Registration for the 2027 Port Townsend Ukulele Festival will open in early November. If you’d like to be notified of this or future events, please subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of this page.
Experience Ukulele
Artistic Director
Aaron & Nicole Keim
Aaron and Nicole Keim, co-artistic directors of Centrum's Ukulele program, are masters of ukulele and old-time folk music. Known for their intricate playing and engaging teaching style, they bring a wealth of experience in both traditional and contemporary music. As the duo The Quiet American, Aaron and Nicole blend old-time Americana with innovative ukulele techniques, creating a unique and joyful experience for players of all levels. Their approach to teaching emphasizes accessibility and community, ensuring that everyone, from beginners to advanced players, can find joy in making music together.
Artist Faculty
Artist for 2027 will be posted as soon as possible.
CLASS DESCRIPTIONS
Class descriptions will be posted by October 1.
Schedule
General Schedule
(subject to change)
Wednesday April 28, 20272pm: Shuttle departs from SeaTac Airport
4pm: Check-in starts at Fort Worden.
6pm: dinner
7:15pm: Late check-in at Wheeler Theater
7:30pm: Orientation/Welcome Session
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
8:45 - 9:15am: All group gathering
9:30 – 10:45: Choice of classes
11:15 – 12:30: Choice of classes
1:45 - 3:00: Choice of classes
3:15 – 4:15: Serendipity Hour
4:30 – 5:30: Open Mic
Evenings
7:30: Thursday and Friday - public shows in Wheeler Theater
Saturday – in-house party in the USO
Sunday May 2
8am: Breakfast and goodbyes
9am: Shuttle leaves Fort Worden for SeaTac Airport
Skill Levels
Are the Ukulele Festival workshops appropriate for my skill level?
The Port Townsend Ukulele Festival is a gathering appropriate for advanced-beginner, intermediate, and advanced players. The word “beginner” covers a lot of ground. Most offerings at the workshop are geared towards people who know more than a few chords, and are capable of changing chords smoothly and in rhythm.
You’ll get the most out of your experience if you can do the following exercise in three different keys. Use a metronome!
At 60 beats per minute, play each chord four times (four beats per chord). Play the chords without diagrams, that is, by heart.
C – Am – F – G7 – C
It should take 20 seconds. Try it in these keys as well:
F – Dm – Bb – C7 – F
G – Em – C – D7 – G
If you can do this, then this workshop is for you! If you need to look up any of these chords, then you know what you have to work on (and master) before the festival starts.
If you are under 18...
Most of our workshops are family events, and we welcome musicians of all ages and abilities to participate. Our programming has annually evolved to meet the needs of very young musicians, and we devote considerable resources to this end.
If you are under 18, you must be accompanied by a registered adult. Please register the adult first, as you will need a confirmation number.
Costs
2027 costs will be posted by October 1.
FAQ
If we haven’t answered all of the questions you may have, please contact Peter McCracken at 360-385-3102, x127, or peter@centrum (dot) org.
Performances
Workshop tuition includes admission to everything including the two public performances on Thursday and Friday. Detailed performance information will be posted as soon as possible.
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PAST ARTIST FACULTY
Abe Lagrimas
Past Faculty
About
Abe Lagrimas, Jr. is a musician, composer, educator, and author who plays the drums, vibraphone, ukulele, and studied at Berklee College of Music. He competed in the highly prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Drums Competition and has worked with many different artists such as Eric Marienthal, Eric Reed, Kamasi Washington, Katisse Buckingham, Lalo Schifrin, Barbara Morrison, Michelle Coltrane, Jake Shimabukuro, Kenny Endo, and continues to be an in-demand session musician. As a solo ukulele artist, Abe is a Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award (Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts) recipient and has released multiple albums in the United States, Japan, and South Korea. He has headlined many ukulele festivals throughout the United States, as well as Canada, Mexico, U.K., Germany, China, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, and Australia. Abe is also an active educator who has conducted workshops, currently teaches private lessons, and is an instructor for the Fender Play series. He is the author of Jazz Ukulele: Comping, Soloing, Chord Melodies (Berklee Press & Hal Leonard), which is available in stores worldwide and on Amazon. Read MoreAvery Hill
About
Avery Hill is a life-long musician, trained educator, and performing singer-songwriter. She began teaching music in 2013, and quickly became a staple instructor of the Portland (OR) ‘ukulele community. Over the years, she has led ‘ukulele classes, workshops, and jams that focus on building valuable skills, deepening oneʻs sense of musicality, and appreciating the place of music within our greater culture and history. She has taught at the Menucha ʻUkulele Band Camp in Oregon and the Reno ʻUkulele Festival in Nevada and maintains a YouTube channel for ʻukulele tutorials. More recently, she has begun teaching songwriting. Whatever the classroom, Avery strives to educate everyone’s inner musician, to elevate their self-knowledge and confidence, and to enchant them with insight, presence, and a handful of good jokes. When sheʻs not teaching, youʻll find Avery sharing songs from her second full-length album The One Who Remembers, released in November 2024. Learn more at www.averyhill.studio.
