Last year, Lahaina-raised Naiwi Teruya was a chef and performer at the Maui Music & Food Experience, a benefit concert to help Lahaina rebuild and to support a new music program for youth in West Maui. This year, he was on stage, playing ʻukulele with the band “Mongoose,” which featured Bernard Fowler from the Rolling Stones.
The Maui Music & Food Experience took place outdoors Aug. 15 and Aug. 16 on the lawn overlooking the ocean at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa, where waves could be heard crashing in between sets. Other featured performers included Ledward Kaapana, Maui Taiko and Paula Fuga. For Teruya, who was born and raised in Lahaina, the mission of the evening is personal. The Maui Music & Food Experience, raised $200,000 for the Hua Momona Foundation to “provide food for those in need, accelerate the Lahaina rebuild, and cultivate a new West Maui youth music program,” according to its website.
“We're still here,” he said. “We’re still in Lahaina, just not in the same place because of the fire. Not trying to leave.”
One of the beneficiaries of the benefit concert is a West Maui music program, called the Maui Music Youth Program. The program already has 10 ʻukuleles that have been donated to it, Teruya said. Hua Momona Farms recently got a permit to add a building to the property for music classes, he added.
“We're trying to make it wallet friendly for the parents,” he said. “We're trying to get grants for it, so that way we don't have to charge the children.”
Teruya will be the program’s teacher.
“I am willing to start early, but more on a one-on-one basis to work with the children because I want them to become performers more so than joining an ʻukulele troupe,” he said. “I want them each to shine in their own way, and then all of us together as a group.”
“And I want them to know the feeling of what it is like to get paid!” he said with a laugh.
Teruya was previously the executive chef at Down The Hatch, which was destroyed in the Maui wildfires of 2023. He now works for the Hua Momona Foundation.
Teruya grew up as the youngest of four siblings. He often stayed home with his mother, and when his older siblings were out of the house, he would sometimes pick up their ʻukuleles.
“Our house wasn't perfect,” he said. “We always had to move — like, all the time. Playing ʻukulele really brought me happiness and put me in a different space.”
Growing up, his uncle, William Kahaialiʻi, known as “Willie K” took him in. They had a recording studio each place they lived, he said. Kahaialiʻi bought Teruya his first ʻukulele and guitar.
“I never stopped,” he said. “And I'm just glad I can share that today.”
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Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
