Charles Michael Brotman

Based in Hawaii, Charles Michael Brotman is an acclaimed instrumentalist and composer whose music spans a broad stylistic mix from film and television music to classical and Hawaiian slack-key guitar. Active since the late 1980s, his compositions have been heard across film, television, and advertising, but he has been more prominently known for his tranquil nylon-string acoustic guitar work. Both with his Hawaiian trio, Kohala, and as a solo artist, Brotman has released a string of popular albums on his own Palm Records imprint. In 2005, he won a Grammy Award for the compilation Slack Key Guitar Volume 2, which he produced and played on. He contributed a song to the hit 2011 film The Descendants, has won several regional Hawaiian music awards, and also explores pop- and rock-based music with his side project the Barrel Thieves. Born into a musical family on Mercer Island in Washington, Brotman began as a violinist but later gravitated toward the guitar. Relocating to Hawaii, he earned his master's in music at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where he also taught classical guitar. The traditional slack-key guitar style of the islands enchanted him, and he began playing and composing in a style that mixed Hawaiian music with his classical and Baroque influences. While on a trip to Los Angeles, he met a publisher who turned him on to the world of licensing, and before long Brotman was landing his work in film, television, and advertising; he soon launched his own production company and studio out of Honolulu. Later relocating to the Big Island, he founded the Palm Records imprint in the late '90s with his sister and business partner, Jody Brotman. Over the coming decade, he successfully managed both aspects of his career, prolifically creating music for a variety of commercial projects while releasing his own guitar albums and several with fellow guitarists Rupert Tripp, Jr. and Charlie Recaido as part of the trio Kohala. In 2005, Brotman made history when the Palm Records compilation Slack Key Guitar Volume 2 earned the inaugural Grammy Award for Best Hawaiian Music Album. A chart success, the album, which he produced and played on, significantly raised his profile. He continued to perform and record with Kohala, releasing additional albums like 2006's Deeper Blue and 2014's Mana Road. His solo instrumental song "Hapuna Sunset" was featured in the 2011 George Clooney film The Descendants. Brotman has continued to compose, record, and perform while staying active in the Hawaiian music community as the director of Creative Lab Hawaii's Music Immersive program and president of the Hawaii Songwriting Festival. ~ Timothy Monger, Rovi