Sketchbook drawings by Norman Foster of Parry Karp (top) and brother Daniel were done in 1975 when the three lived in the same dormitory at the University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois. (© Norman F. Foster)

Nicholas Zou, owner of CK Violins, talks shop with Dan Foster and Parry Karp as daughter Natasha Karp looks on. The violin and cello master classes were sponsored by CK Violins in 1999. Since the very first Festival, community supporters such as CK Violins have played integral roles in the success of the events.

Growing up in the same twin cities, the Fosters and the Karps seemed destined to play music together.

Friends since high school, Dan and Parry became roommates in college and formed a string quartet together. Across the hall in another dorm room, art major Norm Foster studied art history and filled sketchbooks, but continued to study the clarinet. After performing the Brahms Clarinet Trio with Parry in 1976, Norm began to more seriously consider becoming a music major. Before long, the three were playing in the university orchestra together and continuing to play chamber music. On several occasions, Dan and Norm were invited to sight-reading parties and other occasions at the Karp's home, with Howard and Frances taking turns at the piano, Parry's brother Christopher playing violin, and other friends and colleagues participating as well. On one of these occasions, Norm, Parry, and Howard read through the Zemlinsky Trio and decided they had to perform it someday.

After college, the musicians ended up in different states but the idea of performing together again never died. Some 20 years later when Dan mentioned to Parry that he was going to Hawaii to visit Norm, Parry said that if he and his family went too, we would have all the personnel needed to perform Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. A phone call to Norm was all it took to set the plans in motion. A few months later, with the Zemlinsky Trio featured on the very first program and the Messiaen Quartet on the second program of Festival '98, the Red-Hot Lava Chamber Music Festival was born.

Community Outreach

Since that year, the Festival has provided the community with chamber music concerts and a variety of educational opportunities, including master classes, coaching clinics, open rehearsals, and chamber music reading get-togethers.

The Festival has reached as far as Honokaa on the Big Island with a concert at the People's Theatre during Festival '99.

Festival Features Commissioned Work
of Hawaii Composer

During Festival 2001, the Red-Hot Lava Chamber Players performed the world premiere of Na Iwi O Pele* by University of Hawaii Associate Professor of Composition/Theory Donald Womack, a work commissioned by the Festival and written especially for the entire group. Womack, whose works have also been commissioned and performed by the Honolulu Symphony, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Galliard String Quartet, the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble, and others, drew inspiration from aspects of ancient Hawaiian culture as well as from the volcanic geology of these unique islands.

In September 2002, the Red-Hot Lava Chamber Players presented a concert at the University of Wisconsin/Madison on the Karp's 27th Annual Labor Day Concert, which featured Na Iwi O Pele performed for an enthusiastic crowd of about 600.

As part of Festival 2003, a studio recording was made of Na Iwi O Pele, at the Atherton Performing Arts Studio, with the composer present.

* Na Iwi O Pele means the bones of Pele. The piece was inspired by a sacred site on Maui, Ka Iwi O Pele, where the huge masses of broken lava suggest bones left after the battle between her sister, Na-maka-o-ka-hai.