History of the Gaithersburg UkeFest (Ukulele Festival) and Details on This Year’s Event

Patrick Herron February 11, 2022 at 11:59am

The Gaithersburg UkeFest will be taking place at Pathways Baptist Church on March 17-19, 2022.

History of the Gaithersburg UkeFest (Ukulele Festival) by founders Keith and Nani Lowery

Aloha! Keith and Nani Lowery were married in Kaneohe, HI on June 28, 1986. It seems their passion throughout their marriage is perpetuating the Aloha spirit. Nani was born and raised in Hawaii, on the Windward side of Oahu. She has played the ukulele for as long as she can remember. Keith played guitar and the trumpet, but now plays the UBass (a Bass Ukulele), and together they have performed at various venues in the DMV as “Naniukulelejoy”. After attending a ukulele festival in Boyertown, PA in early October of 2018 (where Nani was one of the instructors) Keith got the idea of creating a similar ukulele festival right here in Gaithersburg, MD. By the 1st of November 2018, the Gaithersburg UkeFest website was active, and 5 months later the 2019 Inaugural Gaithersburg UkeFest was held. About 125 people attended that first festival, and by all accounts, it was a success. One of the highlights was a raffle we conducted, that raised $1,000 for Gaithersburg Help.

In 2020, we had the 2nd annual festival planned when COVID-19 happened. The March 19-21. 2020 ukulele festival was cancelled. By April 4th, we had a weekly, 2-hour long afternoon entertainment program on Zoom we called the Performers Showcase. It started off with 6 ukulele artists from the United States. By our 4th showcase (April 24th) we had our first European guest artist, and on June 13th we had our first South American guest. All told, we hosted 158 1-hour ukulele workshops, and 41 performer showcases during the Spring and Fall of 2020, and Winter and Spring of 2021.

For the 2022 “live” festival, every artist coming to Gaithersburg appeared at least once on a showcase, and many of them also taught workshops. The artists include: Peter Moss (U.K.), Vinicius Vivas (Brazil), Lorenzo Lignando, aka. Ukulollo (Italy), Jim D’Ville (Ohio), Ashley Orlando (Houston, TX), Chrissy (L.A., CA), Bob Tigert (Nashville, TN), Lisa Webb (Nashville, TN), Gracie Terzian (NYC, NY), Christopher Davis-Shannon (Philadephia, PA), Uncle Zac (Connecticut), Phredd (Lancaster, PA), Melissa Nannen (PA), Lisa Kljaich (Kentucky), The Edukated Fleas (Connecticutt), The Birdwatchers (Prove, UT), Uke 66 (Springfield, MO), and Amy Kucharik (Somerset, MA)

Any level of ukulele player is welcome to the festival, even one just starting

The international artists include:

Peter Moss – Peter is a professional, international Ukulele performer and workshop presenter residing in the UK. His performance is quite unique covering many styles incorporating the Ukulele, Banjolele and vocal.

Vittorio Fioramonti and Lorenzo Lignando, aka. Ukulollo – Ukulollo, is an Italian ukulele player from Lucca, Tuscany. He has published 5 original albums and many cover songs. Ukulollo has toured the world: from Italy to England, Spain, France, the Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Israel, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, China, and Singapore.Ukulollo is an ambassador of Ukuleles for Peace, the wonderful project run by Paul Moore which gathers together Jewish and Arab children into a ukulele orchestra in the state of Israel. He Plays Ohana Ukuleles with Aquila Strings and Living Waters Strings.

Vinicius Vivas – Vinícius is a Brazilian ukulele player from Rio de Janeiro (the land of Bossa Nova). He has performed solo ukulele and with a gypsy jazz ukulele trio in Blue Note Rio, wrote the first Master Dissertation about ukulele in Brazil and created the Ukulele Orchestra in one of biggest Brazilian Universities (UFRJ). He has also played gigs and workshops in South Korea and United States.Vinícius was born and raised on Brazilian Music. He knows how to bring the Samba and Bossa Nova swing to ukulele. He also plays Jazz, Rock, Pop Music and Choro.

For more information visit www.gaithersburgukefest.com