The Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts presents its highest honor on Sunday when five Hawaii residents will be recognized at the HARA Lifetime Achievement Awards at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
HARA will remember the contributions of two other Hawaii residents at the event with the presentation of HARA Legacy Awards.
HARA’s Na Hoku Hanohano Awards — “the Hokus,” for short — recognize excellence at a particular point in time. The Lifetime Achievement Award and the Legacy Award recognize many years of accomplishments and contributions to Hawaii’s music industry.
The importance of honoring exceptionally talented people for their long-term contributions to Hawaii’s music industry led to the creation of the Sidney Grayson Awards along with the Hoku Awards in 1978 — the name chosen to honor the owner of KCCN, who was personally committed to having a full-time Hawaiian music radio station in Hawaii. The Grayson awards were renamed the Lifetime Achievement Awards in 1987.
Beginning with the 2015-16 award cycle, eligibility requirements were tightened, and the Legacy Awards were created to honor island figures who have been dead for a year or longer. No more than five Lifetime Achievement Awards and two Legacy Awards can be presented each year.
The awards are not restricted to recording artists.
This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipients are:
>> Jeff Apaka, a Waikiki showroom headliner and recording artist, most recently starred in a popular weekly show at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
>> Patience “Pat” Namaka Bacon, who died in January, was the hanai daughter of Hawaii scholar Mary Kawena Pukui. Bacon spent much of her life assisting her mother in researching, documenting and preserving knowledge of Hawaiian language, history and culture. She had been a staff member at Bishop Museum since 1959.
>> Jay Larrin, a multi-Hoku Award-winning recording artist, pianist, lounge entertainer and songwriter (“The Snows of Mauna Kea,” “The Ko‘olaus Are Sleeping Now” and “I Wish You Forever Hawai‘i”).
>> Aaron Mahi was the bandmaster of the Royal Hawaiian Band from 1981 to 2005. He is a multi-instrumentalist (piano, bass guitar), recording artist, Waikiki entertainer and a guest conductor with the Honolulu Symphony. In 2003, Mahi received Germany’s “Bundesverdienstkreuz” (Order of Merit) for his work as a cultural ambassador and conservator of Hawaii’s German-Hawaiian heritage.
>> Puakea Nogelmeier, a multi-Hoku Award winner, prolific songwriter and professor emeritus of Hawaiian language at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he taught a 400-level Hawaiian poetry class. A leader in a program to make all surviving Hawaiian newspaper pages available online, he is currently the executive director of Awaiaulu, a cultural organization that trains translators and offers resources to people to facilitate access to Hawaiian historical materials.
This year’s Legacy Award recipients are:
>> U.S. Sen. Daniel Kahikina Akaka (1924-2018), the first U.S. senator of Native Hawaiian ancestry. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate for 36 years. Akaka also taught music at Kamehameha Schools and was the choir director at Kawaiaha‘o Church.
>> Emma Kapi‘olani Farden Sharpe (1904-1991), a kumu hula, chanter, dancer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and visitor show emcee. She was also a recording artist as a solo artist and member of the Farden Sisters.
Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards
>> Where: Monarch Room, Royal Hawaiian Hotel
>> When: 10 a.m. Sunday
>> Cost: $80, includes lunch
>> Info: harahawaii.com or 808-593-9424
