UPCOMING Community Events…JUDY COLLINS, Jake Shimabukuro, more…

The Palace Theater is proud and excited to announce the return of Jake Shimabukuro on Jan. 12.

Doors open at 6 p.m., with the show beginning at 7 p.m. A sell-out crowd is the usual for fans of Shimabukuro, who says he loves to “play the Palace.”

“I just wanted to play the ukulele my way, which turns out to be very different from what everybody else has done,” says Shimabukuro, who started playing the instrument at the age of 4 and learned the basics from his mother, Carol. “Most people just strummed the ukulele, but I started playing melodies, and a new world opened up — I was singing through the ukulele.”

Albums such as “Gently Weeps,” “Peace Love Ukulele” and “Grand Ukulele” topped the Billboard World Music Charts, and as a live performer Shimabukuro became one of the hottest tickets around, headlining the Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center and the Sydney Opera House (he even performed for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II) while making frequent appearances on media outlets such as NBC’s “TODAY,” ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”

His newest record, “The Greatest Day,” was released in August.

In 2016, Shimabukuro recorded the all-original “Nashville Sessions” at Music City’s famed Ronnie’s Place studio with producer R.S. Field (Steve Earle, Webb Wilder) and the ace rhythm section of bassist Nolan Verner and drummer Evan Hutchings. He returned to the same city and studio — and with the same gang (augmented by guitarist Dave Preston) — to record “The Greatest Day.”

“On the last record, it was pretty much the sound of a live trio, which sounded fresh, raw and organic,” Shimabukuro says. “Now we’ve expanded to a quartet, which has added more colors and variety to the overall production. Once we recorded the live takes, we experimented with overdubs, and added horns, strings and keys and other funky sounds. There are even some vocals on a few cuts.”

Shimabukuro already performs some of the material from “The Greatest Day” live and soon will work more into his set. In mid-July, he embarks on an extensive tour of the U.S. and a fall tour of Japan.

“I’m really excited to play the new songs in my shows,” he says. “Making this record was one of the highlights I’ve had in the studio. I couldn’t be happier with the sounds and arrangements. But most of all, we had a ton of fun making it.”

Tickets for the upcoming Palace event can be purchased at the theater’s box office, located at 38 Haili St. in Hilo, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday through Friday or by calling 934-7010.

For more information, visit www.hilopalace.com.

——————————————————————Shimabukuro to kick off Hawaii Performing Arts Festival’s new year

For fifteen seasons, Hawaii Performing Arts Festival has brought world-class music to Hawaii Island. The festival, founded in 2005, established an international reputation as a premiere training and performance program for aspiring young artists worldwide. Each season, HPAF assembles an exceptional international roster of artists who offer a wide range of performances to the Big Island community.

In preparation for its 2019 Summer Festival, HPAF’s 15th anniversary season, executive director Justin John Moniz welcomes ukulele superstar Jake Shimabukuro to kick off the momentous occasion.

“We are really thrilled to be presenting Jake again this season,” Moniz says. “Jake is one of the most exceptional and innovative ukulele players of our time, and has agreed to return for our annual scholarship fundraiser. All proceeds from his performance will assist aspiring young artists from Hawaii Island, as well as those worldwide, to study and perform during HPAF’s 2019 Summer Festival.”

Last season, HPAF awarded $82,275 in scholarships to local, national and international aspiring young artists. For the first time in the festival’s history, 58 percent of students received scholarship and financial assistance to offset the cost of attending the festival. More specifically, HPAF offered assistance to 100 percent of Hawaiian talent. Nine young singers from Hawaii Island, studied, trained and performed alongside HPAF’s internationally acclaimed roster of faculty artists.

“There really is no better artist who better represents our mission than Jake,” Moniz says. “His commitment to the local community, music education and empowering our youth are the ideals on which our festival was founded some 15 years ago. For the past decade and a half, HPAF’s programming has been a testament to that, both through our extensive community outreach endeavors and educational initiatives across Hawaii Island.”

For additional information, contact jjmoniz@hawaiipaf.org

One of America’s greatest voices, Judy Collins, returns in concert Saturday to the Honokaa People’s Theatre.

Still singing, writing, recording and inspiring a new generation of music fans, Collins remains vital almost six decades into a career with a 50-album body of work. She released an album with Stephen Stills in September titled “Everybody Knows,” and her new single, “Dreamers,” released last month, has garnered rave reviews.

