An international occasion

Liverpool’s popular Ukulele Ceilidh to return Oct. 4, 5

On Oct. 4 and 5, ukulele players from the South Shore, including the South Shore Ukulele Players and Seaside Strummers, will host the eighth International Ukulele Ceilidh in Liverpool.

This event includes workshops with guest performers and instructors, a free “open mic” session Friday night with “Strut and Strum”, and jamming well into the night at the Liverpool Best Western Hotel. And Saturday, there is a free event at Lane’s Privateer Inn with the University of Maine at Machias Ukulele Club.

Saturday evening at the historic Astor Theatre, a gala concert, featuring all of the guest performers, will be held. Performers include the Urban Surf Kings, Manitoba Hal, Stuart Fuchs, Jack n Jel, and of course the Chalmers Doane Trio, well known in Nova Scotia music circles.

International guest performers/instructors will be on hand from various points around the globe: Jack n Jel from Australia; the University of Maine at Machias Ukulele Club and Stuart Fuchs from the U.S.; Manitoba Hal from Western Canada; and The Urban Surf Kings featuring Mike Diabo and Andrew Beazley from Nova Scotia. Chalmers Doane himself will be conducting instruction sessions as well.

Stuart Fuchs is a Grammy-nominated guitar/uke musician who has performed and taught all over North America, the Caribbean, and Europe. In 2014, he was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for his work bringing healing music to cancer patients. Fuchs is an accomplished classical guitarist who blends mindfulness and music at his annual Ukulele Zen retreats in his home state in New England.

Jack n Jel (not their real names!) are from Newcastle, Australia and travel the world teaching and performing the ukulele. As teachers, they have attained an international reputation for “ukestration” workshops, helping community ukulele groups to develop their musicianship and joy in playing this lighthearted instrument. They have been described as performers who can teach, and teachers who can perform, and besides their native Australia, have appeared in New Zealand, Canada and the USA. Reviewers of their performances have used expressions like “mesmerizing”, “funny”, and “a little brave.”

Manitoba Hal was born in Ontario but sounds as if he is from the American Deep South when he musically demonstrates his passion for the blues. He moved to Winnipeg in his youth, and today lives somewhere in the Nova Scotia wilderness. He brings a soulfulness to the unique sound of the ukulele and has been described as “amazing”.

Audiences have probably never heard the ukulele played quite like it’s played by the Urban Surf Kings, who have turned the popular ukulele into a fourstring surf machine.

For more information on the 2019 International Ukulele Ceilidh, check out the website www.ukuleleceilidh.ca to register and to learn more.