Come ready to laugh, cheer, and maybe even sing along with a stage full of ukuleles playing everything from Tchaikovsky to punk rock — with a wink and a grin. This is virtuosity with a side of mischief.
“An oversized dose of unexpected hipness.”
– Times Union
Formed in 1985 as the antidote to mindless pop, egocentric rock, and the indulgent bluster of the music business, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain donned black tuxedos and began giving ‘concerts’ in tiny rooms above old pubs. Four decades (and 400,000,000 plucks) later, they’re still thrilling audiences with their offbeat humor and four-stringed virtuosity from Tasmania to the Arctic Circle, Windsor Castle to Carnegie Hall.
There are no drums, pianos, backing tracks, guitars, or banjos, no pitch shifters or electronic trickery – just an astonishing revelation of the rich palette of orchestration afforded by ukuleles and a menagerie of voices in a collision of postpunk performance and old classics. Come and celebrate the 40th anniversary of this much-loved institution, on a white knuckle shopping-trolley dash through every kind of musical genre. From ABBA to ZZ Top, Tchaikovsky to Nirvana, Bluegrass to Broadway, all played on the ‘bonsai guitar”. Presented in Centennial Hall.
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