Instructors/performers

Daniel Ho
Hawaii | LA

Daniel Ho is the first artist in history to be nominated for a Grammy for a solo instrumental album. Hawai‘i-born, Los Angeles-based Daniel Ho is a six-time GRAMMY Award winner, fourteen-time GRAMMY Award nominee, six-time Taiwanese Golden Melody Award winner, and recipient of multiple Hawaiian Music awards. He is a ukulele virtuoso, slack key guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, singer-songwriter, producer, audio engineer, and record company owner.

Daniel’s collaborations transcend genres from traditional to contemporary Hawaiian, world music, to classical guitar and ‘ukulele duets with Pepe Romero, to driving rock riffs with electric guitarist Tak Matsumoto (of 80+ million album-selling Japanese rock duo, B’z). Always on the move, Daniel is in infinite pursuit of new musical adventures. Daniel is also author of a series of Ukulele educational books. It’s safe to say that Daniel Ho is part of the original generation of Hawaii’s Uke royalty!
Bio video https://www.danielho.com/#intro-section
Performance https://youtu.be/bye5tIQuAkM
Pineapple Mango https://youtu.be/M2C3VtcEfoY

http://www.danielho.com
Specializes in Hawaiian music, Fingerstyle Melody Ukulele, and Original Compositions

 

Victoria Vox
USA | California

Award-winning singer/songwriter Victoria Vox, began playing ukulele in 2003. In addition to cover features in Ukulele Magazine (US) and Uke Magazine (UK), her unique Mouth-Trumpet landed her on the Tonight Show w/ Jay Leno and the cover of the Wall Street Journal. Colorful Heart (2018) is her 10th ukulele album.

With a passion for songwriting, Victoria Vox began writing songs when she was ten. She furthered her music education at the Berklee College of Music, as a vocal principle with an emphasis in Songwriting. A few years after graduating, Vox took up the ukulele. Her music style shifted to chanson tinged with jazz, which, over the years, has settled in nicely with her pop songwriting flair, with 10 albums under her belt (as an unsigned artist).

To keep touring expenses reasonable, Vox has often found herself performing solo. This has helped her developed her rhythmic ukulele playing style (to give herself her own back-beat drum) and she has also perfected her popular “Mouth Trumpet”.

‘Sweetest Melodies’: https://youtu.be/k6KXmChJefA

Meet Victoria Vox:  https://youtu.be/M6-w53rxR_w

https://www.victoriavox.com
Specializes in Songwriting, Singing, Rhythmic strumming, looping, Mouth Trumpet

 

Stuart Fuchs
USA | NYC/Vermont

Stuart Fuchs is an internationally touring performing guitarist and ukulele artist who performs and teaches fun & innovative ukulele workshops at music festivals throughout North America, the Caribbean & Europe.  Stuart is passionate about sharing music as a practice for self-care & wellness and keeps a busy schedule as a teaching artist in the ukulele circuit, in school residencies and beyond.  His YouTube channel “Ukulele Zen” offers weekly ukulele lessons to over 30,000 subscribers.  Fuchs, an accomplished guitarist in many styles, has arranged and performed the gypsy jazz guitar music of Django Reinhardt In 2017 he was awarded the Ewing Arts Award from the Keene Sentinel for his heart-centered performing & teaching style.

As well as touring, performing and teaching Ukulele, Stuart has also toured three continents playing classical guitar with the internationally acclaimed new age Kirtan artist Snatam Kaur and recorded guitar for the Grammy-nominated 2018 album “Beloved” .

Live Concert: https://youtu.be/GKLq9DQ2NIU
Strumming : https://youtu.be/WNC_JwN8fcc
“Honey Don’t”: https://youtu.be/uS1y9yfG65A

https://www.stufuchs.com
Specializes in Rockabilly Uke, Boogie Woogie Strums, Fingerstyle, Django Jazz Chords

 

Del Rey
USA | Seattle

Del Rey started playing when she was four years old. At thirteen, she was immersed in the world of folk music, via the San Diego Folk Festival. She has tried to get a whole band onto her solo instrument from the beginning. This gives her music an interesting complexity, especially when applied to the ukulele. Rags, blues and tunes of the early 20th century are her specialty, even as she writes new music to add to the tradition. Del Rey also has fashion sense that would make Minnie Pearl smile.

Del Rey has taught and played all over the world, and brings her distinctive finger-style approach to guitar and ukulele on her teaching DVDs on Homespun “Boogie-Woogie Guitar” ” The Music Of Memphis Minnie” , “Memphis Uke Party” and “Blue Uke.

