Program
Morning
10:00 Welcome & Donuts
Conversation: Dinosaur Ranchers – cultivating extinct media in a post-digital world with Lōʻihi Records founder Dean Harada, and Matthew Dekneef, Executive Editor at FLUX Magazine
11:00 Performance: Paul Cosme & Yu-Yuan Kuan – Kulintang & Erhu, solos and duet TBA
Conversation: An Invasive Species – western portability and suppression of indigenous voices, moderated by Dean Harada
Afternoon
12:00 Lunch (Cafe)
1:00 Performance: Jessica Ackerley – premiere of Wave II (Jessica Ackerley) for solo electric guitar
Clara Kim – Second Nature for violin and electronics (Christopher Stark)
Conversation: Authentication – technology & the human touch, moderated by Gahlord Dewald
2:00 Performance: Two time GRAMMY winner, cellist Andrew Yee – The Sea as it Is (Andrew Yee) and Koʻu Inoa (Leilehua Lanzilotti)
Conversation: Wayfinding – composing the path through a life, with Leilehua Lanzilotti
3:00 Performance: T.J. Keanu Tario – TBA | GRAMMY winning trombonist and composer Kalia Vandever – Hubbard Road and Recollections From Shore (Kalia Vandever)
Conversation: Homelands – understanding ‘āina, ʻohana, pilina and kuleana in the liminal space between tradition and innovation, moderated by Nāwāhineokalaʻi Lanzilotti
4:00 Performance: Leilehua Lanzilotti – beyond the accident of time
An intimate session, listening and responding to the vinyl test pressing of Pulitzer Prize finalist Leilehua Lanzilottiʻs release, beyond the accident of time – a sonic realization of Isamu Noguchiʻs un-built monument, Bell Tower for Hiroshima.
5:00 Performance: Blind Date (three writers randomly paired with three musicians – on the spot! – for a blind improvisatory date). featuring Deborah Harada, Illnomadic (Navid Najafi) & Megan Kamalei Kakimoto (words) | Gahlord Dewald, Kit Ebersbach & Jonny Lam (music)
Conversation: discourse and the fundamentals of listening, moderated by Deborah Harada
Evening
6:00 Reception & Mixer with DJ Kamalu Fung
7:00 Closing Concert
Featuring Godai (Max High and Floteson), Leilehua Lanzilotti, Andrew Yee, Kalia Vandever, and T.J. Keanu Tario (with Gustavo D’Amico & Jonny Lam)
Wayfind Music Festival
Re-Centering Kānaka Voices and Redefining Hawaiʻi’s Sound
Saturday, December 27, 2025
10:00AM - 9:00PM
Capitol Modern, Honolulu
Lōʻihi Records proudly presents the inaugural Lōʻihi Records Music Festival: Wayfind, a full-day celebration of sound, culture, and contemporary experimentation taking place on December 27, 2025, at Capitol Modern.
The festival gathers musicians, composers, cultural workers, and thinkers from Hawaiʻi and beyond, united under the theme “Wayfind.” Through performances and conversations, the program explores how artists navigate the space between tradition and innovation, digital futures, and the responsibilities of ʻāina, ʻohana, and kuleana.
This year’s festival places a local Kānaka artist in the headlining position, not as a supporting act, reflecting Lōʻihi Records’ mission to flip the long-standing narrative of Hawaiʻi artists being secondary in their own homelands. This is Lōʻihi at work elevating our Indigenous and endemic leaders in experimental, classical, and contemporary sound practices.
Wayfind is more than a theme, it is a methodology. The Lōʻihi Records Music Festival invites audiences to consider how artists navigate identity, diaspora, technology, and place. Throughout the day, performers and thinkers investigate the intersections of sound, culture, and care, creating a space where Indigenous leadership is not only present but centered.
About Lōʻihi Records:
Lōʻihi Records is dedicated to supporting artists whose work defies genre and cultural boundaries to engage with the contradictions of life in present-day Hawaiʻi. Through its programming, the label champions Kānaka, Hawaiʻi-based, and diasporic voices working at the forefront of experimental and contemporary sound.
Media Contact:
Aria Leighty
hello@arialeighty.com
808-452-3237