Riely Francis
Percussion
Riely Francis has played percussion in the Honolulu Symphony since 1997. He also performs each summer at the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
A graduate of Rice University, Riely has performed with the Houston, Atlanta, San Francisco, and San Diego symphonies. He can be heard on recordings with the San Francisco Opera and the New World Symphony (Miami, FL), where he was an orchestra member for several years after college.
Biking, swimming, and tending the tropical plants on his lanai are his favorite activities and… Oh, I can’t keep up this third-person pretense any longer. I’m writing this. It’s me, Riely. Aloha. I’d just like to state the obvious: life is precious, and potentially short, so you have to get out right away and do the important things. Like hearing live music. ESPECIALLY hearing live music, as much and as often as you possibly can. There really is nothing like it. So get to a concert. You’ll spot me up there, lifting cymbals or a triangle or something loud and shiny like that, doing my bit to help make this tired world of ours shimmer for a moment. And I’ll be smiling, because I like doing it. I’m good at it. And you’ll smile, thinking: how can it be simultaneously so absurd and so wonderful that all the men are wearing bow ties? Little white bow ties and... Just then, a wave of sound will sweep you up. A living orchestra moving and breathing as one, right there in front of you. Utter ravishment. It will be, as they say, all good. See you there.
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