AlohaMusic: An Orgin Story

The story of AlohaMusic begins, as many great things in Hawaiʻi do, with a sense of pride in place and a desire to share that with the world.

For over two decades, the Hawaiʻi All-State Marching Band (HASMB) had proven something remarkable: that you could bring together student musicians from across all the islands, from O'ahu to Kaua'i to Maui to Hawaiʻi Island, and send them onto the world's biggest stages as one unified voice for the state. Founded in April 2002 by John Riggle, the HASMB marched in the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, capturing the attention of audiences across the country. It was a model that worked.

But it was a model that only served one ensemble.

Kuʻulei Arceo, a band director at Hilo High School, saw that clearly. She had worked alongside the HASMB on their 2024 Rose Parade tour and watched firsthand what the program meant to students. The experience, the representation, the pride of carrying Hawaiʻi onto a national stage. She knew the marching band wasn't the only ensemble that deserved that opportunity. Concert bands, ukulele ensembles, choirs, jazz bands. There were students across the state who had no pathway to something like this.

So she made one.

Kuʻulei reached out to Rickey Badua, a man whose connection to the HASMB ran deeper than most. Rickey had been the program's very first drum major as a high school student when it launched in 2002, and had later returned as a travel coordinator, helping shepherd generations of students through the logistical realities of touring nationally. He understood the program from both sides. He said yes.

They also brought in BJ Yamamoto, a former band director and social entrepreneur with years of experience building organizations from the ground up. Together, the three of them incorporated what would become AlohaMusic, legally known as the Aloha State Music Festival, on March 11, 2024.

The mission was clear: replicate the HASMB model across multiple ensembles, and do it through a nonprofit infrastructure built to last.

Less than a year later, on February 24, 2025, the organization received its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the IRS.

Then came the moment that changed the organization's trajectory entirely.

In 2025, John Riggle, the founder who had built HASMB over more than two decades, decided to pass the baton. He entrusted Rickey Badua to lead the Nā Koa Aliʻi Marching Band program into the future. Rickey, along with his AlohaMusic co-founders, stepped in to administer the program under the nonprofit. The organization that had begun as an idea to expand access to music education was now also the steward of one of Hawaiʻi's most storied student performing arts traditions.

AlohaMusic today is young, lean, and moving fast. It runs programs on multiple islands, is preparing for the inaugural Masterclass Series in spring 2026, and has confirmed Nā Koa Aliʻi's performance in the historic 100th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in November 2026. A Japan tour for the ʻUkulele Ensemble is on the horizon for 2027.

But the origin is simple: three people who believed that more students in Hawaiʻi deserved a world stage, and decided to build it themselves.