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Proud skipper Kalenaku DeLima charts a course for her music school, intent on improving the educational wellness of Hawai\u2018i\u2019s youth while doing \u201cgood work for our community.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Captaining a ship can be a daunting task for just about anyone, but especially for those feeling a bit nervous behind the wheel.<\/p>\n Consider the recent travels of Kalenaku DeLima, who has admittedly experienced notions of self-doubt while skippering her own vessel. Eight months into her maiden voyage as a nonprofit founder, the president of the christened Kapena School of Music & Creative Expression in K\u0101ne\u2018ohe still shakes her head every now and then, surprised at her good fortune in keeping the fledgling operation afloat in turbulent times.<\/p>\n But steadied the ship and maintained its course she has. Despite the constant beatings of waves against her bow from pandemic regulations and pauses to \u201ca lot of intricacies of business that I had to figure out,\u201d the 30-year-old company leader and professional musician has held on to the wheel while navigating her way through the ebbs and flows of her startup. Maybe her finest moment thus far has been in overcoming her one-time greatest worry: \u201cthat every single month would be this train wreck of tracking everything happening financially!\u201d<\/p>\n Aside from being the founder and president of Kapena School of Music & Creative Expression, Kalenaku DeLima is also its vocal instructor.<\/p><\/div>\n Her success can be credited to her sticktoitiveness, an often underappreciated quality of hers. But it could just as easily be attributed to a highly dedicated crew, a well-respected family name and brand that she hoists proudly on her sails, and timely words of encouragement and support from loved ones, including her anchor in life, fianc\u00e9 Kala\u2018e Parish.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things I learned is there\u2019s no handbook, no manual on how to do any of this,\u201d confesses De-Lima while moored inside her school with its symphony blue walls (\u201cI read that the color blue helps calm you so that you\u2019re more willing to learn\u201d) at Windward Mall. \u201cI want to say a majority of businesses learn how to run things once they\u2019ve messed up \u2026 so there\u2019s been a lot of troubleshooting we\u2019ve had to do along the way. \u201cBut looking back in retrospect, I find myself saying, \u2018Oh, my gosh! I can\u2019t believe I figured out how to do all of this!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Student Jaxon Saavedra follows along as instructor Bowe Souza leads a piano lesson. LAWRENCE TABUDLO PHOTO Astonishingly, this brave soul decided to launch her venture right in the middle of the pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess it was the scariest time to open a business,\u201d admits a chuckling DeLima, whose school began offering private and group lessons in vocals and instrumentation (\u2018ukulele, bass, guitar, piano) last July within the mall\u2019s 2,500-square-foot space previously occupied by BedMart Mattress Superstores.<\/p>\n \u201cBut for me, I thought it was also the best time because it seemed like we were just coming out of COVID, and I was thinking that it would be the perfect time because all of this was going to go away and everything was going back to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n Kelly Boy DeLima supervises an \u2018ukulele class for youth with the help of several teaching assistants. Of course, when the conventional didn\u2019t return immediately, she wisely adjusted her sails. To help her student vocalists learn proper singing techniques, for example, De-Lima had large plastic barriers installed in private rooms so that the students\u2019 masks could be briefly removed and \u201cwe could see how their mouths were moving.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor vocalists,\u201d she continues, \u201chow your mouth moves is very important in how you sing.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, the school boasts an enrollment of about 250 students while registering six new pupils each month \u2014 impressive numbers when considering that DeLima and staff perform almost no marketing other than through word of mouth and \u201cpromoting and boosting posts\u201d on Instagram and Facebook.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we learned in this process after such a short time is how worth it this all is. The school has a mission to enrich the emotional, mental and educational wellness of the youth in our community,\u201d says DeLima, noting that most of her students range in age from 9 to 17, but she also has pupils \u201cin their 70s or 80s\u201d who take part in the school\u2019s k\u016bpuna \u2018ukulele class on Saturday mornings.<\/p>\n DeLima\u2019s younger sister Lilo Tuala, left, is the school\u2019s bass instructor. Here, she works on a bass progression with Abigail Wright. LAWRENCE TABUDLO PHOTO<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019ve heard so many of our teachers say, \u2018Wow! When you see that you taught them something and then they actually learned how to do it and that you literally changed the trajectory of their life just from taking 30 to 60 minutes a week with them, that makes this all worth it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Raised in the town where her school is berthed, DeLima is the second of three children born to musicians Kelly Boy and Leolani DeLima. Her father is the founder and front-man of the well-known island music outfit Kapena (meaning \u201ccaptain\u201d in Hawaiian) and growing up in such an atmosphere naturally brought with it expectations of being exceptional in entertainment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were all called up on stage from when we were really young,\u201d she recalls. \u201cIn the third grade, I danced Ulupalakua<\/em> for May Day and I also learned how to sing it. Every single performance after that, my dad would call me up on stage to sing that song.\u201d<\/p>\n Kelly Boy DeLima listens as keiki raise their hands and ask questions. Currently, the school has about 250 students with the majority falling between the ages of 9 and 17. PHOTO COURTESY KALENAKU DELIMA<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n The pressure only mounted when Kapena\u2019s other original members \u2014 brothers Teimomi and Tivaini Tatofi \u2014 left the band, thus providing her father with the opportunity to chart a new course for the group, one featuring he and his children.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is true that there was a lot of pressure to succeed,\u201d DeLima admits. \u201cI think a lot of people expect that because you come from two parents who are musical, and because my older brother (also named Kapena) is so talented \u2014 he\u2019s a recording engineer, he can play any instrument, you give him anything and he\u2019ll figure it out in 10 minutes \u2026 he\u2019s that guy! \u2014 that you\u2019re expected to be really good really quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n To her credit, DeLima chose to stick to her strengths \u2014 singing, and playing keyboards and \u2018ukulele \u2014 despite being capable of backing up her brother on drums and percussion (\u201cI\u2019ll keep the beat, nothing fancy. Just don\u2019t give me a drum solo!\u201d) or younger sister Lilo Tuala on bass (\u201cI don\u2019t usually like to tell anyone that I play bass because it\u2019s nowhere near what Lilo can do; I mean she\u2019s one of the best\u201d).<\/p>\n \u201cI can dabble in other things,\u201d continues the school\u2019s voice instructor, who began her classical training at age 10 under acclaimed coach Eunice DeMello and counts several local songstresses \u2014 Raiatea Helm, Aunty Genoa Keawe and Amy Hanaiali\u2018i \u2014 among her strongest influences growing up.<\/p>\n \u201cBut when you\u2019re in this family, you don\u2019t dabble. You\u2019re either good at it or you don\u2019t play.\u201d<\/p>\n If she and her siblings have been particularly exceptional at something beyond music, it\u2019s been in their willingness to support one another in all tides. But that familial reliance also left DeLima feeling a bit adrift when she chose to set out as a solo pianist at The Moana Surfrider a few years back.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I stopped performing with my siblings and I started performing solo, my first instinct was, \u2018Oh, my gosh! I don\u2019t know how to do this. I don\u2019t know how to be on stage by myself,\u2019\u201d she explains. \u201cThere was this fear of, \u2018Are they going to like me? Am I any good without them?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n When similar doubts surfaced just prior to and immediately after starting her school and left her in desperate need of a blast of wind in her sails, DeLima found strength in knowing that support would be there \u2014 and not just from her parents and siblings, but from extended family and friends as well. Many of her employees, in fact, are \u2018ohana.<\/p>\n \u201cI have aunties and cousins who still work in the school,\u201d she shares. \u201cOne of my cousins is a teaching assistant in the \u2018ukulele class, and my cousins run the front desk and are the managers.\u201d<\/p>\n All of which means that the tightly run ship called Kapena School of Music & Creative Expression remains in good hands.<\/p>\n If DeLima appears a bit anxious these days, her nerves probably have less to do with the school and more to do with a new adventure she\u2019s about to embark on. Come this time next week \u2014 St. Patrick\u2019s Day, March 17 \u2014 she and Parish will officially tie the knot.<\/p>\n For DeLima, she won\u2019t be marrying just her best friend, but one of her staunchest advocates and wisest counselors, too. When she briefly considered pulling the plug on the school early on due to \u201ccold feet,\u201d it was Parish whose reassuring words convinced her to stay the course.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was the one who was pretty much like, \u2018I don\u2019t know why you\u2019re worried about it. You\u2019re going to figure it out; it\u2019s going to be all good,\u2019\u201d she recalls. \u201cI guess you always need that one person in your ear.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent years, the two have made beautiful music together, performing at private weddings and Big Island resorts such as Auberge at Maunalani and Waikoloa Marriott.<\/p>\n \u201cOur date night has turned into a duo,\u201d explains a grinning DeLima. \u201cBut it\u2019s kept me busy \u2014 doing solo, duo and full band work, and then, of course, the school.\u201d<\/p>\n In recalling how their ships first crossed paths about a decade ago, DeLima notes, \u201cI like to tell everyone the mail lady dropped him off. But really he was at my house and doing a song, Lost In Your World<\/em>, with my sister. My sister and his cousin were good friends in high school and Kala\u2018e had written a duet that he wanted to hear a female vocal on.\u201d<\/p>\n Somewhere along the way, however, DeLima found herself pulling into port next to Parish, who was seated at the piano, and lending her voice to his lyrics.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how I booted my sister out of that position, but she has forgiven me since,\u201d quips DeLima.<\/p>\n Now, with her hands (and his) comfortably placed on the wheel, they appear ready for the horizons that await. So says the captain of her ship and leader of the band.<\/p>\n \u201cThis school has been a journey of ups and downs and we have a long road ahead of us,\u201d she says in closing. \u201cI\u2019ve heard that marriage is a similar kind of journey, but I\u2019m grateful to have found a partner who supports and encourages every dream I have.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot more work to be done, but we\u2019re both ready and determined to do good work for our people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Proud skipper Kalenaku DeLima charts a course for her music school, intent on improving the educational wellness of Hawai\u2018i\u2019s youth..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover-story"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekhawaii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/mw-cover-030922-kalena-delima-lt009.jpg\")
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PHOTO COURTESY KALENAKU DELIMA<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekhawaii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/mw-cover-030922-kalena-delima-lt011.jpg\")
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