joe Hisaishi, Paul Schoenfield and Queen Lili’uokalani, the Koa String Quartet in collaboration with a piano trio will present a Hana Hou Music Program finale concert at the ProArts Playhouse on Friday.

“People can expect a variety of music from classical to Hawaiian,” said Kula resident Kisa Uradomo, who founded the Hana Hou Music Program in 2022. “We’re going to try to fit in as much as we can, and hopefully, they can also get to know us a little bit.”

The Koa String Quartet is composed of violinists Uradomo and Leah Pernick from Detroit, violist Devin Cowan from Long Island, New York, and cellist Heewon Lee from Oahu.

The piano trio features Oahu oboist Ryan Hirokawa, cellist Terence Lo from Virginia and New York pianist Diane Park.

“We’re playing a piece by Paul Wiancko, a modern composer,” Uradomo said. “He’s an absolutely incredible classical musician. The way that he writes, he’s clearly inspired by a lot of jazz, and a lot of various genres of music. We’re going to play Queen Lili’uokalani songs, a little bit of Haydn as well, and Piazzolla. So it’s a wide variety of music.”

A King Kekaulike High School graduate who obtained a master’s degree in violin performance at the University of Michigan, Uradomo founded the nonprofit Hana Hou Music Program with a mission to provide music education to the community of Maui “regardless of background, artistic ability, or economic circumstance.”

“Basically, this has been a dream of mine to make since I was a very young girl,” she explained. “I saw that there was not as much opportunity to see classical music in Maui. Growing up as a young violinist, I had to find opportunities wherever they were. My mom got me to go to the symphony on Oahu. So many kids don’t get that opportunity. Instead of having them try to come to the mainland or a different island, we’re coming to them and sharing our music with them.”

The musicians have been visiting schools across Maui, providing free classroom visits and presentations. On Friday, they will visit Pomaika’i Elementary and Kahului Elementary.

The response so far?

“Some of the high schoolers were a little bit shy, but we heard from the teachers that they really enjoyed our visit,” she said. “The younger ones are always enthusiastic and the preschoolers were very fun. That’s one of my favorite groups of kids. It’s a lot of fun and a lot of work, but it’s very rewarding in the end.”

The musicians have been entertaining students with a variety of music. “We find it very important that even though we play classical instruments, we can still play many different styles,” she said. “It opens up the opportunity for kids to at least learn how to play the instrument, and then they can play whatever genres of music they like. So we’ve done some pop music. We’ve done a little bit of Hawaiian music and classical. We’ve done some Queen and Beatles, Taylor Swift, all kinds of stuff. We have a quartet arrangement of Queen Lili’uokalani’s music, so we’ve been playing those all over the island because she’s such a wonderful musician.”

Born and raised in Kula, Uradomo began playing violin at age 5. “I really loved being with people making music with them, and that sort of translated into a love for the violin,” she recalled. “Quite quickly I grew to love the violin. By the time I was in middle school at Kalama, I already knew that that’s what I wanted.”

The recipient of two Maui Pops scholarships when she was in high school and in college, she was one of only two musicians from Hawaii ever selected to play in the National Youth Orchestra of the United States.

With Koa, she is part of the graduate string quartet-in-residence at the University of Colorado Boulder, where they were the first prize winners of the 2024 Ekstrand Competition.

“It’s a post-master’s degree, basically training us to become a professional string quartet,” she explained. “Playing with other people makes classical music so special to me. We work so hard rehearsing and practicing, and we get to know each other over this process. Making music together is something that is very important to me. So I’m hoping that I get to play in this quartet for a very long time.”

She also hopes to keep the Hana Hou Music Program ongoing on Maui. “We’re going to make sure that it keeps going for as long as we possibly can. We’re already making plans for coming back next year, possibly in January.”

The Hana Hou Music Program finale concert will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the ProArts Playhouse. Tickets are $15. Children, seniors and teachers are free.

The Koa String Quartet will perform with a piano trio during a Hana Hou Music Program finale concert. Courtesy photo