Daniel Ho, Composer
UCLA Regents' Lecturer
Regents’ Lecturer and six-time GRAMMY Award winner Daniel Ho will talk about defining moments in his musical career. He will share inspirations behind his compositions, music business experiences, and how his foundations in music theory and requisite skills in production have contributed to his sound and style. Context is everything—from his professional debut on piano in his top ten charting contemporary jazz band Kilauea, to navigating Hawaiian music identity, to foraying into the classical guitar world with Pepe Romero, to singing Nothing Compares 2U in the feature film Forgetting Sarah Marshall, to wading through the ethics of preserving traditional musics of indigenous cultures, to his latest Afrobeat collaboration with Ugandan superstar Eddy Kenzo—Daniel’s passion for learning and being adaptable has allowed him to stay true to himself and find happiness in music. This presentation will also include live performance to illustrate these elements with recorder accompaniment by Daniel’s good friend and the Department of Ethnomusicology’s own Dr. Helen Rees.
Native to Honolulu and based in Los Angeles, Daniel Ho is a composer, arranger, singer-songwriter, producer, audio engineer, and record company owner. He is a six-time GRAMMY® Award winner, twelve-time GRAMMY® nominee, six-time Taiwanese Golden Melody Award winner, and recipient of multiple Hawaiian music honors. Daniel’s recordings span original compositions, world music with Taiwanese aboriginals and Mongolian nomads, duets with Pepe Romero the maestro of classical guitar, jazz and rock with Tak Matsumoto of the Japanese supergroup, B’z, and Afrobeats with Ugandan superstar Eddy Kenzo. His music has been featured in film and television (The Descendants, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Waterman, Hawaiʻi Five-0, NCIS: Hawaiʻi). As an artist and clinician, Daniel travels the world sharing his music and knowledge on ʻukulele, Hawaiian slack key guitar and piano. Always learning and innovating, he is the co-designer of the Romero Creations Tiny Tenor ‘ukulele, and Ohana Bongolele and Shakerlele percussion instruments. His custom-designed ‘ukulele is currently on display at the GRAMMY Museum at L.A. Live. Daniel’s latest passion is in filming and video editing, which gives him the ability to support his compositions with personally-curated visuals.
This event is part of Daniel Ho's residency at UCLA as a University of California Regents’ Lecturer.