Founding member of the six-time Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award-winning group Maunalua, Bobby Moderow, Jr. is a renowned slack key guitar and falsetto artist. A member of the prestigious Honolulu Boy Choir from ages 9 to 12, Moderow later become a protégé of the late slack key guitar master Raymond Kane, who was proclaimed a National Living Treasure by the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts in 1987, and awarded funding for the apprenticeship program under which Moderow studied.
With his Maunalua brothers, Moderow has performed all over the world, including at the inaugural luʻau for President Obama; the 150th anniversary of the Smithsonian; and solo several times at the Grammy® Museum. As part of his desire to give back and to be one of the “keepers of the [Hawaiian music] flame” Moderow also teaches slack key – the award-winning artist Makana having been one of his students – and he has taught elementary school children at the Grammy® Museum for the past few years. He is currently teaching at the University of Hawai’i West Campus on O’ahu.
