Keola Donaghy is a scholar of Hawaiian and Pacific music and languages. He currently serves as the faculty coordinator of both Music Studies and the Institute of Hawaiian Music at UHMC and Chair of the Humanities Department. He holds a Ph.D. in Music (Ethnomusicology) from Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka (University of Otago) in Aotearoa New Zealand, an M.A. in Hawaiian Language and Literature from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, an M.A. in Pacific Island Studies from UH Mānoa, a B.A. in Hawaiian Studies (language focus) from UH Hilo, and a Graduate Certificate in Telecommunications and Information Resource Management from UH. Mānoa. His compositional focus is in haku mele (Hawaiian language poetic composition). He has composed over 200 mele, many in collaboration with Kenneth Makuakāne, who composes the music, some with other composers, and others for which I composed both they lyrics and music. Some of these compositions have been recorded by Makuakāne, The Pandanus Club, Keali‘i Reichel, Amy Hānaiali‘i, Willie K. and Amy Hānaialiʻi, O'Brien Eselu, Mailani Makainai, Kainani Kahaunaele, Sandy Essman, Stacie Kuʻulei, Steven Espaniola, and with his own group Aʻeaʻe. He has been honored with eight Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards as a composer, producer, and performer of Hawaiian music, four of them for CDs Ihe produced for our Institute of Hawaiian Music program, two with A‘ea‘e, one for his guitar and electric bass work with the rock group "Sandemonium" and one for co-producing Kenneth Makuakāne's recent anthology release. His co-composition (with Makuakāne) “Aloha Keauhou” was performed by the senior women at Kamehameha School's annual Song Contest in 2011, and with which the senior women won two trophies. His first book, entitled "Mele On The Mauna: Perpetuating Genealogies of Hawaiian Musical Activism," was released by Indiana University Press in 2024. It discusses the role music played in the struggle to defend Maunakea from desecration.
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