I am an Assistant Professor of Hawaiian Studies at
Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikolani College of Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. Outside of my work at the College, I am very active in the Hawaiian music community. I am the webmaster of
Nahenahe.net, a Hawaiian music news site, and am also I a voting member of both the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences ("Grammy Awards") and the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts ("Na Hoku Hanohano Awards").
I attended Kihei 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 in 1999, and Master of Arts in Hawaiian Language and Literature in 2003. In my
MA thesis, I compared stress patterns in Hawaiian language as spoken and sung, by analyzing the compositions and musical performances of John Kameaaloha Almeida.
In the summer of 2002, my wife and I traveled to Ireland to research the state of the Irish language and the programs working to perpetuate it. I documented this trip in a
travel blog which is only available in Hawaiian. There are some nice pictures, however, for the ‘olelo-impared. I'm hoping to return to Eire in Fall, 2007 to pursue a Ph.d. in Ethnomusicology.
I co-wrote all but one Hawaiian song and was assistant producer on Kenneth Makuakane's recent solo debut,
Makuakane. You can hear cuts of those songs on
Kenneth's MySpace site. I was honored to have a Christmas song I wrote, "Ke Aloha Kalikimaka" recorded by
Keali‘i Reichel on his Christmas release, Maluhia.
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.
