East Meets West Festival with Dance & Jazz Concerts

Pre Show 4:00 p.m., Concert 6:00 p.m.

Best of the Blue Note Tribute with Mike Lewis & Friends Quartet featuring award winning Jazz/R&B vocalist Ginai and performances by renowned San Francisco choreographer SAMMAY with UH Maui Dance Club & Dance International Foundation and Zenshin Daiko. The opening pre-show concert features the June Skies Combo and Tanama Colibri. Kathy Collins will serve as emcee.

Artist Bio's

About Ginai
An award winning jazz and r&b vocalist, Ginai is a regular performers at the Blue Note Honolulu where she, along with Mike Lewis, present a series of tribute concerts recognizing some of the great women of song including Whitney Houston, Ella Fitzgerald, Roberta Flack, Natalie Cole and most recently Sade. Ginai is a three-time Hawaiian Music Awards winner and the winner of two Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards for her albums Hot Club of Hulaville, Django Would Go and Hula Joe & The Hut Jumpers. She has proven to be a compelling surge of dynamism that continues to shock your mind, body and soul with her charismatic, hypnotic voice and welcoming stage presence.

About Mike Lewis
A native New Yorker who has spent substantial time performing in Polynesia, Mike Lewis has recently moved back to Hawaii from the Pacific Northwest. He is the creator and band leader of Big Band Monday at Jazz Minds Honolulu and the Jazz Band Director at University of Hawai'i.

Fluent in jazz trumpet, lead trumpet, and recording studio work, his resume includes touring and recording with Buddy Rich, Sarah Vaughn, Sammy Davis, Wynton Marsalis, Sonny and Cher, Billy Joel, Natalie Cole, Rosemary Clooney, The Temptations, Tony Bennett, Gladys Knight, and Bruno Mars. Teaching highlights include Jazz in the Schools Hawai'i, Christ Church Polytech Jazz School, Friends Academy New York, and Washington Middle School Seattle.

About SAMMAY
SAMMAY (Samantha Peñaflor Dizon) is a Bay Area-based choreographer/producer and interdisciplinary performance artist of Kapampangan, Ilokano, and Bikol descent born and bred in Carson, CA/Tongva Territory and now reclaiming space in San Francisco, CA with honor and gratitude to the Ohlone. She holds a B.A. in Media Studies and Sociology and minors in Dance & Performance Studies and Global Poverty & Practice from University of California Berkeley. SAMMAY is a kinetic storyteller who engages her body as a vessel for spiritual intercession and envisions a future in which our indigenous traditions co-exist with(in) our urban landscapes. When she is not deep in creative collaboration, she is either facilitating writing or movement workshops or teaching through San Francisco Ballet's Dance in Schools and Communities Residency Program in San Francisco Unified School District.