Michael-Thomas Foumai
Michael-Thomas Foumai is the Director of Artistic Engagement and the first Composer in Residence for the Hawai'i Symphony Orchestra. His music, described as "vibrant and cinematic" (New York Times) and "full of color, drama, and emotion" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), encompasses an extensive catalog of symphonic music, spanning commercial arranging to the avant-garde, and focuses on the culture of his Hawaiʻi home. In 2019, he was selected into the 17th class of the Pacific Century Fellows, comprised of 35 outstanding and talented young leaders to represent the individual and professional diversity of Hawaiʻi, including government, small-and-large businesses, the arts, and non-profit and corporate enterprises.
Upcoming performances of his work include arrangements of Florence Price's music, including A Song for Solo Piano and Orchestra, after Florence Price's Fantasie Negre No.1 for pianist Michelle Cann, and orchestrations of Night, and Song to the Dark Virgin, commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 'Rock My Soul' series curated by soprano Julia Bullock. The 2022-23 season brings the world premiere of E Kani Mau (To Resound Forever) with the Royal Hawaiian Band, Defending Kalo with Lucia Lin (violin) and Charles Overton (harp), and Breath Water Spirit for An-Lin Bardin (cello) and Naomi Niskala (piano). Other highlights include performances with John Devlin and the Louisville Orchestra.
Performance highlights include Concerto Grosso with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Overture on Themes from the Songbook of Queen Liliʻuokalani with Lina Gonzales-Granados and the National Symphony Orchestra, The Spider Thread with George Manahan and the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Music from the Castle of Heaven with Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra at Orchestra Hall, Lady Dark with Francesco Lecce Chong and the Milwaukee Symphony, The Light-Bringer with Matthew Kraemer and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and with James Feddeck and the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, and Nataraja with David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony.
Honors for his music have included a Fromm Foundation Grant from Harvard University for Manookian Murals commissioned by the Dolce Suono Trio, the Music Teachers National Association Distinguished Composer of the Year Award, Sioux City Symphony Composer of the Year, the Jacob Druckman Prize from the Aspen Music Festival, three BMI composer awards, ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, The American Prize, the Arthur and Mary Platsis Prize for graduate work relating to Greek legacy, commissions from the Composers Conference at Wellesley College and the Michigans Teachers Association, grants from Meet The Composer, the American Music Center, New Music USA, Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan and the Intimacy of Creativity Fellowship from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. In 2015, composer Derek Bermel selected him as the inaugural Kaplan Fellow in Composition at the Bowdoin International Music Festival. In addition, he was chosen by the late Maestro Lorin Maazel as the winner of the Castleton Festival's Composers Competition in 2014.
Recent projects have focused on issues and stories facing the people of Hawaiʻi. Raise Hawaiki, a large scale choral-symphony based on the Polynesian voyaging canoe Hōkūleʻa was commissioned by the Wallace, Elizabeth, and Isabella Wong Family Foundation to celebrate the return of Hōkūleʻa from her three-year worldwide voyage Mālama Honua. Setting the words of Nainoa Thompson, Eddie Aikau, and Mau Piailug, the historic world premiere brought together an unprecedented collaboration between ten institutions encompassing performance, voyaging, and higher learning: The Polynesian Voyaging Society, The Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra, Oʻahu Choral Society, the choirs from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Hawaiʻi Youth Opera Chorus, Kapiʻolani Community College, University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu, community choirs, ʻŌiwi TV, IONA Contemporary Dance Theatre, the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation, hula choreographed by Lauren Kanoelani Chang Williams and visual projections and artwork by Herbert Kāne and voyager Hana Yoshihata.
His work on the collaborative educational multi-media production Symphony of the Hawaiian Birds was developed in partnership with the University of Hawaiʻi, Bishop Museum, and the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra. The project brought six local composers together with animators and environmentalists to bring the musical and environmental curriculum to schoolchildren across the state, cultivating awareness of extinct and endangered Hawaiian species of birds—Foumai composed music for the final movement.
Continuing his work and relationship with the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra, Foumai designs and hosts the Beyond the Music series, arranges music for the HapaSymphony series, and writes the Masterwork's season program notes. As an arranger, he has composed for guest artists, including Grammy Award nominees Robert Cazimero, Amy Hānaialiʻi, Raiatea Helm, The Mākaha Sons, Pōmaikaʻi Lyman, baritone Leon Williams, Makana Cameron, Jeff Peterson, Anuhea Jenkins, Kimié Miner, Kalaʻe Camarillo, Izik, Keilana Mokulehua, and Liam Moleta with the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra, Jake Shimabukuro with the Hawaii Youth Symphony, the late Iwalani Kahalewai with the Royal Hawaiian Band and bass soloist Soloman Howard with the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he arranged music for Ted Yoder's dulcimer album Shadowlight, Mana Music Hawaiʻi with Tomasina and Tavana, and Irmgard Aluli's For a Peaceful World for the Hawaiʻi Youth Opera Chorus.
