Four-time Grammy-winner, master slack key guitarist GEORGE KAHUMOKU JR, known as “Hawai‘i’s Renaissance Man” is a multiple Na Hōkū Hanohano (Hawaiian Grammy) Award winner, a vocalist, storyteller, songwriter & author, teacher, sculptor, farmer, and chef. He is the producer and star of the weekly Slack Key Show© on Maui, now celebrating nearly 20 years.
GEORGE KAHUMOKU JR. lives on Maui with his wife, Nancy, maintaining their 3-acre farm, growing fruit and vegetables, dry-land taro (for his famous home-made poi) and tending goats, chickens, ducks, and miniature horses. With over 25 solo, collaboration, and compilation CDs to his name, George celebrates over 15 years of his famed weekly Slack Key Show on Maui, which produced 4 Grammy-winning CDs.
In December 2022, he is being honored with a Na Hoku Lifetime Achievement Award. He founded the Hawaiian Music Institute at University of Hawai‘i-Maui College to preserve the legacy of Hawaiian music and to prepare the next generation for careers in music. A renowned storyteller, George collaborated on the book A Hawaiian Life with long-time friend Paul Konwiser to capture his hilarious, entertaining on-stage stories. This project led to his film biography Seeds of Aloha.
For the last 15 years, George Kahumoku Jr.’s Annual Maui Slack Key Guitar and ‘Ukulele Workshop creates one of the great musical learning experiences in the Islands today, and embodies George’s belief in sharing, celebrating, and perpetuating the unique music and culture that is Hawai‘i.

Maui’s renowned “Slack Key Show®"

...this group shares the uniquely Hawaiian styles of slack key guitar, ‘ukulele, and songs both traditional and new. Their music’s origins reach back to the early 19th century when Portuguese immigrants brought the ‘ukulele and Mexican cowboys brought guitars to Hawai‘i along with their ranching knowledge. Since then, Hawaiians made these instruments their own and these dynamic musicians reflect the best of traditions, musical virtuosity, and sparkling compositions.
GEORGE KAHUMOKU’S MASTERS OF HAWAIIAN MUSIC tours have been lauded as “Virtuosic keepers of a cultural flame…Bringing folklore & cultural memory into a performance that unfolded as breezy entertainment.”
--The New York Times