Leilehua Lanzilotti

Songs for Liliʻu (2024, rev. 2026) — concert version
Dance Suite from Liliʻu (2025) — dance
Liliʻu (2024) — opera

Libretto commissioned by the Native Arts + Cultures Foundation through a SHIFT — Transformative Change and Indigenous Arts Award. The music for Lili‘u is co-commissioned by New Native Theatre, Rhiana Yazzie, Artistic Director, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. The song cycle / concert version, Songs for Lili’u, is drawn from the opera project Lili‘u and co-commissioned with support from a 2025 United States Artists Fellowship Award. The Dance Suite for Lili‘u was premiered with support from Creative Capital Foundation. Additional residency and development support included below.

Set in 1895, when Queen Liliʻuokalani was imprisoned for almost a year in ʻIolani Palace for her alleged knowledge of an attempt to take back the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, this work tells the story of the Queen's life at a time of great upheaval. Denied visitors except for one female companion, Liliʻuokalani depended on secret messages and news that would come to her as wrapping for flowers. Liliʻuokalani used her voice to encode hope and seeds of cultural renewal in her writings and musical compositions—a spark of hope in the darkness.

Liliʻu is an example of integrating intersectional community engagement into the heart of a creative project—where artistic goals are reflected in both cultural and economic support in the community it seeks to serve.

Music by Leilehua Lanzilotti
Libretto by Lanzilotti, sourced from the writings of Liliʻuokalani

The work exists in the following forms:

• A concert version, Songs for Liliʻu, scored for eight voices (SSAATBBB), viola, piano, and hand percussion—a selection of songs from the opera with singers in concert dress but with no stage action, duration 26’

• Dance Suite from Liliʻu—all the choreographed sections of the work with live musical elements. Grand Rights must be secured with the composer in advance. duration 35’

• The opera, Liliʻu, scored for eight voices (SSAATBBB), alto flute, piano, hand percussion, and string quartet. Staging, costumes, lighting, set design, and other elements are utilized. Grand Rights must be secured with the composer in advance, duration 55’

Above are photos of community activations around Dance Suite from Liliʻu // Left: Hawane Rios and Kawika Au / Right: Kahanuola Solatorio // Photographs by Leilehua Lanzilotti. // Dance Suite from Liliʻu premiered in New York City at Judson Memorial Church. Performances were curated within the context of community activities including live tattooing and free language workshops which Lanzilotti organized and produced within the larger context of Tatou Festival, a yearly festival of the Pacific Arts.

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Past Events

Thursday, October 2, 2025 — Dance Suite from Liliʻu, choreographed by Anthony Aiu, with music by Leilehua Lanzilotti, Judson Memorial Church, New York, NY

Tuesday, June 25, 2024 — Workshop Songs from the opera Liliʻu: Community Presentation, performed by Roomful of Teeth and Lanzilotti, School for Advanced Research (SAR), Santa Fe, NM

Tuesday, April 23, 2024 — The MERWIN CONSERVANCY Presents A Talk with Leilehua Lanzilotti In The Green Room Series featuring libretto readings from Lanzilotti’s opera Liliʻu and a dance performance by choreographer Anthony Aiu, Washington Place, Honolulu, HI

Sunday, April 14, 2024 — The MERWIN CONSERVANCY Presents A Talk with Leilehua Lanzilotti In The Green Room Series, libretto reading from Lanzilotti’s opera, Liliʻu, Maui Arts & Cultures Center, Kahului, Maui, HI

Libretto commissioned by the Native Arts + Cultures Foundation through a SHIFT — Transformative Change and Indigenous Arts Award. The music for Lili‘u is co-commissioned by New Native Theatre, Rhiana Yazzie, Artistic Director, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. The song cycle / concert version, Songs for Lili’u, is drawn from the opera project Lili‘u and co-commissioned with support from a 2025 United States Artists Fellowship Award. The Dance Suite for Lili‘u was premiered with support from Creative Capital Foundation.

Development of Liliʻu supported in part by OPERA America Women Composers: Discovery Grants program, the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation; the Western Arts Alliance Advancing Indigenous Performance Native Launchpad program with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts; the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA) and Kamehameha Schools through the E OLA (Empowering ‘Ōiwi Leadership Award) program; the Atherton Family Foundation; and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Additional residency support for creation and development of the work provided by the American Composers Forum through the 2021 McKnight Visiting Composer Program, Marble House Project, the Macgeorge Bequest, the Merwin Conservancy, the School for Advanced Research (SAR, Santa Fe, New Mexico), and the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency Program.