The ukulele, also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings.
Ernest Kaʻai (1881–1962) was considered by many to have been the foremost ukulele authority of his time and is noted by some as being "Hawaii's Greatest Ukulele Player". Kaʻai, who was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, was said to have been the first musician to play a complete melody with chords. He was the son of Simon Kaloa Kaʻai, a prominent politician during the Kingdom of Hawaii.
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (UOGB) is a British musical ensemble founded in 1985 by George Hinchliffe and Kitty Lux as bit of fun. The orchestra features ukuleles of various sizes and registers from soprano to bass. The UOGB is best known for performing musically faithful but often tongue-in-cheek covers of popular songs and musical pieces from a wide variety of music genres taken "from the rich pageant of western music". The songs are often performed with a reinterpretation, sometimes with a complete genre twist, or well known songs from multiple genres are seamlessly woven together. Songs are introduced with light hearted deadpan humour, and juxtaposition is a feature of their act, the members of the orchestra wear semi-formal evening dress and sit behind music stands, in a parody of a classical ensemble.
The Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo is a show inspired by Military Tattoos given by military bands and display teams. It has taken place annually in Nova Scotia's capital, Halifax since 1979. It is currently held in the Halifax Scotiabank Centre.
Raffi Armenian, is a Canadian conductor, pianist, composer, and teacher. He directed the Kitchener–Waterloo Symphony orchestra for many years. Since 1999 he has been the director of Orchestral Studies at the University of Toronto. From 2008 to 2013 he was the director of the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal.
A military tattoo is a performance of music or display of armed forces in general. The term comes from the early 17th-century Dutch phrase doe den tap toe, a signal sounded by drummers or trumpeters to instruct innkeepers near military garrisons to stop serving beer and for soldiers to return to their barracks and is unrelated to the Tahitian origins of an ink tattoo.
The Regimental Band and Pipes was founded on The Citadel campus in Charleston, South Carolina in 1909 with late marine general, Harry K. Pickett, in command. The marching band makes up one of the twenty-one companies of the South Carolina Corps of Cadets. In 1991, the band participated in the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Edinburgh, Scotland becoming the first military college selected for the honor. They returned in 2010 as the only unit from the United States to appear at the Silver Jubilee of the Tattoo and appeared again in 2015.
Herb Ohta aka Ohta-San is an American Ukulele player born in 1934 in Hawaii who has recorded solo, as a group and with Andre Popp on the A&M Records label, which was co-owned by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss. He is also known as "Ohta-San" in Japan and other Asian countries, which is a title of respect for the musician.
Victoria Davitt, better known by stage name Victoria Vox, is a singer, songwriter and musician specialising in the ukulele. A native of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Vox now resides in Costa Mesa, California when not on tour.
Gerald Ross is a musician specializing in American Roots Music – Swing, Early Jazz, Western Swing, Hawaiian, Ragtime and Blues. Playing the guitar, lap steel guitar and ukulele he has performed throughout the USA and Europe and has recorded seven solo CDs. Ross currently tours as a solo act performing and teaching ukulele and steel guitar at festivals and music camps.
The Guitar and Lute Workshop (GLW) was a manufacturer of custom guitars, ukuleles, and period stringed instruments based in Honolulu, Hawaii between 1970 and 1976. The workshop was known primarily for the talented luthiers employed in either construction of guitars, or the musicians that taught at the workshop or that used guitars made at the workshop. Additionally, an independent piano restoration and tuning business operated above the workshop floor and studios for at least two years. The GLW was notable as a nexus of activity supporting native Hawaiian musical cultural discovery during the Second Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s, with key Hawaiian musicians such as Keola Beamer and Kapono Beamer gaining starts in their careers at the GLW, as well as musical instrument restoration for instruments of Hawaiian royalty, now curated by ʻIolani Palace. Additionally, the GLW's focus on traditional period stringed instruments was, in part, responsible for the resurgent interest in the viol and traditional luthierie methods within the western United States in the early 1970s.
James Hill is a Canadian classically trained musician who has focused on the ukulele, both as his primary instrument and as a method of music instruction for school children. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of British Columbia.
Jim Beloff is an American musician. He is a leading proponent of the ukulele. After working in the music industry in Los Angeles, he discovered the ukulele and became an advocate of the instrument. He established Flea Market Music, publisher of the Jumpin' Jim's ukulele songbook series. Beloff's songbooks and instructional books, DVDs and promotion and marketing of his family's Fluke and Flea ukuleles have contributed to the popularity of the instrument. He is also a singer-songwriter and has recorded several solo CDs as well as two with his wife, Liz.
J. Chalmers Doane is a Canadian educator and musician who spearheaded the use of the ukulele for music instruction in the Canadian school systems.
Mighty Uke: The Amazing Comeback of a Musical Underdog is a documentary film about the ukulele. It combines graphics, photographs, interviews and performance footage to tell the story of the ukulele and its recent resurgence in popularity.
Anne Janelle is a classically trained Canadian musician who has focused on the cello.
Michael Bawtree is a Canadian actor, director, author and educator.
Richard Wesley Konter (1882–1979) was a Chief Radioman in the U.S. Navy, member of the Byrd Arctic and Antarctic Expeditions and a musician.
The Stadacona Band of the Royal Canadian Navy is a Canadian military band in the Royal Canadian Navy based in Halifax. It serves as official military band of the Maritime Forces Atlantic Command (MARLANT). It is one of six regular force military bands in the Canadian Forces. It provides musical accompaniment for ceremonial requirements of the East Coast Navy. The Stadacona Band usually performs at the Halifax dockyard to take part in the welcoming naval vessels. For over 75 years, the band's performances have been seen members of the Royal Family, the Governor General of Canada, the Prime Minister of Canada, foreign heads of state, and Canadian naval officials. The band has provided music for all graduation activities in the area.
