Pearl City High bandleader receives special honor

Pearl City High School band director Chadwick Kamei remembers having four different band directors when he played saxophone at Castle High School. Every year, he’d have to adjust to new leadership, new musical tastes, new instruction techniques.

“It was like building every year. There was really nothing to look forward to,” he said..

Kamei’s desire to provide stability and continuity during young musicians’ formative years led him to a teaching career. A bachelor’s and master’s degree recipient in music education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, he started teaching at King Intermediate School in Kaneohe in 2001. A year after transferring to Pearl City High in 2007, he took over as band director, overseeing a program of about 200 students. For good measure, he leads the fledgling band program at the University of Hawaii-West Oahu and is working toward his doctorate from Boston University.

Kamei’s dedication, creativity and leadership were recognized by Bandworld, an organization dedicated to helping band musicians and directors throughout the world, which recently named him a member of its Legion of Honor. He is the seventh Hawaii bandleader to receive the honor since it was inaugurated in 1989.

“Kamei has worked in and at nearly every possible aspect of music education,” said a statement on the group’s website, bandworld.org. He also was praised for taking the high school band to perform in such places as China, Japan, England and Chicago, and for his work with national and state band organizations.

KAMEI, 36, credited his Pearl City High colleagues Lee Ikeda and Christopher Lopez, as well as Honolulu’s music community, for his success. Many performers and teachers, even those from other schools, regularly volunteer at Pearl City High to teach instruments that he doesn’t play proficiently, like brass and percussion. He also paid tribute to students’ parents, who provide private instruction for their children and help raise funds for the overseas trips.

“I would say the big secret is that 90 percent of my students can play better than me,” he said with a laugh. “I could never play the trumpet. I could play the saxophone better than my saxophonists, but all the other ones … I guess it’s like a chef. You know how to put all the ingredients together, but if you told them to raise the cattle and grow the vegetables, they might be at a loss.”

He sees playing in the band as one of the most rewarding endeavors for a student, considering the hard work and responsibility that goes into it.

“I tell the students all the time, ‘If you fail your math test, then the only person you’re affecting is yourself,’” he said. “‘If you’re in band class and you don’t practice your part, you’re ruining it for the people around you. That’s the kind of world we live in now; it’s not about what the one person can do, it’s what you guys can do as a collective group.’”

THAT’S ESPECIALLY true for the Charger marching band, one of two Pearl City High bands Kamei directs. He contracts out to have the intricate formations drawn up, then puts the onus on the students to learn the music and basic steps, then drills the necessary precision into them. Still, he pays attention to the sound of the band.

“Once the music sounds bad, everything else will look very chaotic,” he said. “As long as the music sounds good, it looks good out there.”

He’s had his “Mr. Holland’s Opus” moments, enjoying his students’ success. For instance, former band member Brendan Ige is getting a master’s degree in tuba performance at the University of Michigan, while another, clarinetist Maribelle Fernandez, is getting a music education degree at Capital University in Ohio. Kamei recalled that Fernandez struggled early on, even switching to flute for a semester before going back to clarinet.

“I told her, ‘You need to study, take lessons,’” he said. “She did and she just took off, and she became principal clarinet here. And when she went off to college, right off the bat she got a $40,000-a-year scholarship.”

The Pearl City High School Concert Band will perform March 12 at the school in preparation for a trip to Japan.