Read MoreBernadette Mata
Past Faculty
About
Bernadette is a music teacher with a master’s degree in education and a bachelor’s degree in music. She first developed her passion for music at the age of 10 when she joined her elementary school’s band and began playing the saxophone. Bernadette continued to hone her skills on the saxophone throughout her time at Cal Poly Pomona University. Upon graduating, Bernadette worked as a middle school marching band teacher before transitioning to a teaching position abroad at an elementary school in Okinawa, Japan. While living in Japan, Bernadette started her own YouTube channel, Bernadette Teaches Music, with the goal of providing beginner musicians with a fun and informative resource. The channel is a testament to her dedication to helping aspiring musicians develop their skills.
Read MoreBrook Adams
Past Faculty
About
Brook is an atavistic dinosaur of 20th century pop. His songs evoke a timeless blend of soul, surf & psychedelia. He is a skilled player on guitar and ukulele. He used to do a show called “Abbey Road On Ukulele”. As a youth, he liked the Guess Who, Sly & the Family Stone, Cat Stevens, and John Prine.
Read MoreBryan Tolentino
About
‘Ukulele player, Bryan Tolentino has been known for the past forty plus years as an accompanist and soloist who has performed locally and abroad with some of Hawaiʻi’s most well known and accomplished music artists. Bryan’s recorded on over 60 CD’s for other artists as well as compilations adding his unique “fairy dusting”, as he calls it. He says, “You must feel Hawaiian Music,” evident in his award winning recordings featured on Nā Hōkū Hanohano and Grammy nominated CD’s which have also garnered many awards. He blends all that he’s learned, as an accompanist, into his own unique sound.
Read MoreCasey MacGill
Faculty
About
Casey MacGill plays music that swings. Nat “King” Cole Trio meets the Mills Brothers. Fats Waller meets Fats Domino. Slim Galliard meets Fred Astaire. It is American music of many decades and no decade in particular, all happening at the same time, woven into a seamless, beautiful whole. At the core of his sound are his band’s sometimes sweet, sometimes rough-hewn three-part harmony vocals. Casey is a classic Hollywood character in appearance and style. MacGill plays boogie-woogie, swing, and stride piano, blows a lyrical jazz cornet, and his most unique instrumental voice is a 6-string tenor ukulele. He has been singing and arranging vocal harmonies for over 40 years, in a career that stretches from Los Angeles to Spokane, and finally to Seattle. He steers the band from his piano bench, alternately cruising along and sweating feverishly, switching intuitively between the ukulele and the piano and the cornet, singing and scatting, sometimes all within the same song.
Read MoreCathy Fink
About
Two-time Grammy Award Winners, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer are master musicians with a career spanning over 35 years. Their superb harmonies are backed by instrumental virtuosity on the guitar, five-string banjo, ukulele, mandolin, cello-banjo, and many other instruments. An eclectic folk festival on their own terms, their repertoire ranges from classic country to western swing, gypsy jazz to bluegrass, and old-time string band to contemporary folk including some original gems. Their versatility defies a brief description, perhaps “well rounded Americana” does it best.
Read MoreConrad Cayman
Ukulele
About
Conrad Cayman is a Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist who teaches and plays ukulele (tenor, baritone, and U-bass), and also performs on guitar, plectrum banjo, and bass (upright and electric). An artist for Ohana Ukuleles, Conrad has performed at the Los Angeles Ukulele Festival and UkeCon San Diego, and taught and performed at the Reno Ukulele Festival and the Centrum Foundation’s Acoustic Blues Festival in Port Townsend, WA. His sideman work in the ukulele world has included backing up Cynthia Lin, Bernadette “Plazi” Plazola, and Timmy Cruz.
