MASTERS OF HAWAIIAN MUSIC

Friday, October 4, 2024 at 8pm

Hawaiian Series Sponsored by
The Hiland Foundation
Richard and Elizabeth Steele Fund

This performance will include a 15-minute intermission.

GEORGE KAHUMOKU JR.
LED KAAPANA
JEFF PETERSON

George Kahumoku Jr.

George Kahumoku Jr. lives on Maui with his wife, Nancy, maintaining their 3-acre farm, growing fruit and vegetables, and dry-land taro (for his famous home-made poi). With over 25 solo, collaboration, and compilation CDs to his name, George celebrates over 20 years of his famed weekly Slack Key Show on Maui, which produced 4 Grammy-winning CDs. In 2022, he was honored with a Na Hoku Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2024, was recognized in the inaugural class of the Maui Nui Hall of Fame. He founded the Hawaiian Music Institute at University of Hawai‘i-Maui College to preserve the legacy of Hawaiian music while preparing the next generation for careers in music. A renowned storyteller, George collaborated on the books A Hawaiian Life (Vols. 1 & 2) with long-time friend Paul Konwiser to capture his hilarious, entertaining on-stage stories. This project led to his film biography Seeds of Aloha. For the last 20 years, George Kahumoku Jr.’s Annual Maui Slack Key Guitar and ‘Ukulele Workshop creates one of the great musical learning experiences in the Islands today, and embodies George's belief in sharing, celebrating, and perpetuating the unique music and culture that is Hawai‘i. http://kahumoku.com/

Led Kaapana

Led Kaapana grew up in a family of musicians in Kalapana, in the southernmost district of Hawaii Island. His teachers included his mother, Mama Tina Kaapana, from whom he learned to sing leo ki'eki'e (Hawaiian falsetto singing), and his uncle, Fred Punahoa. "We didn't have electricity, no television, not even much radio," says Kaapana. "So we entertained ourselves. You could go to any house and everybody was playing music." Throughout his career, Led has dedicated himself to perpetuating the traditional style and repertoire of his home, beginning in his teens with the group Hui ‘Ohana which produced 14 best-selling albums and became a key figure in the resurgence of traditional Hawaiian culture and music during the 1970s. Launching a solo career in 1983, Kaapana has continued to garner acclaim for his improvisational melodies and falsetto vocals. In 2011, he was awarded an NEA National Heritage Fellowship. Recognition by his peers earned Led four Grammy nominations in his own right and three wins on slack key compilations. He has won multiple Nā Hōkū Hanohano (Hawai‘i’s “Grammy”) awards, including Best Slack Key and Best ‘Ukulele and was voted Favorite Entertainer of the Year in 2009. www.ledkaapana.com

Jeff Peterson

Jeff Peterson was born on the Island of Maui and grew up on a ranch on the slopes of the Haleakala volcano where he was introduced to the rich heritage of Hawaiian music and to guitar by his father, a paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy). At an early age, he began to pick up influences from such Hawai‘i slack key greats as the Gabby Pahinui Band, Leonard Kwan, and Sonny Chillingworth, and went on to explore a wide variety of musical genres and to study jazz and classical guitar. Five of Jeff’s songs are featured in the award-winning George Clooney film The Descendants. Jeff was featured on two Grammy-winning CDs: Slack Key Guitar, Volume 2 which won the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Hawaiian recording, and in 2010, George Kahumoku’s Masters of Slack Key Guitar vol. 2. He has won 16 Nā Hōkū Hanohano (Hawai‘i’s “Grammy”) Awards to date, including 5 Best Slack Key awards and a Grammy nomination for Maui on My Mind. His Concerto for Slack Key Guitar and Orchestra premiered in 2016 with Raleigh Chamber Orchestra and had its Hawaii Symphony premiere in 2017. Jeff has worked with a wide range of artists including Eric Clapton, James Galway, and Michael Feinstein. www.jeffpetersonguitar.com

Pasifika Artists

Bob Romney, Chairman
Community Leader

Gary Fabian, Treasurer
Chief Financial Officer
Kind Lending

William Parker, Secretary
Professor Emeritus Physics and Astronomy
University of California, Irvine

DIRECTORS

Eugene Choi
Betty Martinez Franco
Harason Horowitz
Terry Jones
Mike Kerr
Jennifer Klein
Dr. Tiffany Ana López
Bonnie Lubock
James Mai
Sherry L. K. Main
Jerry Mandel, Ph.D.
Christopher Ramsey
Richard and Cheryll Ruszat
Kathleen Treseder, Ph.D.
Stuart Winston
Anu Worah

HONORARY

Larry Agran
Mayor, City of Irvine
 
Howard Gillman, Ph.D.
Chancellor
University of California, Irvine

Public Partners
City of Irvine and UC Irvine

Official Health Care Partner
UCI Health

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Haskell & White LLP

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Tom and Mayumi Adams

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As a partner in the annual National Choreographers Initiative, Irvine Barclay Theatre is also pleased to acknowledge all those who support this important contribution to American dance.

National Choreographers Initiative 2026
Molly Lynch, Artistic Director

Honorary Producer 

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Update as of 7/14/26

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