“Hawaii’s adopted world class actor” Terence Knapp will repeat his “A Celebration of Traditional Catholic Hymns and Benediction Liturgy” in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, 7 p.m., Sept. 1.
Accompanied by the distinguished musician and conductor Donald Yap, Knapp will offer 50 minutes of incense-scented Catholic memories in the form of sacred pre-Vatican II hymns, chants and an occasional tale or two.
The Catholic actor, who began accumulating these musical remembrances as an altar boy in wartime England, will dust off such venerable airs as “O Sanctissima,” “O Salutaris Hostia” and “O Lord, I Am Not Worthy.”
The man who brought the figure of Damien to a national television audience will be performing a few short feet from where the blessed apostle of Molokai was ordained a priest. It is more than conceivable that a hymn or two that Knapp will sing were heard by Damien himself at his ordination.
The actor presented this concert once before in May as a benefit for the Daughters of St. Paul. This concert will be a benefit for the cathedral’s restoration fund. There is no entrance fee, but a calabash will be passed to collect free will offerings.
The event is being presented “under the patronage of Bishop Clarence Silva.”
Knapp is a decorated graduate of England’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art who, in the early 1960s, was invited by Sir Laurence Olivier to be a founding member of the Royal National Theatre. A Churchill Fellowship led him to Hawaii via Japan, where he directed many Shakespeare and other productions in the Japanese language.
Yap is a distinguished conductor of top class New York and summer stock musical theater across the country. A Punahou graduate who attended the Eastman School of Music and Julliard, Yap is an acclaimed classical conductor as well as a piano master who has accompanied some of the foremost vocal performers of our time.
Knapp is recognized for his internationally acclaimed TV performance in Aldyth Morris’ one-man play “Father Damien.” He is also emeritus professor of theatre at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
In other venues, the musician and singer perform as Yap and Knapp on Tap, offering a presentation called “Songs of Yesterday,” featuring the standards of Harry Warren, Rogers and Hart and others.