David Nakazono, the principal trumpet player for Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra, came by his love of the trumpet, honestly. In fact, there are baby photos of him with the instrument.
“It actually goes all the way back to before I was born,” Nakazono told Aloha State Daily. “My parents met in high school in California playing trumpet in band.”
On Friday, March 28, Nakazono will be playing trumpet as part of the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra’s live performance of the musical score for “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,” while the movie plays on a big screen at the Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall. The concert runs from March 28 to March 30.
Nakazono’s music career started early. At six years old, his parents started teaching him piano. His dad was in the military, so they moved a lot, including to Germany, as well as Kansas, Texas, and South Carolina. Eventually, Nakazono picked up the trumpet. As a teenager, he played that instrument at four different high schools, as his father moved around for work, he said.
But there was a moment when Nakazono almost became a physicist.
“When it came to going to college, I actually hadn't made the connection that I could pursue music professionally,” he said. “I entered undergrad as a physics major and always intended to double major in music, just because I love playing trumpet. It wasn't until my junior year of college, over winter break, when I was researching grad schools for physics, my dad asked me — knowing that I wouldn't be able to do both music and physics at the level I was doing at undergrad forever in grad school — he asked me when I was going to quit trumpet.”
Nakazono laughed.
“I didn’t like that question,” he said. “But that kind of triggered an existential exploration of what was I really going to do?”
Nakazono reached out to mentors in physics and music for advice. Eventually, he decided to pursue the trumpet. He moved to Chicago, where he earned a master’s degree in music and orchestral studies at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts. Nakazono played in a few regional orchestras, including the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Philharmonic and the South Bend Symphony Orchestra. In November, he was hired for his current role at as principal trumpet at Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra.
Star Wars was “one of my first intros to orchestral music,” he said. In fact, he remembers watching “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” and acting out scenes from that movie with lightsabers and friends on the playground.
“John Williams and Star Wars were really my introduction to orchestral and classical music and what's possible on the trumpet,” he said. “Probably one of my favorite moments in playing Star Wars is that opening high concert B flat. It’s iconic. Opens up with that title crawl. But there's so many good moments for the trumpet in Star Wars.”
Tickets range in price from $51.50 to $95.50. To purchase tickets, click here.
Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
