Nona Beamer

Maui Arts & Cultural Center will present the continuation of the Artist 2 Artist series with a Hawaiian Legends Hana Hou concerts with host Henry Kapono performing with returning artists considered legends in their own right. The series, taking place in the MACC's intimate McCoy Studio Theater, will continue to allow audiences an up close and personal experience with the artists.

Keola Beamer is a Hawaiian legend who has stretched the boundaries of slack key guitar music while remaining true to its deeply Hawaiian roots. Jeff Peterson is a rising star who uses the style's open tunings to explore multiple genres with ease and flair. Joined by lovely dancer Moanalani Beamer, they present an evening of superb guitar that explores the range of Hawai'i's many cultural influences (as evidenced by their music in the film The Descendants, starring George Clooney). "Keola Beamer is the Andres Segovia of the slack key guitar" (Long Beach Press Telegram).

Keola Beamer & Henry Kapono are two legends of Hawaiian music, continuing to lead the way for over four decades. They join forces at The Broad Stage on Thursday, February 1. Beamer & Kapono will each perform a set, then come together onstage to celebrate their original songs that have become beloved classics of contemporary Hawaiian music. The evening will also feature a performance from Moanalani Beamer, Kumu Hula (Hula Master).

Legends of Hawaiian Music, featuring Keola Beamer & Henry Kapono with Moanalani Beamer, offers up an evening of contemporary Hawaiian culture, rich in history and as relaxed as a Hawaiian sunset. With a lineage that traces from five generations of Hawaii's most illustrious musical families, Keola Beamer is the quintessential Hawaiian slack-key guitar master (New York Times). Here he joins forces with Henry Kapono, one of the great island songwriters of his generation (Honolulu Star-Advertiser). Each became icons at the creative forefront of the 1970s Hawaiian Renaissance movement that brought language, music, hula, art, and all aspects of Hawaiian culture back to their central place in the life of the Islands, and have continued to lead the way for over four decades.

A deeply spiritual art form, the hula, ironically, was long denigrated by the early missionaries who travelled to Hawaii energized by a mandate to convert the 'heathens.'