By Stephanie Powell It started with a simple idea: Plant a koa tree for every ukulele that Kanile’a built. But thriving forests don’t exist with only one species of tree, and so the dream turned into a challenge: create a…
BY LAURENCE VITTES After a busy concert season, playing music in all genres including her own compositions in brilliant, innovative ways on the ukulele, winning new fans for her and her instrument wherever she goes, Taimane returned home to Honolulu…
By Stephanie Powell Earlier this month, the Atlantic‘s weekly Friendship Files column featured a quartet of women who channel the spirit of the ukulele on a regular basis. Fate led them each to an Illinois-based, 20-piece strumalong group the Hummers…
By Kelsey Holt Submission Information Listings are free for ukulele events, though we may not have space to include every submission. Deadlines for the next four issues are: August 5, 2019 (Winter 2019); November 4, 2019 (Spring 2020); February 3,…
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By Stephanie Powell A $5 donation could land you with America’s Got Talent alum Grace VanderWaal‘s autographed Fender ukulele. The singer-ukulele player offered up her instrument to the Rockland County Day School Scholarship Fund as a way to raise money…
By Nicolas Grizzle It was 95 degrees with 100 percent humidity in mid-July this year, but it was 72 and breezy in the cool confines of the Summer NAMM convention center downtown. And that’s where we tried to spend most…
By Jim D’Ville About 300 miles due east of Seattle, Washington, lies the vast Inland Empire. Known mostly for its agricultural contributions—they grow more lentils than anywhere else in the USA—you’ll also find a bumper crop of ukulele players. From…
By Heidi Swedberg/ Photos by Vic Hamm Who-What-When-Where-Why-How in one sentence: The Kamloops Ukulele Orchestra has wrapped up its fourth annual festival under the waxing spring moon at the Sorrento Centre in British Columbia, Canada, to the delight of about…
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The winners of Hawaii’s prestigious Nā Hōkū Hanohano awards were announced in a lavish ceremony May 25. Some big names in the ukulele world walked away with awards from the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts, which hosts the event at…
