(Jeff Peterson playing slack key guitar) Jeff Peterson/Slack Key guitar player Aloha.

My name is Jeff Peterson and I’m here on  the island of Maui, Upcountry, on the slopes of Haleakalā.

What you are about view and listen  to is a concerto that I composed for slack key and orchestra.

It’s the very first concerto for  slack key guitar and orchestra and it was a great honor and privilege to have the opportunity  to work with a dear friend name Peter Askin.

He’s a conductor at North Carolina State  University.

He was with the Honolulu Symphony for many years, a wonderful composer, conductor  and bassist.

And I developed the theme for this piece based on three volcanoes and the  National Park system here, here in Hawaiʻi; Haleakalā, Kīlauea and Mauna Loa.

And so, each of the three movements of this concerto is inspired by these  beautiful places here in Hawaiʻi, it’s what we call mele pana, or songs of place.

The piece is titled Concerto for Slack Key Guitar and Orchestra Mālama ʻĀina, with the hopes that  we continue to protect these beautiful places, and very honored to be able to share this with  visuals images that you’ll see of each of the volcanoes as the music is being performed.

The very first movement is inspired by this mountain where I grew up, the mountain  of Haleakalā.

And I tried to capture the feel of the music I grew up listening  to on the ranch, the slack key sound, with the beautiful vistas of the mountain  from sweeping views of Haleakalā Crater, going all the way around to Kaupō on the back  side of the island, ʻUlupalakua Ranch, that area then all the way to the rain forests of Hānā.

The music conjures up of images and my sort of expession of my experiences being in these places.

The second movement of the concerto is inspired by the amazing mana of Kīlauea.

And to get  inspiration for this and the final movement, I actually traveled, with my guitar, to  the National Park in Hawaiʻi.

I went to Kīlauea and to the beautiful drive up to  Mauna Loa.

I sat there in nature with my guitar and felt the inspiration of the place.

So, Kīlauea is inspired by themes of the oli, ancient Hawaiian sound, long before the guitar  arrived in Hawaiʻi and as tribute to Pele and her, her spirit, I used themes from the  ancient sound of kahiko hula and oli, woven in with sort of a tapestry of  colors with the guitar and the orchestra.

For the final movement of the piece, it’s  composed in what’s known as a rondo form, and I really drew on my experience.

Every summer  I’d go over on these fishing trips to the slopes of Mauna Loa down in the area called Kahuku Ranch  and we’d often journey up the mountain as well, really high up mauka and then all the way down  to the ocean 4-wheel drive bouncing through these lava fields to a place called Hosaka Camp  where there is a great place for fishing and also these amazing ancient fishing villages where you  could see the way that in ancient times the people lived in that, that ahupuaʻa, that land area.

And it is inspired by sort of the fun of being young and exploring the area but it follows a  classical form called a Rondo.

The Rondo has a theme, and then that theme is repeated  many times throughout the piece but there are other sections that come along as well  so in the tradition of slack key we have what’s called theme and variation.

You play  and idea and then take a pā’ani or solo off of it.

So this last movement has some fun with  that.

And, the whole orchestra gets its chance to pāʻani instead of just the guitar.

So, I really hope you enjoy the music of this three-movement concerto, the Concerto  for Slack Key Guitar and Orchestra Mālama ʻĀina.

(music--1st movement Haleakalā) (Applause) (music--2nd movement Kīlauea) (Applause) (music--final movement, Mauna Loa) (Applause) CREDITS END