Can't wait to write about my great experience in the UK soon! Gearing up for the big Cairns, Australia Ukefest next week too!
Reno Ukulele Festival and Mighty Uke Day!
Wow, how fast time flies! In April, I was featured at the Reno Ukulele Festival. I was joined by Sarah Maisel, Daniel Ho, Jason Arimoto, Ralph Shaw, Gerald Ross, Jim D’Ville, Brook Adams, Heidi Swedberg, Daniel Ward, Brad Ranola and Stu Herreid. It was an incredibly fun weekend and was held at the Golden Nugget Casino. There was a great turnout and my workshops were packed with people excited to learn.
I loved how everything was close together and it was quite a fun vibe being in the casino the whole weekend. My favorite thing of the whole event had to be the Celebrity Showroom where we performed. It was a great stage and two great concerts. Below are some of my favorite photos I took from theReno Ukefest. To see all of them, click here! Thank you Doug, Rich and company for a very fun weekend!
After a week of rest (and attempting to still settle in at the new home in San Diego), Sarah and I were off to the Mighty Uke Day (aka MUD) in Lansing, Michigan! It was our first time in Michigan and we had a blast! First off, the weather was absolutely amazing. I heard they had a really rough winter but the sun greeted us throughout the whole weekend and it added so much energy and life to the festival. There was a ton of talent in both the performing artists and even the open mic participants!
I finally got to meet Mitch Chang and am excited that he will be returning to California later this year. Mike Kassel is another artist that I got to meet and enjoyed. I wanted to thank Elderly Instruments for their support and hosting the workshops and to Ben for including Sarah and I on this awesome event. Although it's a relatively new event, it's great to see it expanding and getting bigger and better every year! Can't wait to be back!
Here are some of my favorite photos from MUD! To view all of the photos, click here!
There's a ton of exciting things coming up like the San Diego Ukulele Festival, the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain, Britt Festival in Ashland, OR, and the Cairns Ukulele Festival! I'll be writing very soon about each of these. Until then!
South Florida Ukefest & fun in Atlanta, GA!
The past two weeks were spent in South Florida and Georgia, hosting workshops, performing and sightseeing. Ah, there was also a lot of eating! We'll get to that part later...
First off, the South Florida Ukulele Festival was a blast. It was held in Fort Lauderdale by F.U.N. (the Florida Ukulele Network). I had a chance to see my good friend Hal Manitoba (the last time we saw each other was the Cairns Ukefest 3 years ago), Steve Boisen and Amanda Lynn (you will be seeing much more of these two soon!), and of course the lovely Sarah Maisel was there to help round out the great line up of performers and instructors.
We got to see friends that we met at last year's Tampa Bay Ukefest as well as friends from all over the East coast. I am always impressed by the energy at these festivals. There is such a positive vibe and I feel so incredibly lucky that we are able to not only share our music and passion but teach and help inspire. I look forward to seeing this festival grow as the ukulele community in Florida seems to be taking off and I also look forward to be being back in the future! A big thank you to Ty and everyone at F.U.N. who put it all together.
After the festival, Sarah and I headed to Atlanta to visit family and more ukulele fanatics. Ah, there was also lots of great food to be had. You'll see some of the food in the photos but my favorite would have to be the "special" from Weeyum's Philly Style in Stone Mountain, GA. Definitely stop by if you're in the area!
In the middle of the week, we got to stop by the open mic session of the Southeast Ukers! What a great uke group! As you'll see in the photos, a lot of the performers were from the younger generations which I love to see. It's exciting to see where they will take the instrument in the future.
After a week of sightseeing, we ended our trip with a workshop and performance at the Uke Republic (http://www.ukerepublic.com). We were joined by the Woven Pines who were an excellent group! We had a great turn out and I'm positive that more artists will be adding the Uke Republic to places to stop by when they are in the area. Huge thank you to Mike and Donna!
I leave you with the photos I took from the trip, I hope you enjoy!
NAMM, tour, and relocation.
Wow, it's been a bit since I've updated the blog! I have a ton to catch you all up on!
First off, January was another great NAMM experience (http://www.namm.org/thenammshow/2014) in Anaheim. I got to see a ton of ukulele friends who I haven't seen in a while and also joined Sarah Maisel and Paul Hemmings at Island Bazaar (http://ukuleleparadise.com) in Huntington Beach. We had an amazing crowd and I can't wait to be back again!
Sarah and I then took off around North California teaching workshops and performing at Chico, Lodi, San Jose, Berkeley, Modesto and Roseville. Here are some of my favorite photos from NAMM and the tour! How many people do you recognize? :)
After that I spent the next few months gearing up for the big move down south! That's right, as of a few days ago, I am now a San Diegoan. San Diegan? San Diegonese? Whatever the term is, expect a TON of new videos, songs, photos and experiences here and on Facebook and Twitter... Many new projects are coming up and I can't wait to start going into detail about them. Will update very soon :)
Until then, here's my first sunset from the new digs. Aloha!
