26th Annual King Kekaulike HS Spring Concert featuring special guest trumpeter Eric Miyashiro

The King Kekaulike High School Music Program presents the 26th Annual KKHS Spring Concert with special guest artist Eric Miyashiro on Tuesday, April 8, 2025 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Castle Theater. The concert also features the Nā Aliʻi Big Band, Kekaulike Concert Choir, and the Kekaulike Wind Ensemble.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and show begins at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

Trumpet player Eric Miyashiro’s high register and style are reminiscent of jazz legend Maynard Ferguson (5/4/1928-8/23/2006). His resume includes performances with many famous bands and orchestras. Born in Honolulu, Miyashiro began playing professionally with artists such as Sammy Davis Jr., the Temptations, the Four Tops, Tom Jones, and Henry Mancini. When he was 18 years old, he won a position with the All-American High School All-Stars and played with Maynard Ferguson and his big band at Carnegie Hall for the Jerry Lewis Telethon. He studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA and then moved to Japan to pursue a career as a studio musician and clinician. Currently, he directs the Blue Note Tokyo All-Star Jazz Orchestra.

The Nā Aliʻi Big Band is one of Hawaiʻi’s premier ensembles for traditional and contemporary big band-style jazz and swing. Ranging from Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington to Maynard Ferguson and Gordon Goodwin, this after-school course focuses on the stylistic elements of jazz music throughout the last 100 years and has toured across the state of Hawaiʻi as well as across the US mainland and throughout Japan.

Comprised of students ranging from grades 9-12, the Kekaulike Wind Ensemble is designed to be a continuation of the intermediate school band experience and to prepare students for music in college and beyond. The Wind Ensemble specializes in the performance of both classical and contemporary wind band literature ranging in difficulty from advanced high school to the collegiate level.

The Kekaulike Concert Choir is a vocal ensemble of students ranging from grades 9 to 12. Students work to refine their singing technique and perform repertoire utilizing various harmonic structures and mixed voice parts. Standard choral repertoire is studied, as well as contemporary music and works from the jazz, pop, rock, and R&B genres.

The King Kekaulike High School Music Program was established in September of 1995, coinciding with the opening of the main school. The program engages more than 50 public performances per year throughout Hawaiʻi and frequently tours across Japan and the US mainland. The program often brings award-winning guest artists to Maui the help of organizations such as Jazz Maui to mentor, adjudicate, and perform with the students. The list of guest musicians includes Tower of Power’s David Garibaldi, the Jazz Messengers’ Valery Ponomarev, the Duke Ellington Orchestra’s Tommy James, legendary trumpeter and composer Eric Miyashiro, Grammy-nominated Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and Grammy-winners such as percussionist Arturo O’Farrill, trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis, and saxophonist Sal Lozano.

This concert is supported by Arts Education for Children Group, Jazz Maui, and Maui Arts & Cultural Center. For more information, visit www.kekaulikeband.weebly.com.