Gene Schiller
Music Director; Host, Morning ConcertGene Schiller joined HPR in September, 1993 as a board operator. His first break came when he was asked to fill in for Music Director Alan Bunin. Six months later, he became the new host of Evening Concert, a program that runs on HPR-2 from 6 to 8 p.m. on weeknights.
In 1996, Gene was invited to take over the Sunday morning classical program, Sunday Brunch, which at the time was scheduled from 10 to noon. "About three years later, I turned it into a request program," he recalls, "and soon after that it was expanded to run from 9 to noon, still in the request format."
Gene, who continues on Sunday Brunch, now hosts Morning Cafe and Morning Concert every morning from 8:00 a.m. to noon. All three are regularly scheduled local classical programs heard on HPR-2.
Gene was named HPR's Music Director in 2001.
He was born in Los Angeles, and his family moved to Hawaiʻi in 1959 just as he entered the third grade. He's lived here ever since, attending St. Louis and then Kaimuki High School. Gene has been in radio for 18 years. He originally joined KORL as a host for a big band show. "I come from a family of musicians," he recalls, "and I am the only member who isn't a musician, doesn't read music or play an instrument - but I've always been a good listener."
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Oʻahu Chorial Society artistic director Dr. Joshua Habermann joins Gene Schiller on Morning Café ahead of the choral group’s event, “Great Romantics,” on Nov. 5 at the Kawaiaha’o Church. The concert presents secular and non-secular works sung by the choral society’s Symphonic Choir and the UH Chamber Singers, with Thomas Yee and Tyler Ramos accompanying on piano.
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French soprano Laetitia Grimaldi and pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz stop by Morning Café ahead of their Orvis Hall appearance to preview their program inspired by the French salons of La Belle Epoque. Their concert, “A Parisian Salon by Pauline Viardot” will feature works by composers who knew or composed works for Viardot to share in the salon in the late 19th century.
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Chamber Music Hawaiʻi’s Jim Moffitt visits Morning Café to share about CMH’s 2023-2024 season. Their season opener features Tresemble playing music from local composers Takuma Itoh and Michael-Thomas Foumai. The October 20 and 21 concerts include the premiere of Foumai’s piano concerto ‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland.’
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World-renowned guitarist and baroque specialist Richard Savino visited Morning Café to discuss Early Music Hawaii’s concert, “The Golden Age of Spanish Culture.” Early Music Hawaii President Ian Capps and ensemble director Scott Fikse also joined the conversation.
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Darel, Georgine & Sophie Stark stopped by the HPR studio to share about their upcoming concert that celebrates uniquely diverse compositions written for voice and violin. “The Stark Duo & Friends” event at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu will also feature the world premiere of a new work by Daniel Stark.
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Clarinetist Jim Moffitt stopped by Morning Café to discuss the July 5 performance of Zemlinsky’s Clarinet trio at the Orvis Auditorium.
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Pianists Jon Nakamatsu and Alan Chow, plus founder Lisa Nakamichi stop by Morning Café discuss this season’s Aloha International Piano Festival.
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Conductor Rick Benjamin and Jim Moffitt of Chamber Music Hawaiʻi visit Morning Café to discuss the live showing of the swashbuckling silent movie classic "The Mark of Zorro" for the CMH at the Movies series. The film will be accompanied by CMH's Tresemble, led by Rick Benjamin, a leading expert on silent film music and silent film presentation.
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Early Music Hawaii president Ian Capps joins Morning Café to discuss the ensemble’s upcoming concert, William Byrd – A 400th Anniversary Celebration, that takes place on Saturday, May 20 at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu.
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Composer Michael-Thomas Foumai and Chamber Music Hawaiʻi's Jim Moffitt visited Morning Café to 'Put Some Spring in Your Step' on this Aloha Friday morning.
