The BYU–Hawaii faculty improv ensemble Crosscurrent will present their concert entitled, "Hawaiian Standard Time," an evening of American jazz and Latin classics. The concert will be from 7:30 to 9:30 PM on Friday, May 16, in the McKay Auditorium. Admission is free.
“The idea is to feature a standard [a classic piece of music] that would showcase each of the member’s talents,” says Dr. David Kammerer, department chair of Music and Theatre Arts and founding member of Crosscurrent. “There will be tunes familiar to the audience members, like “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid and “Como Va” from Carlos Santana.” Dr. Kammerer and Dr. Darren Duerden, professor of music, founded Crosscurrent in 2009 as way to provide collaborative performance opportunities for students and members of the Pacific Islands community. The idea for Crosscurrent was inspired by BYU–Provo’s faculty jazz quintet Q’d Up.
Crosscurrent will play alongside special guest and BYU–Hawaii alumnus Kamuela Kimokeo. Kimokeo will perform some Hawaiian standards familiar to Hawaiian music listeners. Kimokeo graduated in 2008 with a bachelors in Music and a minor in Hawaiian Studies. He is a founding member of Hi’ikua, a Na Hoku award-winning Hawaiian music group. As a recording artist, he was a soloist on the Grammy-nominated and Na Hoku award-winning album Slack Key Kings Vol. II, where he played his original composition "Holomoana." Kimokeo also performed at the Inaugural Ball for President Barrack Obama and for the President of Tahiti. He is currently a PhD student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His previous research has included the function of Hawaiian music beyond entertainment and its influence on Hawaiian culture.
More information about Kamuela Kimokeo and Hi’ikua can be found at http://www.hiikua.com/. To hear music from Crosscurrent, visit their blog at http://crosscurrent-byuh.blogspot.com/.