{"id":2281822,"date":"2026-02-14T11:11:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T11:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2281822"},"modified":"2026-02-14T11:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T11:11:18","slug":"new-music-professor-reimagines-hawaiian-music-uh-hilo-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/new-music-professor-reimagines-hawaiian-music-uh-hilo-band\/","title":{"rendered":"New music professor reimagines Hawaiian music, UH Hilo band"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Ocean Akaka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After more than two decades without a university band, the University of Hawai\u02bbi<\/span> at Hilo<\/a> is ready to bring the music back. Leading that effort is new assistant professor of music Ocean Akaka, who arrives with a clear vision: rebuild the band program and help revitalize Hawaiian music through bold new arrangements and performances.<\/p>\n

Akaka, who recently returned home to Hawai\u02bbi<\/span> after teaching on the U.S.<\/abbr> continent, arrived in Hilo on a one-way ticket late last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI quickly got settled in, and flew to O\u02bbahu<\/span> to spend the holidays with my family, something I haven\u2019t done since 2020,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was a great moment for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building musical bridges<\/h2>\n

Akaka, who specializes in conducting wind ensembles and athletic bands, is now part of UH<\/abbr> Hilo\u2019s performing arts department<\/a>. However he said his larger mission reaches beyond performance. His research revolves around the revitalization of Hawaiian music through arrangements for Western instrumental ensembles, such as orchestra and band.<\/p>\n

\"Ocean
Ocean Akaka conducts the University of Nevada Las Vegas Marching Band (courtesy photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Born and raised in Wahiaw\u0101, Akaka earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in music <\/a> from UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa. He later completed both his master\u2019s and doctoral degrees in conducting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. There, he led marching and pep bands, directed ensembles and taught conducting. His arrangements have been performed across the U.S.<\/abbr> and Europe.<\/p>\n

Now he brings that experience home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m writing a few arrangements of music from Charles E.<\/abbr> King\u2019s songbook,\u201d he said. \u201cMany of the songs written in this book are for one or more vocalists, and an accompanying ukulele, guitar or steel guitar. I\u2019m working to arrange these songs for a wind ensemble, and have them performed by the students here at UH<\/abbr> Hilo.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more go to UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014By Susan Enright <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.hawaii.edu \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading time: 2 minutes Ocean Akaka After more than two decades without a university band, the University of Hawai\u02bbi at Hilo is ready to bring the music back. Leading that effort is new assistant professor of music Ocean Akaka, who arrives with a clear vision: rebuild the band program and help revitalize Hawaiian music through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2281823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[378739,442018,442042,442041,442019,410568,22080,442029,442028,442040,442027,433518,442037,442039,442038,442032,442034,442033,21800,442013,442024,442012,23471,442016,442020,442026,442035,442014,442043,442044,442021,442036,442031,442025,442015,442030,442022,442023,442017],"class_list":["post-2281822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-alumni","tag-athletic-bands","tag-big-island-college","tag-big-island-university","tag-charles-e-king","tag-conducting","tag-hawaii","tag-hawaii-college","tag-hawaii-higher-education","tag-hawaii-island-university","tag-hawaii-university","tag-hawaiian-music","tag-hilo-campus","tag-hilo-college","tag-hilo-university","tag-manoa-campus","tag-manoa-college-university-of-hawaii-at-hilo","tag-manoa-university","tag-music","tag-music-professor","tag-oahu","tag-ocean-akaka","tag-performing-arts","tag-revitalization","tag-susan-enright","tag-uh","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-hilo-band","tag-uh-hilo-performing-arts-center","tag-uh-hilo-stories","tag-uh-manoa","tag-uhh","tag-uhm","tag-university-of-hawaii","tag-university-of-hawaii-at-hilo","tag-university-of-hawaii-at-manoa","tag-university-of-nevada-las-vegas","tag-wahiawa","tag-wind-ensembles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/New-music-professor-reimagines-Hawaiian-music-UH-Hilo-band.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2281822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2281822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2281822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2281824,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2281822\/revisions\/2281824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2281823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2281822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2281822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2281822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}