Ozzie Kotani is a slack-key guitar player and a well-respected teacher, arranger, solo performer and accompanist.

Kotani was born in 1956 in Honolulu, Hawaii in the neighborhood of Pauoa. He learned how to play the 'ukulele in fourth grade, but his interest in kī hō‘alu, or Hawaiian slack key guitar, was sparked in high school when he heard Keola Beamer on the radio.