Closing of the Honolulu Symphony Exacerbates Islands’ Brain Drain

Note: This is a Letter To The Editor that I will be sending to the Honolulu Advertiser and Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

February 12, 2010

Dear Editor:

When will the movers and shakers of our community realize that the closing of the Honolulu Symphony means further, and endless, ‘brain drain’? Our state already loses out when its most educated, aspiring, and experienced minds in technology, medicine, and other fields neglect to move home after college.

With the end of the Symphony, locally-grown musicians also lose their chances to return home to share their music. It is not just fans of classical music on which this takes its toll. Many of Hawaii’s youth, once trained by Symphony musicians, have gone on to study at world-class conservatories. It’s at these schools that our local talent shines: Not just as star instrumentalists or vocalists, but as well-rounded musicians, whose musical repertoire include Hawaiian, hapa-haole, exotica, uke, slack-key, and jazz genres, and who serve as unofficial artistic ambassadors of Hawaii’s unique musical culture. Many of us, myself included, share our love for Hawaii through our music, and naturally, would prefer to do so in-State rather than out. A state without a professional orchestra, however, is a state that is hard to come home to.

Sincerely,

Randy Wong (formerly of Honolulu, HI)
Freelance musician
Ed. M, Harvard University
B.M. New England Conservatory