Read MoreDaniel Ho
Past Faculty
About
From his simple beginnings in Honolulu to his life amid the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles, Daniel Ho has worked over the years as a musician, producer, singer/songwriter, arranger, composer, engineer, and record company owner. The most compelling of these roles has been as a six-time GRAMMY Award winning producer, featured slack key guitarist, and artist in the “Best Hawaiian Music Album,” “Best Pop Instrumental Album,” and “Best World Music Album” categories. Ukulele Magazine calls him “Hawaii’s greatest contemporary musical ambassador.”
Read MoreDaniel Ward
About
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. He has been a featured performer and workshop instructor at festivals across the country, including: Reno Ukulele festival, West Coast Ukulele retreat, Wine Country Ukulele Festival, San Diego Ukulele Festival, Port Townsend Ukulele festival, Albuquerque Ukulele festival and many More. With his partner Heidi Swedberg, he has performed as an artist in residence at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix AZ, and performed at Children’s Music Festivals around the country, including concerts in Los Angeles, New York City, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, and the Austin City Limits Festival. Heidi and Daniel were also featured performers at Music China in Shanghai in 2012.
Read MoreDaniel Ward
About
Daniel Ward’s polymath approach is born from his passion and appetite for the diversity of music. Born in Los Alamos, NM to a nuclear chemist/conductor, he holds degrees in classical guitar and composition from the University of New Mexico. As a performer and composer, his work spans a wide ranging gamut: flamenco guitar, heavy metal, virtuosic ukulele, classical string quartets and four-hands piano pieces, kid’s music, jazz, commercial jingles, film soundtracks… he has what musicians call “big ears”.
Read MoreGerald Ross
Faculty
About
Gerald Ross is a musician specializing in American Roots Music – Swing, Early Jazz, Western Swing, Hawaiian, Ragtime and Blues. Playing the guitar, lap steel guitar and ukulele he has performed throughout the USA and Europe and has recorded seven solo CDs. Ross is one of the finest instrumentalists on the scene today and his music expresses a sense of rhythm and melody that is rare in contemporary music. Ross has also composed music for television shows, including “The Cosby Show,” “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” and “The Jamie Foxx Show.” He’s has been nominated for two Grammy Awards and has won numerous awards, including the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Fellowship. He has also been featured in the documentary “Guitar Man: The Life and Music of Gerald Ross.”
Read MoreGrace Van’t Hof
About
Michigan native Grace van’t Hof has taken their unique shade of ukulele playing across the United States and overseas with such groups as Bill and the Belles, Aaron Jonah Lewis’ Ragtime Banjo Revival, and Chris Jones & the Night Drivers. Driven by inspiration from 1920s and 30s country and popular music, Grace thoughtfully incorporates their uke stylings into all sorts of genres from Bluegrass to Spanish Baroque music. Most recently, Grace brought their custom steel stringed baritone ukulele to the hallowed stage of the Grand Ole Opry where their solo was featured on the Night Drivers IBMA nominated song, “Riding the Chief”. A devoted fan of early 20th century music, Grace strives to return the ukulele to its rightful place in stringband, country, and popular music. In addition to being an accomplished ukulele performer and session musician, Grace also plays the 5-string banjo professionally and is the two-time reigning International Bluegrass Music Association’s Graphic Designer of the Year. Grace makes their home in Detroit, MI.
