Pianist, organist and choral arranger Martha "Auntie Leila" Kaumakaokalani Hohu Kiaha was born with abilities that graced the artistic products of well-known Hawai'i musicians and helped to shape the musical skills of generations of Kamehameha Schools graduates.

She continued her work until shortly before her death at St. Francis Medical Center on Monday. She was 78.

"She was arranging a song for our song contest this year when she had a stroke," said Hailama Farden, a Hawaiian language teacher at Kamehameha, a longtime student of Kiaha and a board member of the Hawaii Academy of (Recording) Performing Arts. "She told her son to be sure to call the school and tell them that one wasn't finished."

Kiaha's work was so important to the Kamehameha Schools Song Contest, Farden said, that the 2004 event was dedicated to her. Although she had worried about not finishing the arrangement on one song for this year, she had completed the work on two other songs.

When the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts voted in December to make Auntie Leila a 2006 recipient of the Na Hoku Hanohano Lifetime Achievement Award, Farden said, he called her to give her the news.

"She said, 'Oh, I don't deserve that,' " he said.

Farden begged to differ with his teacher, mentor and friend — and had plenty of ammunition for the debate.

Kiaha's piano playing, known for its distinct "Hawaiian Swing" style, has graced the performances and recordings of a number of well-known Hawai'i musicians, including Tony Conjugacion and Kawai Cockett.

She also directed a number of choral groups, including those of the Kailua Hawaiian Civic Club, King Kamehameha Hawaiian Civic Club, General Contractors' Association, Na Hoaloha, Hawaiian Telephone Hui Mele Nani and Hilton Hawaiian Village Employees.

For more than 30 years, she was the organist at Nu'uanu Congregational Church, and also played at Bishop Memorial Church.

A 1944 graduate of Kamehameha School for Girls, Kiaha served as choral director for her graduating class and had been arranging songs for the Kamehameha Schools Song Contest since 1959, a job for which family members said she always reserved a special part of herself.

Rather than wait for the usual banquet in March, the Hawai'i Academy of Recording Arts presented her Na Hoku Hanohano Lifetime Achievement Award during an impromptu ceremony in Kiaha's St. Francis Medical Center hospital room, which was filled with flowers and cards from admirers, many of them past and present Kamehameha students.

"Her most intensive, extensive work was with Kamehameha Schools, especially at the end," said Daniel H. Kiaha, the fourth of Kiaha's five children.

Kiaha had a legacy to uphold. She was the daughter of the late musician Auntie Martha Poepoe Hohu, another Kamehameha graduate and Na Hoku Hanohano Lifetime Achievement honoree who took pride in passing on the love of her art.

With her students, as with her children, Kiaha's high expectations of her charges sometimes made her seem stern, Daniel said.

"She had to be," he said. "She had four sons and a daughter. She managed to do what she was blessed to do and at the same time raise a family," he said.

In addition to Daniel, of Honolulu, Kiaha is survived by sons Charles R. Kiaha of Los Angeles, Gregg K. Kiaha of Kaua'i, Mark P. Kiaha of Honolulu; daughter Marthalei U. Kiaha Osakoda of Kaua'i, as well as nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Funeral was pending at Nuuanu Memorial Park & Mortuary.

Reach Karen Blakeman at kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.