Henry Akina
Director
As of 1996, Mr. Henry Akina has served as the General and Artistic Director of the Hawaii Opera Theatre, (HOT), where he has founded the Mae Z. Orvis Opera Studio as well as directed. In addition to his administrative duties, he has directed productions of Madama Butterfly, Tosca, La Bohème, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Salome, and the Hawaii premieres of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Elektra, Macbeth and Il Trittico. He was also a fellow of the Center for Art and Media Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany, where he was responsible for the development of interdisciplinary music and theater projects.
Mr. Akina has directed a number of productions in prestigious Opera houses in Germany, France, Hungary, China and the United States. Some of his productions include the World Premiere of Quartett at the Opera House Kiel in Germany, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and Nabucco at the Opera House Halle in Germany, Busoni's Turandot at the Opera of Lyons, France, Così fan tutte at the New Theater in Budapest, Hungary, and Otello at the Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater in Schwerin, Germany, at The Macao Festival and at the Beijing National Opera of China. He has directed Wagner's The Flying Dutchman for the Arizona Opera, as well as for the opera companies of Atlanta and Augusta, Georgia.
In 1981, Mr. Akina founded the Berlin Chamber Opera with the conductor Brynmor Llewelyn Jones, and directed and administered over 50 Opera productions in the following 15 years. Including four World Premieres, he directed and administered Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, Handel's Agrippina, Orlando, and Ezio, Cavalli's Il Giasone, L'egisto, and La Calisto, Britten's The Turn of the Screw, Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers, as well as operas by Rossini, Mussorgsky, and Janacek.
In the years 1984-1988 Mr. Akina was a guest instructor in the Opera Department at the Conservatory of the Arts in West Berlin. He taught acting and performance skills to Opera singers, and produced four large scale productions with the students in cooperation with the Chamber Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Previously, he worked as an Assistant Director with the Deutsche Oper, West Berlin Deutsche Staatsoper, East Berlin Hessian State Theater, Kassel Hessian State theater, Darmstadt City Theater of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, and Santa Fe Opera. He has assisted the following directors: Vaclav Kaslik, Harry Kupfer, Frank Bernd Gottschalk, Peter Windgassen, Goran Jaervefeldt, Götz Friedrich, and Kurt Horres.
Mr. Akina received a Bachelor of Arts degree Magna cum Laude in Psychology and Drama from Tufts University, and attended the Free University of Berlin Graduate Program. He continued further study in Theater Science through workshops and master classes in Great Britain, Poland, Italy, and East Germany. He has participated in the live recordings of Helge Jörn's opera Europa und der Stier, Ezio, and Elegy for Young Lovers, with the Berlin Chamber Opera, and worked with Kent Nagano and the Opera of Lyon on their prize winning recording of Busoni's Arrlecchino and Turandot.