Cyril Pahinui
Photo by Chelle C. Pahinui
Bio
Cyril Pahinui is widely recognized as one of Hawai’i’s most gifted slack key guitarists and vocalists, whose technical virtuosity, rhythmic adaptations, and instrumental harmonics impart the soul of Hawaiian music, and whose beautiful, emotive voice renders an intimate picture of his Pacific island home. Although there are many who have supported Pahinui’s musical journey, the honor he pays is to his father, Gabby, a Hawaiian music legend, who taught him his craft and inspired his greatest achievements.
Pahinui was born in 1950, and grew up on the Hawaiian Homestead in Waimanalo, on the windward side of Oahu. Weekends were a continuous jam session with dozens of musicians gathering in his backyard to play with "the Master," Pahinui’s father. Pahinui began playing ukulele at age three, learning slack key at age seven, and performed on stage for the first time when he was 12. He learned music in the traditional way, nana ka maka; ho‘olohe ka pepeiao, pa‘a ka waha, which means “watch with the eyes, and listen with the ears.” Eventually, Pahinui mastered 17 unique tunings and a range of personalized approaches to finger picking and pa‘ani (improvisation), all created and performed in what is now known as the “Pahiuni Style.”
A consummate performer, Pahinui twice played at Carnegie Hall, has contributed to three Grammy Award-winning albums, and has received 17 Na Hoku Hanohano Awards for his own releases. In 2014, Pahinui received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Hawaiian Music and was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame.
One of Pahinui’s most important roles is that of teacher. Through classes at his school, Halau Mele Hawai‘i o Pahinui (Pahinui School of Hawaiian Music), students learn in the traditional kanikapila (“let’s play music/jam”) style, just as Pahinui learned as a child. In conjunction with the Hawai’i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Pahinui manages teachers in the Hawaiian Music Masters Youth Outreach and Community Reinvestment program, which has extended his teaching style statewide to more than 2,000 students. Pahinui received the 2013 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Artist Fellowship and the 2013 Community Spirit Award from the First Peoples Fund in support of his teaching.
For the past ten years, in partnership with the City of Honolulu and County of Oahu, Pahinui has presented the Gabby Pahinui Waimanalo Kanikapila, a festival designed after the family gatherings from his childhood days. The annual event attracts more than 150 musicians who gather in the park to entertain thousands of fans. He also produces an annual slack key festival in Seattle, Washington, and co-produces another in Redondo Beach, California.
Bio written by Chelle Pahinui