Kalani High School

Mani Kovacich is a percussionist and a jazz drummer. The Kalani High School Junior studies Brazilian drumming, plays in the both YSI and Jazz I in the Hawaiʻi Youth Symphony Orchestra organization, and finds the balance easily because he prioritizes learning and improving. This summer, we can hear Kovacich at jazz jam sessions with Noel Okimotoʻs Ohana Jazz, or reading the Hawai`i Public Radio call letters when heʻs helping at HPR2.@ohanajazz

Kalani High School graduate, Luke Watanabe will be performing with the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra this summer as one of the Nā Hōkū ʻŌpio Young Stars Concerto Competition winners. Trombone player Watanabe talks about his wonderful teachers and his busy summer before his Freshmen Year at UNLV as a Music Education major this fall.

Oboist Emily Fujii is pursuing a double major: English & Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies with a minor in Music at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Fujii started the oboe at Kaimuki Middle School, is an alum of the Hawaiʻi Youth Symphony and was a soloist with the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra as a winner of the Nā Hōkō ʻŌpio Young Stars concerto competition.

A frequent visitor to Classical Pacific, Mia Caliri reflects on her upcoming school year at University of North Texas. The Kalani graduate is a violinist and shares some of her favorite music and tells us about college life at one of the countryʻs most respected music schools.