Ukulele Magazine:https://youtu.be/e-ntySaahKo
Resonator Ukulele https://youtu.be/Wxk3N7GOgX4
Teaches ‘Downtown Blues’ https://youtu.be/3pz7INDUzOw

www.delreyplays.com
Specializes in Ragtime Blues, Fingerstyle, Blues Ukulele, Old Folk tunes

 

Casey MacGill
USA | LA/Seattle

 

“Casey MacGill’s ukulele playing swings! That swing, that groove, that pulse has landed MacGill roles in major motion pictures and on Broadway, and even a tour de force appearance on The Gong Show. To discover this wellspring of swing we must enter the musical Wayback Machine. “I remember when I was about five or six, putting a 1950s honky-tonk piano record on the family stereo and just going absolutely cuckoo, dancing around until I got that holler from the kitchen to ‘stop jumping around in there!’”
From that very early age it was apparent, at least to his mother, that little Casey MacGill had the rhythm in him. And over the course of the next six decades, aided by the humble ukulele, this rhythmic kid forged a swinging musical career. A steamship cruise from Los Angeles to Honolulu in 1957 would launch Casey on this epic journey.”  (Jim D’Ville)
“The King of Swing!” Ukulele Magazine (front cover Spring 2018)
Casey leads his own swing band in Seattle as well as now travels around the world teaching Ukulele and performing.
Ukulele Magazine studio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBAE9qzVkhA
Blue 4 Trio:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMjhDGQoVa0
3 Questions with Jim D’Ville:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPZifLLJd_Mm
Casey specializes in vintage Swing Strum, vocal harmony, Jazz chords

 

Daniel Ward
USA | New Mexico/LA

 

Daniel Ward is an accomplished musician, composer and educator, who has become one of the country’s top clinicians and performers on the ‘ukulele circuit’.  He is known for his command of Latin styles and teaches right hand techniques, adapting his style and knowledge from the classical and flamenco guitar.  Daniel Ward graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in classical Guitar performance, and a minor in composition. His musical expertise includes Flamenco, jazz, pop and most styles of world music, along with the ability to compose and improvise within these styles.

He is also a seasoned educator, and has 25 years experience teaching music to all ages. He is a consultant and music typographer for music method books, and writes as a columnist for Ukulele online magazines. As a performer and a teacher, Daniel believes the Ukulele holds a strong place in the music industry and music education. Daniel travels the world with his band and life partner Heidi Swedberg.

Three Questions with Jim D’Ville: https://youtu.be/mFoZ_CEwGwM
Live ‘Carnival’:  https://youtu.be/8hdwvgLXysE
https://www.danielward.net
Daniel specializes in Arpeggio meditations for Ukulele, and Flamenco Ukulele

 

Heidi Swedberg
USA | New Mexico/LA

 

You may know Heidi Swedberg as Susan, George Costanza’s fiancee on “Seinfeld”. She has acted in a variety of other television shows and movies but has an even longer history with the ukulele.

When she was 5 years old Heidi, received her first ukulele from the Hawaiian Easter bunny while living in Kailua, HI. She has fond memories of teaching herself chords (she claims to have invented the Em chord at the age of eight) and writing songs in her room in Albuquerque NM and reintroduced herself to the uke in Hollywood, while playing a singer-songwriter for a network TV pilot. She is passionate about people, which is why she loves the ukulele.

Encouraging others to engage and connect through music, she teaches and performs for all ages, from the smallest children to older adults. She is a regular columnist for Ukulele Magazine. Heidi will be back for her second year at VUF with rave reviews of her fun workshops that are both educational and entertaining. Heidi travels the world performing and teaching Ukulele workshops with her partner in band and life Daniel Ward.

3 Questions with Jim D’Ville: https://youtu.be/RSn92d-WwTs
Ohana: (with partner Daniel Ward):https://youtu.be/CbWtVPA1_tc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Swedberg
Specializes in getting everyone playing and is a columnist for Ukulele Magazine

 


Neal Chin
Hawaii | Seattle

Award winning artist and Maui, HI native Neal Chin, has been both a ukulele educator and performer over the course of his musical career of 17 years. His clear and direct enthusiasm for music has come to life in countless workshops, concerts, and private instruction. While his heart is in jazz, Neal has played with many musicians of different genres including Hawaiian, folk, rock, and hip-hop. His contribution to the collective The Akira Project, won his first Na Hoku Hanohano Award in 2014 before moving up to the Pacific Northwest. Since then he was nominated for the 2017 and 2018 Na Hoku Hanohano Award for ‘Ukulele Album of the Year with his albums ‘Ukulele Paintings and The Spotless Mind. Since then he has started his own ukulele practice in the Pacific Northwest as he currently lives, teaches, and performs in Seattle, WA.
http://www.nealchin.com/
Neal specializes in Jazz Ukulele, Folk, and Rock
‘All the things you are’ jazz standard :https://youtu.be/dady_FgxhpQ
‘True Colours’ with Victoria Vox:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l43zdyISLis
Eduardo Garcia
Mexico | Vancouver

Eduardo is a multi instrumentalist originally from Mexico who arrived in Vancouver in April 2017. Being both classically and traditionally trained, he soon got active in a wide diversity of music projects in Mexico, teaching, performing and writing music. Eduardo played several different traditional string instruments with ‘Amate’, a traditional mariachi based in Guadalajara, that performs regularly inside and outside of Mexico. Parallel to that, he played the cello on the ‘Victor Manuel Medeles’ chamber orchestra, of which he was also the arranger/composer of almost all of their repertoire, and the repertoire of other choirs and ensembles in Mexico. During 2017, he collaborated on the book ‘Tsenten Ajab’, a book of studies and arrangements of both traditional and modern music for the Jarana Huasteca, a traditional folk instrument from Mexico’s Huasteco region that was published in 2018.

