Author: Keola Donaghy

I am a faculty member in the music department at University of Hawai‘i Maui College and assist with the administration of the Institute of Hawaiian Music. Outside of my work at the College, I am very active in the Hawaiian music community. I am a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (“Grammy Awards”) and a former member of the Board of Governors of the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts (“Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards”). I attended Kīhei Elementary and St. Anthony High School on Maui. Our family moved to Hilo in 1994 when I enrolled at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. I received a Bachelor of Arts in Hawaiian Studies from UH-Hilo in 1999, a graduate certificate in Telecommunications and Information Resource Management from UH-Mānoa in 2000, and Master of Arts in Hawaiian Language and Literature from UH-Hilo in 2003. I also hold a Ph.D. in Music (Ethnomusicology) from the University of Otago in Dunedin, Aotearoa (New Zealand), where my wife, daughter and I spent six months during 2008. I co-wrote all but one Hawaiian song and was assistant producer on Kenneth Makuakāne’s recent solo debut, Makuakane. You can hear cuts of those songs on Kenneth’s website. I was honored to have a Christmas song I wrote, “Ke Aloha Kalikimaka” recorded by Keali‘i Reichel on his Christmas release, Maluhia. My composition “Nā Hōkū Pio ‘Ole” was selected as the theme song for the 30th anniversary Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards. Some of my compositions have been recorded by Kainani Kahaunaele, the De Lima ‘Ohana, Mailani Makainai, The Pandanus Club, Steven Espaniola, Patrick Landeza, and O’Brian Eselu. I love to work the fringes of Hawaiian music by combining Hawaiian language lyrics with musical styles which are not often used to accompany Hawaiian music. You’ll hear some of the fruits of this work in the near future.