Sky Gate — ten musicians (originally flute, clarinet, oboe, two violins, viola, cello, two French horns, and trumpet), flexible instrumentation (2022)
Co-commissioned by the City & County of Honolulu Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts and Chamber Music Hawaiʻi with the generous support of NWS BLUE, First Peoples Fund, Awesome Foundation, and Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. NWS BLUE projects are made possible with support from the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation and NWS’s Fund for New Ventures. duration 12’
This composition honors Isamu Noguchi’s Sky Gate, one of the most prominent works of art on the City and County of Honolulu’s Civic Center. Noguchi spent much of his life designing parks. He created the sculpture for a version of the park he would never see: one where the monkey pod trees had grown for almost 50 years more, reaching out to touch each other with their branches, making the sculpture a literal sky gate amongst the shade of the surrounding park. The width and height of the columns mirrors the surrounding trees as they reach up from all directions towards the sculpture. The concrete circular stage below invites people to sit there for lunch or on a break as I did with my father when he worked in Honolulu Hale. The sculpture then not only activates the park, but also us: it activates us to look up, to come together, to be present in the space.
The City & County of Honolulu Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts writes, “Every May and July, people gather at Sky Gate to observe Lāhainā Noon, also known as kau ka lā i ka lolo (the sun rests upon the brain), a time of great energy when the sun is overhead and the shadow retreats into the body. At this time Sky Gate’s shadow projects a perfect ring and becomes a magnificent spectacle.” My composition encourages communities to engage with public spaces in new and innovative ways.
// Press for Sky Gate
“Written in Stone,” Halekulani Living. Text by Eric Stinton. “In a collaboration that transcends time and space, composer Leilehua Lanzilotti creates enigmatic works in conversation with the late artist Isamu Noguchi.”
Wild Up performing Sky Gate at TreePeople, co-presented by Floating, Los Angeles, January 28, 2024. Photo by Sam Lee
Sky Gate for ten musicians, duration 12’. Set of 10 scores for performance.
Digital download of the score for Sky Gate (flexible instrumentation, for ten musicians)
Past Performances
Sunday, January 28, 2024 — Wild Up, performs Sky Gate, ahupuaʻa, hānau ka ua, koʻu inoa, and beyond the accident of time, followed by a set featuring the music of inti figgis-vizueta, Darkness Sounding, Floating + TreePeople, Los Angeles, CA
Sunday, September. 25, 2022 — Chamber Music Hawaiʻi’s Tresemble, 4:00pm at Palikū Theatre, Windward Community College, Honolulu, HI
Saturday, September 24, 2022 — Chamber Music Hawaiʻi’s Tresemble, 7:00pm at Orvis Auditorium, University of Hawaiʻi — Mānoa, Honolulu, HI
Thursday, May 26, 2022 at 12:15pm — Chamber Music Hawaiʻi, World Premiere, City & County of Honolulu Civic Center (festivities begin at 10:30am with the Royal Hawaiian Band, Food Trucks, Keiki Activities, and other vendors, leading up to the premiere performance at 12:15pm)
Poster for the premiere of Sky Gate at the City & County of Honolulu Civic Center.