For passionate young musicians growing up outside of O‘ahu, local opportunities can feel limited and out of reach. Our Pacific Music Institute strives to change the equation by opening doors that extend far beyond a single summer week.
Designed For All Islands
PMI’s unique structure (an intensive, week-long summer program) is specifically designed to make high quality music education accessible to students across the state. Unlike year-round programs that require weekly commitments, PMI’s concentrated summer format means students from any island only need to travel once for a transformative week of musical immersion.
To support this vision of true statewide access, PMI provides dorming facilities where students can live comfortably and safely for the duration of the program. These accommodations transform what could be a logistical nightmare into a seamless experience, allowing students to focus on their musical growth and community building.
PMI also serves as a gateway to year-round opportunities with Hawai‘i Youth Symphony for some neighbor island musicians. Students who might never have considered the logistics of ongoing participation discover not only that they love orchestral music, but that continued involvement is within reach. What begins as a doable summer commitment can blossom into sustained engagement with our parent organization’s youth orchestra throughout the school year.
Connor W., a bassoon student from Maui, experienced exactly this progression: “Because PMI was off island, I got to experience what it was like to basically be in a bigger band, and with harder music and everything. And so, as a result, I really, really loved it, and I wanted to join Hawai‘i Youth Symphony too.”
Connor’s journey illustrates how PMI’s thoughtful format creates a bridge from isolation to connection, from limited opportunities to year-round musical growth. The week-long intensive gave him something impossible to replicate in shorter workshops: sustained, deep engagement with challenging repertoire and fellow musicians that sparked a lasting passion.
Bringing Music to Every Community
PMI’s commitment to all-island reach doesn’t stop at bringing neighbor island students to O‘ahu. Through our OLA Teaching Fellows program, we’re also bringing live music and inspiration directly to neighbor island communities. These accomplished teaching fellows travel across the islands to conduct performances and workshops, giving more students the chance to experience world-class musicianship firsthand and learn from professional musicians, often sparking the initial interest that leads students to pursue programs like PMI!
This two-way approach—bringing students to intensive training opportunities while also bringing performances and workshops to their home communities—creates a comprehensive ecosystem of support for neighbor island musicians at every stage of their musical journey.
Removing Every Barrier
At PMI, we also know that distance isn’t the only barrier families face. PMI offers financial aid for kamaʻāina students, ensuring that a student’s zip code or family income never stands between them and exceptional music education. This support applies both to PMI and HYS programs for those students who, like Connor, fall in love with orchestral playing and want to keep going, and can cover program costs, travel fees, and instrument borrows.
Past and present philanthropic support from the Halekulani Corporation, Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation, First Hawaiian Bank Foundation, Charles & Mitch Ota Fund, the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation, The Serendipity II Fund of HCF, the National Orchestral Institute+Festival, and numerous individual donors have helped to reduce financial barriers so that interested students, of any financial or geographic background, can take part in PMI.
Life-Changing Impact in One Week
“Especially on neighbor islands, there aren’t a lot of opportunities,” explains Kallie K., a Hilo-based flute student who has participated in PMI for the past two summers. “So being able to come to PMI and experience playing with new people and making new friends is a really great experience.”
Kallie’s words capture what makes PMI transformative for neighbor island students: it’s not just about technical improvement, though that certainly happens. It’s about discovering what’s possible. In a single intensive week, students experience the power of playing in a full orchestra, the challenge of tackling professional-level repertoire, and the inspiration that comes from meeting other serious young musicians. And perhaps most importantly, they realize this doesn’t have to be a once-a-year experience, it can be the beginning of something ongoing.
This experience—watching students like Kallie and Connor discover their potential—inspires our unwavering commitment to reaching students on every island.