GRAMMY Award-winner Charles Michael Brotman is known to audiences in Hawaii, Japan and in the U.S. for his guitar recordings. In the past few years five of his guitar recordings have reached the top 10 on the national radio charts in the Smooth Jazz and New Age categories, and in 2005 his 'Slack Key Guitar" vol 2 CD debuted at #1 on the Billboard World Chart, and also climbed to #1 on the Billboard New Age Chart. In 2006 Brotman produced a second Grammy nominated CD for Big Island guitarist Sonny Lim. Brotman is also a multiple nominee and winner of Hawaii's 'Hoku' award for his guitar recordings. He currently serves on the Board of Governors for the Pacific Northwest chapter of the Recording Academy; as vice president of the Kauai Music Festival; and on the Advisory Board for the M.E.L.E. music business program at Honolulu Community College.
Brotman grew up on Mercer Island, Washington, and attended undergraduate school in music at Cornish Institute and The Evergreen State College. He moved to Honolulu in 1976, attended University of Hawaii, where he received an M.A. degree in music and subsequently taught classical guitar for 9 years. He left teaching in the mid 1980's to pursue work as a composer/producer, opening a commercial recording studio with a partner in Honolulu. In 1990 he moved to the Big Island, and in 1997 Charles and his sister, Jody Brotman, co-founded Palm Records and built Lava Tracks Recording Studio. In addition to record production, Brotman composes for film and TV. He has also remained active as a performer, touring Japan and the U.S. with his acoustic guitar trio 'Kohala'.