Rosyln & Lisa Matsumoto - biography

Roslyn
  It's always been music for me, since I was a kid turning the pages for my mom who was the pianist in the symphony in the pit. There is nothing in this world like being surrounded by live musicians. And then I met my rocker husband right out of high school, and he introduced me to a whole nother side of music altogether, one just as passionate, just as excellent. And I was surrounded by his music and so much music that I'd never heard of before that. And I don't get it - this business of music - because music is supposed to come from some place much deeper than any business. So I've been writing songs about life, love, God, pain, hurt, beauty, and everything from swinging on a swingset in a park to a generation of people being wiped out in the blink of an eye, and I've been trying to forget about the business of it all because when i forget about that, the music flows, the words flow, and I know I'm in the right place. And those are the times that are the most exciting for me, and I feel that I'm just the lucky one at that moment - when I'm experiencing the song for the first time before anyone else yet, hearing and seeing it grow from the size of a pinprick in my heart and growing right before my eyes. I've just gotta keep my focus on that, on listening and looking for it, because everyone has their opinions, and while that is a good thing, I don't want a handful of people's opinions to form the music coming from inside of me. I'm an independent musician and I'll always be an independent musician because I get to make the music that I feel from my soul.

Lisa Matsumoto
  Lisa Matsumoto holds a B.A. in Drama and Theatre and an M.F.A. in Youth Theatre with an emphasis in playwriting from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. She is the creator and playwright of the award-winning Once Upon One Time trilogy which includes: Once Upon One Time, Once Upon One Noddah Time and Happily Eva Afta. Additional works include: Das How Come, The Princess and the Iso Peanut, On Dragonfly Wings and ‘Ohi‘a Productions' Educational Road Shows. She also wrote and co-directed The Wizard of Oz: Local Style a local concert adaptation of the popular story for The Honolulu Symphony.

Lisa has received Po‘okela awards for: leading actress for her role as Da Wicked Queen in Once Upon One Time, original script for Happily Eva Afta, Das How Come, and The Princess and the Iso Peanut, and a special adjudicator's award "for her outstanding contribution to O‘ahu's theatres". She also received the Elliot Cades Award for Literature 2000 which goes to "a proven writer who has published a significant body of work of exceptional quality". Her plays have been voted Hawai‘i's favorite locally written plays and her work has merited feature stories in Midweek, Malamalama, Honolulu Weekly, Honolulu Magazine, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and The Honolulu Advertiser.

Lisa is also the author of How the B-52 Cockroach Learned to Fly (1996 Ka Pala Pala Po‘okela award for Excellence in Children's Books), Wailana the Waterbug (2000 Ka Pala Pala Po'okela award for Excellence in Children's Books) and local bestsellers Beyond Ohi‘a Valley: Adventures in a Hawaiian Rainforest and The Adventures of Gary and Harry: A Tale of Two Turtles.