Read MoreHalehaku Seabury
About
Halehaku Seabury is a Grammy nominated and multi Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award winning guitarist/multi instrumentalist, composer, arranger, educator, and vocalist from Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu. Halehaku developed an early passion for music from his parents growing up in Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu. His formative musical education began assisting his father in the KCCN 1420 AM Radio station studios as a young child. Being exposed early on to musicians like Aunty Genoa Keawe, Kealiʻi Joy, Kahauanu Lake Trio, Emperor Hanapī, Richard Kauhi, etc. set a precedent for excellence in Hawaiian music. Hale began formal study of music with the Hawaiian steel guitar under the tutelage of his uncle, steel guitar master Alan L. Akaka. He continued to play steel guitar as his primary instrument throughout high school studying the styles of Jules Ah See, Jake Keliʻikoa, Barney Isaacs, and his great grandfather Joseph “Steppy” De Rego. Building a dual-fold music career as a studio session ace and independent artist, Halehaku’s musical contributions can be found on albums by Kainani Kahaunaele, Josh Tatofi, Keauhou, Keao Costa and Kekuhi Kanaka’ole, and others uncredited. As an artist, with his groups NUE and Nā Hoa, recording and preserving traditional songs like Kolopā, Pua Mae ʻOle, Ka’uiki, and Last Night In The Heart Of Paradise. These experiences provide a unique perspective to sharing the baritone ukulele with students at the Port Townsend Ukulele Festival.
Read MoreHeidi Swedberg
About
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 and writing songs in her room in Albuquerque NM, the place she thinks of as home. She picked the instrument up again in 1992 in Hollywood, CA while playing a singer-songwriter for a network TV pilot. Now life imitates art, and she plays music full time.
Read More
Lightnin’ Wells
Ukulele, Guitar
About
Mike “Lightnin'” Wells breathes new life into the vintage tunes of the 1920s and depression era America employing various appropriate stringed instruments in a dynamic style which he has developed in over 50 years of performing experience. Raised in eastern North Carolina, Wells learned to play harmonica as a young child and taught himself to play the guitar as he developed a strong interest in traditional blues and folk music. His many years of public performance began in Chapel Hill, N.C. in the early 1970s. During the following decades he has presented his brand of acoustic blues throughout North Carolina, the United States and Europe.
Read MoreMarcy Marxer
About
Two-time Grammy Award Winners, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer are master musicians with a career spanning over 35 years. Their superb harmonies are backed by instrumental virtuosity on the guitar, five-string banjo, ukulele, mandolin, cello-banjo, and many other instruments. An eclectic folk festival on their own terms, their repertoire ranges from classic country to western swing, gypsy jazz to bluegrass, and old-time string band to contemporary folk including some original gems. Their versatility defies a brief description, perhaps “well rounded Americana” does it best.
Read MoreNikki Dee
Past Faculty
About
Nikki Dee is an award-winning vocalist and transformational vocal coach based in Honolulu. Her renowned Deeva Method takes the mystery and confusion out of vocal technique, making vocal power, confidence, and healing accessible to singers and speakers around the world. As a performer, Nikki specializes in a unique blend of international jazz, blues, and cabaret repertoire in multiple languages. She currently sings and plays ukulele with the Django-inspired band Gypsy 808 as well as her “tropical jazz” and Bossa Nova band, Blue Hawaiian. As winner of the 2017 SKSCA Vocal Jazz Queen competition at Jazz Alley, Nikki represented the Seattle jazz scene in Kobe, Japan and was an Earshot Jazz Award finalist for NW Vocalist of the Year. She has performed throughout the United States as well as Europe, Asia and Australia, most recently spending the summer performing in Paris and New York City
Read MoreRachel Manke
Past Faculty
About
Rachel Manke has been playing the ukulele for over 20 years. It’s the passion that has fueled adventure and friendships in her life. She is a skilled player in a vaudeville vein who has taken flourish and technique from that stage into various genres. She has appeared on stages that range from the New Jersey Uke Fest and Strummin’ Man to Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion. A little bit country, a little bit everything else, a whole lot of funny, and a touch of sentiment.
Read MoreStu Fuchs
Past Faculty
About
Stu Fuchs is a heart centered, award winning musician and teaching artist. His passion is helping others learn to play music with greater ease, freedom and joy. Over a 25 year career, Stu has played music across the globe: Django Reinhardt’s gypsy jazz with symphony orchestras, presenting workshops at ukulele festivals on three continents, facilitating drumming & music improvisation at yoga retreat centers for everyone from children to college music students, prison inmates to Fortune 500 CEOs. For eight years Stu worked as a professional artist-in-residence at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo NY where he offered healing music and different creative therapies for patient, families and hospital staff. In 2014 he was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to create music & films documenting his work offering healing music at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Stu continues to offer weekly lessons and music inspiration at his YouTube channel “Ukulele Zen.”
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