 

Eduardo has been playing music for 18 years now, and he has been teaching for around 12 years, classical or traditional, by note or by ear, you name it. But among all the instruments and music activities he has discovered on his journey, it was the Ukulele that was the one instrument that has given him the most, allowing him to teach and help his community along the way. He was the founder/director of the Academia de Ukuleles de la Ribera (Lakeside Ukulele Academy), a self-financed music school that provided instruments and free music lessons to all children on his community. It was the Ukulele the instrument that gave him the biggest gift of all, the chance to give something back.
He has been teaching ukulele at Ruby’s Ukes, the biggest ukulele school outside of Hawaii based in Vancouver, B.C. since September 2017, and participated in the 9th Vancouver Ukulele Festival in April 2018.


Specializes in Mexican rhythms, Chord Melody, Music Theory
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE93tArSDRUiruc4QU1oBjQ

 

 

Ruby & Smith
UK| Vancouver

 

Daphne Roubini is ‘Ruby’ to her friends and the world of local and international Ukulele players. The owner and founder of Ruby’s Ukes Ukulele school in 2009, perhaps the largest Ukulele school in the world outside of Hawaii.   Daphne is the founder, director and producer of VUF festival as well as a vocalist and educator.  She has been profiled in Ukulele Magazine, Monte Cristo Magazine, The Vancouver Sun, The Georgia Straight, CBC local and national radio. Her latest album ‘Lucky Star’,  with her Vintage Jazz band Black Gardenia received rave reviews charting at #2 of NACC Jazz Charts and continues to
receive airplay throughout Canada, US, Australia and Europe.  She has brought her Ukulele to The Vancouver Jazz Festival on numerous occasions! And and with her partner in life and band Andrew Smith has toured with her folk/jazz duo Ruby & Smith playing and teaching at the storied Winnipeg Folk Festival, and Mission Folk Festival to name a few.

 

Andrew Smith is the other half of Ruby & Smith, an accomplished Jazz and Folk Guitarist playing since he was 10 years old (his mum said who ever learnt how to play the Guitar in the house could have it, he got it!) and has been in bands ever since. Andrew started playing Ukulele in his early years and took it up again in 2010 and has never looked back (still playing Jazz Guitar in Black Gardenia). He is a senior member of the Ruby’s Ukes Faculty and a beloved Ruby’s Ukes Ukulele instructor and Luthier who takes care of hundreds of students and Ukuleles each term.  Andrew worked in the music department of Kingston University, London UK before moving to Canada in 2004. He is a sound, and recording engineer regularly doing live sound around Vancouver (Jazz Fest, Folk Fest, New Music Festival and more). He is known for his unique Ukulele Fingerstyle, Jazz chord melodies and improvised solos on the Ukulele.

 

Ruby & Smith will be performing at the VUF Gala Concert, Smith will be  teaching at this year’s festival! Ruby will be dedicating her time to keeping the Vancouver Ukulele Festival moving and a grooving! They’ve have been receiving  invitations to perform and teach at Ukulele Festivals internationally and are looking forward to being able to do so!

 

Phil Addington
UK/London

Bonerattle Music shop owner, Phil Addington has been making music in Vancouver for over 30 years, and playing bass in the band Swank for close to 25. In more recent years, in addition to Swank, Phil has also collaborated on stage and in the studio with bands such as Steve Taylor’s Drum Boogie, Doug Andrew & Circus in Flames, Bughouse 5, The Greasy Kings, Butch Murphy & The Bloody Miracles, Mike Van Eyes, The Nervous Fellas, The Hardrock Miners, and Rodney DeCroo.

Phil has been an avid ukulele enthusiast since 2010, and has been part of the Ukulele awakening in Vancouver supplying Ukes to hundreds of newbie enthusiasts!  We are delighted to welcome him back to the VUF teaching faculty. At VUF 2019 Phil marries his love of Uke and Bass playing!
specializes in Roots music and Bass Ukulele
http://www.bonerattle.com/

 

I am so excited  to be presenting, and part of, this year’s epic line-up. The Vancouver Ukulele Festival continues to grow every year and I am grateful for all the attendees and tutors past and present who have contributed their expertise and uke love to what is now being called “one of the city’s iconic annual musical events.” (vancouver is awesome),
now that is awesome!  See you there!
Ruby