Award-winning composers, recording artists, performers and producers, Leon Siu and Malia Elliott comprise the versatile, creative team, Leon & Malia — a unique musical bridge between Hawaii and the rest of the world.

Leon & Malia have collaborated in writing and performing a wide variety of music.

They met in Hilo, Hawaii where Leon was performing as a soloist at a bay-front nightclub and Malia was part of a visiting theatre group from Honolulu. Two years later they teamed up as Leon & Malia and started performing in Waikiki. Within a couple of months, they were the featured act at the world-famous Purple Onion in San Francisco.

Writing and Recording

The decade of the 70’s found Leon & Malia shuttling between Hawaii, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Their debut recording, Leon & Malia was recorded in Los Angeles in 1970; followed by Blend, in 1972, Haku Mele in 1976. In 1977 they wrote the soundtrack to the National Geographic documentary film, the Voyage of the Hōkūle‘a that won the Drama Critics Award for best documentary film.

In 1979, they wrote and recorded three distinctive ground-breaking albums: Heartland, chronicling their journeys across America and home again; Mokulana, a delightful story-book album for Hawaii's children; and Boy With Goldfish, a dynamic symphonic cantata recorded in England with the famed London Symphony Orchestra. Besides being the first composers from Hawaii ever to record with a world-class symphony orchestra, Leon & Malia’s Boy With Goldfish project was also one of the first to utilize digital recording technology while it was in the experimental stage. Their recording pioneered the way for the transition from vinyl discs to compact discs that took place in the mid-1980s. Their 1993 ‘album’ Tropic Nights was the first completely digital project in Hawaii and L&M beta tested what became the top digital recording software in the world.

Producing

Since 1979, Leon & Malia have been the dominant presence in children’s music in Hawaii. Their initial project, Mokulana was released as a storybook-album and is still in demand as a storybook-cd. Songs from their hit Keiki Calabash sing-along video are sung in every elementary school in Hawaii and in many schools around the world. For years, Leon & Malia’s Calabash Corner TV spots was a regular feature every Saturday and Sunday morning on PBS Hawaii.

They also produced a program called Tutu TV aired on community access stations throughout Hawaii, with helpful hints for grandparents who provide daytime caregiving for their grandchildren.

In 2007 Leon & Malia produced and released another children's sing-along video (DVD) called Hawaii Kids Calabash. Like the original Keiki Calabash, it features hundreds of children in Hawaii's great outdoors, singing wonderful songs about the amazing treasures of Hawaii!

They have produced numerous other children’s recordings including Mokulana, Ho’olako Hawaii, Lullaby Moon, Kamalani Children’s Chorus, Tutu and Me, Wee Play and Learn, and their newest — Hawaii Kids Praise!

Performing

Besides numerous special appearances and concerts, every year Leon & Malia perform to tens of thousands of children in schools, festivals and celebrations throughout the islands.

Although they have played nearly every type of venue with nearly every configuration of musical back-up, performances with just their voices and guitar are when Leon & Malia are most engaging and wonderful.

Profile of Leon & Malia

Leon was reared on the island of Hawaii and has a background in the visual arts — particularly in painting — as well as music.

Malia was reared on the island of Oahu and her background is rooted in stage and theatre arts.

They met in Hilo (on the island of Hawaii) while both were still college students. Two years later, after she had completed theatrical contracts in California, Malia teamed up with Leon singing late-nights in a little cellar club in Waikiki.

Within months they were invited to San Francisco to play at the famous Purple Onion which had been the launching pad for the Kingston Trio, the Smothers Brothers, Phyllis Diller, Jim Nabors, Pat Paulsen, and many others. During their many engagements at the Purple Onion (shuttling back and forth to Hawaii) they also played numerous colleges and concert venues in the Bay Area and Hawaii. Soon after they started at the Purple Onion, Leon & Malia were offered a recording contract and flew to Los Angeles to record their first album.

Returning to Hawaii to promote their new record, they became the first act of their genre (Folk/Hawaiian) to penetrate mainstream Waikiki as headliners. The next few years was a steady stream of concerts, nightclubs, ship cruises, recordings and touring.

In 1975 the Honolulu Symphony began performing excerpts from a symphonic cantata, Boy With Goldfish written by Leon & Malia and co-composer Jerré Tanner. In 1977 this grew to a full performance of the 67-minute work by the Honolulu Symphony at the Honolulu International Center Concert Hall (now called the Neal S.Blaisdell Concert Hall). Two years later, Boy With Goldfish was recorded by the world renown, London Symphony Orchestra in a highly experimental format called “digital recording.” Released as an "analog" disc in 1980, it was hailed as an artistic and a technical triumph and pioneered the onset of digital recording.

The mid-seventies also found Leon & Malia in the midst of a profound Hawaiian cultural revival, from the rebirth of hula kahiko (the ancient style), to disputes over development, to Hawaiian land claims and the stirrings of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, to the awe-inspiring re-birth of the Polynesian voyaging traditions in the form of the double-hulled sailing canoe, Hōkūle'a. Leon & Malia were chosen by the National Geographic producers to write the soundtrack for the 90-minute television special, The Voyage of the Hōkūle'a. Released in 1977, it won the Drama Critics Award for Best Documentary Film. Besides awakening a sense of legacy and pride in Hawaii, Hōkūle'a quickened the spirit of rediscovery, regeneration and cultural pride throughout Polynesia and Oceania. In an extension of that legacy, from 2014-2017 Hōkūle'a circumnavigated the world on a voyage called, Malama Honua. The Disney film, Moana was inspired by the amazing story of Hōkūle'a.

In 1979, Leon & Malia wrote and produced their landmark children's storybook/record, "Mokulana" impacting an entire generation of Hawaii's children. "Mokulana" and another project called "Ho'olako Hawaii" (1987) were the prototypes for the current "Keiki Calabash" line of media products featuring Leon & Malia's songs for children. They have written and recorded dozens of wonderful songs enjoyed by three (going on four) generations of children in Hawaii and all over the world.

Along with music, they have created videos, books, and produced numerous media projects for children. Click here to visit their children's website, HawaiiKidsMusic.com