On the Scene with musician Daphne Sanchez
Born and raised on Kauai, Daphne Sanchez met entertainment industry veteran Art Umezu when she was 15. She was competing in a talent contest on Kauai; he was one of the judges. Read more
Born and raised on Kauai, Daphne Sanchez met entertainment industry veteran Art Umezu when she was 15. She was competing in a talent contest on Kauai; he was one of the judges. Read more
Lukela Keala was born in Wailuku. He grew up in Kapuna Valley in Maui’s Waihee area, graduated from Baldwin High School, and went straight into music. Read more
In 1986, Horace K. Dudoit III and Manu Boyd formed Kipona Leo Hawai‘i with William “Ama” Aarona and Chris Kamaka to compete in the Ka Himeni ‘Ana Hawaiian singing competition — and won. Read more
Kamran Samimi, 36, is in the final days of his residency at the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design. Read more
Peter Apo grew up in Makiki, graduated from Mid-Pacific Institute, and continued his education at the University of Oregon. Read more
Kaliko Ma‘i‘i was born and raised in Honolulu. He graduated from Ke Kula Kaiapuni ‘o Anuenue, a Hawaiian immersion school in Palolo, and continued his formal education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Academy of Creative Media. Read more
Growing up outside of Cleveland in the ’60s, Jim Brickman fell into music at a young age. He was 5 when he started playing the piano. Read more
Hawaii has been Twan Matthews’ home since he was 13. He graduated from Radford High School and later studied theater at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Read more
In October, Flower, 43, was crowned Mrs. Hawaii 2020. On Friday she is co-hosting a virtual pau hana dinner, concert and silent auction that will be livestreamed starting at 7 p.m. on Facebook. Read more
Hawaii-born brothers Riley and Maddison McKibbin — aka “the Beard Brothers” — grew up watching their mother, a Kamehameha Schools graduate, playing beach volleyball. Read more
Tavana McMoore — known professionally as Tavana — was 12 when he met the guitarist who changed his life. Read more
Twenty-six years later, Skinner, 68, is the chief officer of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism’s Creative Industries Division and the founder of its Creative Lab Hawaii program. Read more
Jake Shimabukuro began playing the ukulele when he was 4. His first teacher was his mother. Several years later he took lessons at Roy Sakuma’s ukulele studio in Kaimuki. Read more
Just last weekend, the multi-Hoku Award-winning artist resumed his 27-year Sunday afternoon engagement at Duke’s Waikiki at the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort. Read more
Sixteen years later, Bermodez, 42, and the father of five, returned full force as a solo recording artist on Tuesday when Revive The Live released his new download-only single, “This Place We Call Home.” Read more
Samantha Neyland was born while her father was stationed at Fort Benning, Ga. She’d lived in several states, and in Spain and Japan, by the time her dad was transferred to Hawaii. Read more
Dean Taba was committed to the French horn until the McKinley High School music program started an after-school big band. The band couldn’t use a French horn but needed someone to play bass. Read more
Eden Lee Murray grew up in Kansas City, Mo., watching her mother perform with the Community Childrens Theatre. Murray was 4 when her mother asked her to pull the curtain open to start a performance. Read more
Amy Hill was born in South Dakota, graduated from high school in Seattle, and established herself as a stage actor with the Asian American Theater Company in San Francisco. Television audiences discovered her in 1994 when she played Grandma Kim in Margaret Cho’s landmark sitcom, “All-American Girl.” Hill has worked steadily in television and film ever since. Read more
Magnolia Basoc was 12, the youngest of three sisters, when her parents — Adelfa and Nicomedes Basoc — moved their family of five from Davao City in the southern Philippines to live in a single rented room in her uncle’s house in Honolulu. Read more
Kimo Alana Keaulana grew up in Honolulu speaking Hawaiian at a time when most Native Hawaiians outside Niihau only spoke English. Read more