SF Symphony at Stern Grove Festival

Virtuoso, songwriter, singer, and theater producer Taimane has established herself as one of the leading ukulele players in the world, known for her fierce and inventive style of play transcending traditional views of the instrument. Taimane’s musicality and approach to the stage further add to her draw, leading audiences on a journey through a range of experiences—mystical, dark and playful. Add it all up, and it’s easy to see how this hapa Samoan (part Caucasian and part indigenous Samoan) artist from a small island in the middle of the Pacific (Oahu, Hawaii) has garnered over 20 million video views and 300,000 social media followers to date.

Hailing from a musical Polynesian family including her late mother, Palepa Tauiliili Gardner (Miss Samoa, 1978), Taimane’s attraction to the four-string island staple began at age five. By age 10, she regularly performed in public, busking in Waikiki every Friday night. By age 13, Taimane landed a position in Don Ho’s show, playing in the spotlight every week until Ho’s passing. 

Following her early years in Waikiki, Taimane walked away from its pop scene and leapt into a completely different world, the art houses of Honolulu’s Chinatown. There, she discovered audiences who valued original songs and began to develop her own style of music, eventually merging a wide array of genres, from Bach to rock, flamenco infernos to tribal hymns, into mesmerizing shows with universal appeal. Fast forward to today, and you have an artist who tours the world shining bright like a diamond (the Samoan translation of her name) renowned for taking the ukulele to new heights while blazing her own trail in the process. Taimane makes her San Francisco Symphony debut with this week’s performances at Shoreline Amphitheatre and Stern Grove Festival.

Edwin Outwater regularly works with the world’s top orchestras, institutions, and artists to reinvent the concert experience. His ability to cross genres has led to collaborations with Metallica, Wynton Marsalis, Renée Fleming, and Yo-Yo Ma. He is music director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and music director laureate of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.

Recent appearances include the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and the New World Symphony, as well as the Royal Philharmonic in a multi-concert series opening the Steinmetz Hall in Florida. He also served as a producer and musical advisor for the National Symphony Orchestra’s 50th Anniversary Concert at the Kennedy Center. In December 2022, he premiered A Christmas Gaiety at the Royal Albert Hall with Peaches Christ and BBC Concert Orchestra, and returned in 2023. 

Outwater has held a long association with San Francisco Symphony since making his debut in November 2001, having served as Resident Conductor, Director of Summer Concerts, and Music Director of the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra.