PROFESSIONAL BIO
Aloha! My name is Stuart Nago. I live in Honolulu, Hawai'i. I am a music educator, professional musician, singer, comedian, composer, and writer. Received a Bachelor of Music degree in Guitar Performance from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa (1984), and a Master of Music degree in Music Education from Boston University (2009). Taught music for the University of Hawai'i System since 2001. Last year (2022), retired from college teaching. Taught guitar, ukulele, voice, choir, Music in World Cultures, Introduction to Music Literature, and the Basics of Music Experiences. Founded the Stuart Nago Music Studio (1984), traveling to various class locations to teach private guitar lessons. In 2001, Stuart Nago Music Center (formerly Stuart Nago Music Studio) has private and ensemble classes in guitar, ukulele, and voice.
After graduating with a Bachelor's degree, I started a solo music career playing instrumental guitar music for Waikiki hotels. I've never missed a performance and played all types of gigs that needed music. It's been many years since playing solo guitar music in Waikiki. Since then I've had the privilege of traveling abroad doing performance presentations in Germany and Japan. Blending music and comedy into my performance presentations, my persona -- Maestro Kintaro does the onstage music comedy presentation. The Kintaro character is a throwback rock-n-roll musician from the 60’s and 70’s. Kintaro adds a light hearted Hawaiian style feel to the local music comedy performance. If you are interested in music and comedy, please go to YouTube and search for Kintaro's Back to the Future Review.
Most of my music compositions are written for the guitar, ukulele, piano, and orchestra. In 2015, premiered my solo guitar composition Daybreak on YouTube. This music composition is written for the 10-stringed acoustic electric guitar (click playback link on Welcome Page to hear music clip). In 2004, composed ten instrumental pieces on a self-released CD recording - Reunion. The guitar composition, Open Heart (from the Reunion album) received airplay on the Japanese radio station KZOO 1200. The song was used to advertise the Japanese Consulate in Honolulu, Hawai'i.
For my college music classes, wrote the following textbooks: The Guitar Fretboard and Notereading Exercise Book I and Book II, How to Play the Acoustic Guitar, and The Fundamentals of Music for the Ukulele, Series 1: Reading, Writing and Playing. In 2017, wrote a storytelling book with music called, Kini and the Magic Uke. The storytelling book is for children and parents of all ages. The KINI PROJECT is based on Kini and the Magic Uke story -- sharing music experiences can help to bridge cultural gaps, bring people closer together and build new friendships. The Kini Project is a project collaboration that has the support of local and International businesses. The storytelling presentation is bilingual (Japanese and English) and in the style of a modern day Kamishibai.
It took many years of dedicated music study and performance experiences to build confidence to take on the following projects: write music for a film score, sing on stage with an opera company, dance and act in musicals, and perform on a variety of ethnic instruments. A large portion of my music education and performance life is complete -- I've climbed my Mt. Everest. But I'm here to help others climb mountains – one step at a time. - Stuart