Finding values in music has always been a long standing tradition in Hawaiian Culture. The late Queen Lili’uokalani was an accomplished musician of her time. While she was imprisoned in her room during the overthrow of the monarchy she wrote many famous songs that are still heard around Hawaii today. Her stepsister Princess Bernice Pauahi, founder of The Kamehameha Schools, was also an avid fan of music and was herself an accomplished pianist. Pauahi was schooled in music at the Chief’s Children’s School where she was taught to read music. There she also taught younger students to play and read music and she even lead the school choir and sang with various community groups. It was upon this solid musical foundation established by these royal figures that Kamehameha Schools established its solid musical reputation. When the Kamehameha School for boys was established their first music teacher, Theodore Richards, organized the now famous glee club in 1889. It was at this time that Richards along with then principal William Olefson created the school Song “Sons of Hawaii”. They borrowed the melody for the song from a Yale Glee club song. At the same time music education was offered as a subject that taught appreciation for other people’s cultures. The Boy’s School would hold its first Song Contest in May 1921, and the 8th graders won first place. In 1922 the Kamehameha School for girls, which opened in 1894, held its first song contest in June. Among the singers there would be Harriet Beamer daughter of Helen Desha Beamer. Over the years Kamehameha School’s reputation for producing excellent music and musical arrangers and producers has become world famous. Through statehood in 1959 and the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s The Kamehameha Schools Song Contest has been a display of the musical talent of the Hawaiian people. Where songs, sang in acapella style, rang to the emotions and feelings of the Hawaiian Nation at the time. The History of Song Contest