From May to August 2021, the HSO performed a festival of Foumai's works conducted by Rei Hotoda, Lidiya Yankovskaya, Sarah Hicks, and JoAnn Falletta as part of the inaugural Sheraton Starlight series. Each performance was framed by Foumai's program notes, giving audiences a unique composer's perspective. Continuing with the 2021-22 Halekulani Masterwork Series, his program notes accompanied the " New Perspectives season." As part of the series, his reimagining of the National (Star-Spangled Banner) and State (Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī) anthems premiered under Scott Yoo.
With deep ties to the Hawaiʻi Youth Symphony, Foumai's work for the state's premier youth orchestra organization began when he served as the associate concertmaster. His close relationship with music director Joseph Stepec and former directors Henry Miyamura and John Devlin has led to the creation of over 20 new works for orchestra, band, and chamber ensembles.
Foumai first gained national recognition in 2004 with the ASCAP Morton Gould Award for his orchestral work The Bicycle Ride. Shortly after, he was selected into a cohort of international composers collaborating with composer David Rosenboom and writer Martine Bellen to compose the multi-media opera Ah! A Counterpoint of Tolerance. Inspired by perspectives on multiculturalism and religion, the work was a two-year project developed at Idyllwild Arts. It premiered at the Walt Disney Concert Hall RedCat in collaboration with the California Institute of the Arts in 2009.
As the American Young Composers Competition winner in 2014, Foumai was commissioned to compose Becoming Beethoven for Robert Moody and the Portland Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the institution's 90th season. His relationship with the orchestra continued with a commission in 2019 for The Telling Rooms, developed in partnership with the PSO and Portland-based youth writing center Telling Room. Premiered under Eckart Preu, the work set the words of three young writers from Maine.
Large-scale works have been performed by the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony, Idaho Falls Symphony, New England Philharmonic, Utah Symphony, University of Michigan Orchestras and Bands, Royal Hawaiian Band, and various university orchestras across the country. Foumai's music has been presented at festivals and venues, including Carnegie Hall, The Julliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, the Bard Conservatory, National Sawdust, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Hawaiʻi International Film Festival, and the Thailand International Composition Festival. His solo and chamber works have been performed in the US, Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, and Europe by various artists, including Alarm Will Sound, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Music in the American Wild, Juventas New Music Ensemble, the Dolce Suono Trio, Music from Copland House, the Chicago Ensemble, Ebb and Flow Ensemble, Jake Shimabukuro, violinists Johnny Gandelsman, Yuki Numata-Resnick, Patrick Yim, Ignace Jang, cellist Joshua Roman, and gayageum virtuoso Ji Young Yi.
His teachers have included Bright Sheng, Michael Daugherty, Paul Schoenfield, Erik Santos, Byron Yasui, Takeo Kudo, Thomas Osborne, Donald Reid Womack, and Peter Askim, with additional studies with Christopher Rouse, Augusta Read Thomas, Syd Hodkinson, and George Tsontakis at the Aspen Music Festival and School, Derek Bermel at Copland House Cultivate and Bowdoin International Music Festival, Steven Stucky, Melinda Wagner, David Felder, and Robert Beaser at the EarShot and ACO Underwood New Music Readings, Kevin Puts at the Minnesota Orchestra Composers Institute, Tristan Murail at the Shanghai New Music Week, Behzad Ranjibaran at the Cabrillo Composers and Conductors Workshop, Joan Tower at the Albany Symphony Composer to Center Stage, Gabriela Lena Frank at the GLF Creative Academy, and with Steve Mackey, Anna Clyne, Roger Reynolds, Chen Yi, and Zhou Long at various festivals and conferences.
Foumai also serves on the faculty at the University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu, Academy for Creative Media. In addition, he has lectured at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa in the theory and composition area. He holds multiple degrees in music composition from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (BM) and the University of Michigan (MM, DMA).
His music has been recorded by the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Ian O'Sullivan, Patrick Yim, Sonic Apricity, the Royal Hawaiian Band, and The Brass Project on various labels.
