Na Hoku Hanohano Award nominee Kanani Enos will be featured with her band and dancers in a live performance at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29, in the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center Planetarium.
Na Hoku Hanohano Award nominee Kanani Enos will be featured with her band and dancers in a live performance at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29, in the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center Planetarium.
Born and raised in Ho‘okena, South Kona, Enos grew up around music and dance all of her life. She hails from a talented family of musicians; her father was a slack key guitarist and her grandmother, Myra Koai Enos, was a well-known performer.
Although Enos never actually knew her grandmother (she passed away before she was born), many say she sounds a lot like her. Enos’ childhood was rich with Hawaiian music and she started dancing hula from the time she was 5 years old. As a young student of Aunty Mahealani Perez (a student of Uncle George Na‘ope), she continued dancing hula through her teens with different Kona-based kumu hula such as Sheraine Kamakau, Ulalia Berman and Keoni Atkinson.
She went on to dance for the Lim Family and competed in the Merrie Monarch competition at age 13. Enos attended Kamehameha Schools’ Kapalama campus on Oahu, and that is where her love for singing grew. Her experiences singing in the Concert Glee Club and studying the Hawaiian language opened her heart to haku mele (songwriting), and it is from these experiences, combined with her first return home from school, that she wrote and composed the mele that is now the title track of her debut CD, “Aloha I Ho‘okena.”
A multi-talented performer who is a dancer, singer, musician and composer, Enos thinks her strengths lie in writing and composing music.
Today, Enos strives to find balance in juggling her music career and family as she raises three young children. She released “Aloha I Ho‘okena” in October 2013 with the help of well-known musician Bulla Kailiwai, who is the main musician on her CD; Uncle Sonny Lim, who recorded the album; and her cousin Jeremiah Augustine, who mastered it.
The album features 11 songs, eight of which are originals and honors her home and the people of Ho‘okena and Kealia.
‘Imiloa After Dark enjoys spotlighting local artists from Hawaii Island and is proud to have Kanani Enos perform “under the stars” in the planetarium.
Tickets for this event are $20 for general admission and $15 for members, available at the ‘Imiloa front desk or by calling 969-9703 during regular business hours. Tickets are nonrefundable.