Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Last week’s red carpet event, the Stars of the Pacific Opera Gala was a “huge success” said event organizer and president of Pacific Island Foundation, Ethan Lake.

Held at the Gov. H. Rex Lee Auditorium, the evening’s red carpet gala was the cherry on top of a day that included outreach activities at local schools with the goal of inspiring and empowering our kids to have dreams and to follow them, Lake told Samoa News in an earlier interview.

As for the Gala itself, “We wanted to give the full red carpet experience, which we believe we accomplished with the world renowned opera singers, the outstanding classical Samoa National Orchestra and the amazing SPACE dancers,” said Lake.

He said they also wanted to provide a red carpet atmosphere, which “we believe we did” with the red carpet décor and elegant premium dinner experience. 

The event was in line with Pacific Island Foundation’s mission of youth empowerment, which is overseen by Ethan and his wife Irene Lake.

The Gala featured renowned professional artists —Pene Pati and Moses Mackay, who are 2/3rds of the SOL3 MIO, a New Zealand operatic vocal pop music trio — and newcomer Samson Setu, with the pioneering Samoan PhD pianist Ludwig Treviranus.

It was a boisterous event that included not only the Samoa National Orchestra, but also contemporary Samoa dance featuring Samoan chants. The audience was highly appreciative of the opera artists not only performing classical numbers but also Samoan songs. There were even Christmas carols for the season.

“We have been receiving calls from those that attended the event and those who heard about it. 

“Everyone praised the night and thanked us for bringing this event to American Samoa. But it wasn’t just us that made this event happen.

“We could not have done it without the sponsorship of great people and businesses that believed in us like Troy and Theodora Polamalu, Orphaned Starfish, Matson Shipping, South Seas Broadcasting, All Star Signs, GHC Reid, ASTCA, Sleeping Giant, and Tower Insurance. 

“We also could not have done it without the support of several government agencies and departments such as Immigration, Customs and Department of Health.”

According to Lake, the Pacific Island Foundation wanted to raise the entertainment bar in the territory as it exposed youth to an art form with which they may not have been familiar.

“And we did just that so we are proud and happy with what we accomplished, but we also feel we can do even better. 

“We learned a lot form this experience and we hope to use what we learned to up the level again.”

Regarding the amount of donations, Lake said they are still working on donation collections so we don’t have a final number yet. 

“In this case, our foundation both received donations and gave donations for the event and the outreach programs. 

“Funds collected from the tickets sales only helped cover a portion of the event costs, while donations outside of the tickets sales helped cover any other remaining costs. 

Cost that were not covered by outside donations were covered by the Pacific Island Foundation, he said. 

“PIF also gave out free general seating tickets to the high schools, Government workers and others in the public to attend the event,” said Lake.