On July 9th, 2006, the Pianomania Concerts I and II were held at the Neal Blaisdell Concert Hall, featuring piano students from O’ahu, the Big Island, and Kauai performing in ensemble on twelve grand pianos. These concerts first began at the University of Hawaii’s Orvis Auditorium in 1988, and were created in an effort to give student pianists the chance to participate in an orchestral experience on their instrument, rather than the more typical solo performance. Thalia Woodward, Pianomania chairperson for the first four concerts, had the astute vision that the ensemble experience also provides a non-competitive atmosphere, which some students enjoy more than yearly competitions. Subsequent concerts (1989, 1990, and 1991) were held at various local high school auditoriums (first McKinley, then Farrington) and a church (Mililani Church of the Latter Day Saints), and then there were no Pianomania ensemble concerts for nine years. July 2000 brought the return of the Pianomania Concerts, this time chaired by Kay Goshi. She decided to have the concerts at the newly-renovated Hawaii Theater. This was a beautiful concert site, but expensive, and the participation of students had grown to the point that the stage area there was too small to easily accommodate students and the pianos. Therefore, the Pianomania committee decided that this event would subsequently be held at the Blaisdell Concert Hall, and would become an every-other-year concert series, to give ample time for necessary fundraising and planning. Pianomania 2002, 2004, and 2006 Concerts have therefore all been held at the Blaisdell Concert Hall, which gives students the special opportunity to perform in a professional facility on quality instruments, with great acoustics as well as a stage large enough to accommodate the increase in student participation.
Pianomania 2006 Concert I also had the first university and college ensemble in the history of these concerts, with six piano majors from the University of Hawaii at Manoa combined with six piano major/minor potentials from Kapi’olani Community College, conducted by Associate Professor Anne Craig Lum. These students performed a Gershwin medley of “Embraceable You” with “Fascinating Rhythm”, and Dr. Thomas Rosenkranz and Anne Craig Lum created improvisational solos so that each of the twelve students could be be highlighted within the group experience.