The award-winning singer-songwriter is renowned for her imaginative interpretations of traditional and contemporary folk standards and her own poetically poignant original compositions. Her stunning rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” from her landmark 1967 album, “Wildflowers,” has been entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Collins’ dreamy and sweetly intimate version of “Send in the Clowns,”a Stephen Sondheim composition from the Broadway musical “A Little Night Music,” won Song of the Year at the 1975 Grammy Awards. Artists including Rufus Wainwright, Shawn Colvin, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez and Leonard Cohen honored her legacy with the album “Born to the Breed: A Tribute to Judy Collins.”

Collins has also authored several books, including the powerful and inspiring “Sanity and Grace.” For her most recent title, the memoir, “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life in Music,” she reaches deeply inside and, with unflinching candor, recalls her turbulent childhood, extraordinary rise to fame, her tempestuous romance with Stephen Stills, her epic victories over depression and alcoholism, her redemption through embracing a healthy and stable lifestyle and finding true love with Louis Nelson, her partner of 30 years.

Doors open at 6 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $50 general, $75 gold circle, available at: Hilo Ukulele & Guitar and Hilo Music Exchange, Hilo; Top Stitch and Waipio Cookhouse, Honokaa; Waimea General Store in Parker Square, Waimea; Kona Music Exchange, Kailua-Kona; Kiernan Music, Kainaliu; online at bluesbearhawaii.com; and by calling 896-4845.

Ebb & Flow Arts returns at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (Jan. 5) to the East Hawaii Cultural Center in downtown Hilo for a multimedia show.

Admission is free.

Other performance artists from East Hawaii also will be featured. Rubyanna Mahina will perform her new music video creation “Energy.”

The 2018-19 season for Ebb & Flow Arts marks its 20th anniversary of activity in Hawaii.

“We are thrilled to return to EHCC and present exciting cutting-edge work,” says Pollock, who also is Ebb & Flow Arts executive director. “We are happy to help set the new year in motion in artistically vibrant Hilo.”

For more information, visit www.ebbandflowarts.org, call 876-1854 or email to ebbandflowarts2013@gmail.com. You also can find Ebb & Flow Arts on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ebbandflowarts.

The Akamai Workforce Initiative, a program that seeks to develop a skilled STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workforce to meet the needs of Hawaii’s growing high-tech industry, is now seeking applications for the Akamai Summer Internship Program.

The summer internship program offers college students from Hawaii an opportunity to gain work experience at an observatory, company or scientific/technical facility on Hawaii Island and Maui throughout an eight-week program from June 16-Aug. 16.

TMT is the primary funder, with $320,000 committed for the 2019 summer program. TMT also provides staff in Hilo and Pasadena, Calif., to mentor interns. TMT has supported the Akamai program since 2009 and contributed a total of nearly $1 million toward developing a skilled Hawaii STEM workforce.

The Hawaii Community Foundation Career Connected Learning program, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on Maui also provide financial support to the program. Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and the University of Hawaii at Hilo also provide in-kind support.

The Akamai Workforce Initiative premise is that Hawaii’s STEM workforce needs are attainable through a modest increase in retaining STEM undergraduates and broadening participation to include more Native Hawaiians, women and other underrepresented groups in STEM.

Upon acceptance into the program, interns are carefully matched with a project and a mentor who supervises them throughout the project and integrates them into the work environment. All Akamai interns complete a one-week intensive residency preparatory course in Hilo, during which they gain the skills needed to be successful in the workplace and meet other interns, Akamai staff and mentors.

Throughout the program the interns are coached on communication skills. They also do a presentation about their project at the end of the summer during a public symposium. Interns receive credit from University of Hawaii at Hilo.

Interns are paid a $3,200 stipend and provided with housing, if needed, and travel to and from their home island to an internship site. Interns complete projects with a mentor at a company or observatory on Maui, Hawaii Island or with the TMT International Observatory at its headquarters in Pasadena or with one of TMT’s instrument teams.

Interns in recent years have been placed at many Hawaii Island firms including Akabotics, Big Island Abalone, CFHT, Cellana, Hawaii Electric Light Co., Gemini North Observatory, Liquid Robotics, Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority, Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems, Smithsonian Submillimeter Array, Academia Sinica Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Subaru Telescope, University of Hawaii at Hilo, University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy and W. M. Keck Observatory.

Since launching in 2002, nearly 400 college students have participated in the Akamai program and at least 140 alumni are now working in science and technology jobs, with nearly two-thirds of them working in Hawaii and contributing to the local STEM workforce.

To learn more about the internship program, visit www.akamaihawaii.org.

The Akamai Workforce Initiative is part of the Institute for Scientist and Engineer Educators at the University of California, Santa Cruz.