HSGA’s 34th Annual Mainland Festival
Sept 17-19 at the Hilton, Fort Collins, Colorado
Geronimo “Geri” Valdriz is our guest artist this year.
We are pleased to announce that Geri Valdriz will be our Guest Artist for our upcoming Fort Collins Festival in September. Geri is an established lap steel guitarist living in Waiehu, Maui. His passion is Kika Kila, the Hawaiian style of playing the steel guitar. Through music and mele, Geri seeks to capture the essence and soul of the instrument.
Geri is a member of the Maui slack key guitar bands Ola Hou, Maui Jam, and the Kika Kila Band. He plays at slack key and steel guitar concerts, hula shows, lūʻaus , and island-style gatherings on Maui. He also tours in the U.S. and Japan, bringing the sound of the steel guitar to shores far away.
Geri has recorded the following instrumental CDs: Lap Steel Harmony, Breath of Steel, Kika Kila, and The Art of Steel. He has also recorded for various artists on Maui.
Geri is a guest steel guitarist at George Kahumoku’s Slack Key Guitar Show on Maui, and has taught the steel guitar workshop at Keola Beamer’s Aloha Music Camp. He also played steel guitar on the recent Project Kuleana video, Nā Keiki O Ka Pūnana Leo O Maui.
Geri is the musical host for a live weekly radio show called Hawaiian Steel. The program is dedicated to Kika Kila, its music, and its great players from the past to the present. It is broadcast every Tuesday from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM on Mana‘o Radio, KMNO, 91.7FM from Wailuku, Maui. You can catch it on the air, or streaming live at www.manaoradio.com.
Geri curated the History of the Hawaiian Steel Guitar exhibits at the Story of Hawaiʻi Museum in Lahaina and Kahului. He also presents the Vintage Steel Guitar Display at steel guitar festivals across the Hawaiian Islands.
Geri is a student of steel guitar master Jerry Byrd and plays a pre-war Rickenbacher A-22 frypan model in the A6 tuning. His favorite steel guitarists include Andy Iona, Dick McIntire, David “Feet” Rogers and Gabby Pahinui.
Currently Geri plays the steel guitar every Thursday at the Maui Coffee Attic in Wailuku and every Sunday at the Kahului Airport. Ka‘ua e ho‘o kani ka kika kila! (Come and play steel guitar with me!)
Malie Lyman will be our scholarship guest artist at Fort Collins this year.
Tickets available:
People can book their rooms online at the Hilton using this link
Or they can call the Hilton directly:
Attendees can start booking their reservations by calling 970-482-2626 and requesting the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association room block. Your guest’s group code is AHS. Your guests will have until August 17th to make their room reservations at the discounted room rate. After this date, any remaining guest rooms will be released back to the hotel to sell.
HSGA’s 33rd Annual Mainland Festival
Sept 19–21, 2019, Fort Collins, CO
Our guest artist was Ed Punua
Photo galleries:
Thursday September 19
Friday September 20
Saturday September 21
Ed Punua studied with Barney Isaacs and has been performing on Kaua’i as well as in South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Tahiti and the U.S. mainland.
Since the age of seven, his musical upbringing was encouraged and enhanced by performing in a Polynesian show with his family for the Victor Punua Polynesian Revue. It is there that he gained much experience with Polynesian music as a percussionist. Punua has instructional experience assisting his mother, Kumu Hula Ku’ulei Punua who taught the hula on Kauai for over forty years.
Ed was one of the featured steel guitarists in the 2012 Mele Mei Legends of Steel Concert in Waikiki and was a featured steel guitarist at the 3rd Annual Waikiki Guitar Festival in June, 2012, and most recently at the 2015 Maui Steel Guitar Festival. He was the featured guest at the 2013 Joliet (IL) Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association Festival and will now be this year’s honored guest in Ft. Collins, Colorado.
HSGA 32nd Mainland Festival
Sept 27–29, 2018
Featuring Bobby Ingano & Alexis Tolentino
