Marching Forth (as April May)

 

Hope springs eternal. As does music.  Are they not, fundamentally the same thing?  Neither could I live without.  “So, in a world of snow, of things that come and go, where what you think you know you can’t be certain of you must believe in spring and love“.

Here’s some of what is on our calendar this spring:

3/26 KALA Ukulele Day in LA at USPACE with Jim D’Ville.  I will be using my new book “Color-Along Ukulele” for my all ages class, and you get a copy to keep with class admission!  Win a Kala Waterman uke– Giving away one per class!¡! 

4/2 WAKE UP with the Waves at the Santa Monica Pier   all ages- FREE!  10:30 am-noon  We will have a crazy fun band, including Paul the Trombonist

4/16 UKULELE DAY at WILMINGTON Los Angeles Public Library Branch  all ages- FREE!!!!  (Check out their free 6-week class for kids and teens starting 3/9!)

4/24 RACHEL MANKE  lets us sit in with her at the Coffee Gallery

5/5-8 WEST COAST UKULELE RETREAT in Asilomar. If you have never been… GO! (if there are still rooms available) This is a FANTASTIC retreat with great instructors in the most beautiful, peaceful place you can imagine.  And the food’s great, too!

 

We are heading across the pond to England in June, where Daniel will be playing the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain.  To prepare, he is scheduling private house concerts and a public show at U-Space on May 21.  More details to follow as they solidify.  This will be a great show with a guest bass player and El Uke will be debuting some very snazzy new material as well as playing selections from his CD EL UKULELE.  Give it a preview!

Ukulele Lending Library

Imagine this- flash a library card and you can check out an instrument for a month at a time. Now that is civilized! Further proof that libraries are the greatest of human institutions: ukulele collections!

Kids of all ages(!) play ukes from the Killian Mansfield Collection at the Phoenicia Library grand re-opening in January.

The Killian Mansfield Ukulele Collection at the Phoenicia Library in upstate New York has 30 ukuleles to loan. Their neighbor, the Olive Library West Shokan NY has followed suit and has a new ukulele collection.  We are thrilled to be sending books both of these libraries to compliment their collection!  Our Kickstarter campaign for our forthcoming book COLOR-ALONG UKULELE offers supporters to buy books to be donated to some great causes.  These libraries are among them, and I would like to tell you a little more about them.

Phoenicia Library does after school ukulele programs for elementary and middle grade students.  The library sponsors regular family ukulele classes, jams and occasional performances.  However, the library is woefully understocked in the ukulele teaching/learning materials department. (Let’s help them out there, shall we?)

Here is what a board member Mark Lerner had to say about the library:

“The Phoenicia Library is located in the high peaks of NY’s Catskill Mountains. The library is the heart of our rural community, providing books, information, meeting space, internet access, and programming for children and adults. The 2011 fire led us to an ambitious rebuilding project (entirely paid for by grants, insurance, and private donations), and the newly re-opened library is the first American library built to Passive House specifications, a rigorous standard for energy efficiency that reduces our energy consumption by over 80%. In addition to the Killian Mansfield Ukulele Collection, the library houses the Jerry Bartlett Memorial Angling Collection, a museum of fly-fishing that also lends out fishing rods.”

Mark is a great artist- both visual and musical, and a great friend and currently lives in Phoenicia. Go to his website, or check out his blog, Every Band I’ve Ever Been In.  You can also see his fine work on both of my CDs– he did the graphic design.

And he is the graphic designer for  COLOR-ALONG UKULELE, our method-coloring book being funded on Kickstarter right now.   You can pre-order books until April 1 at reduced cost for yourself or for your favorite ukulele program.

Speaking of libraries- tomorrow I will be doing a children’s program at the Memorial Branch Library in Los Angeles at 10 am. Come show off your library card and sing with me!

Coming soon to a library near you!