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Aloha! Keith and Nani Lowery were married in Kaneohe, HI on June 28, 1986. Other than their love for God and each other, 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 plays the UBass, and together they have performed at various venues as "Naniukulelejoy". After attending the Funky Frets Ukulele Festival in early October of 2018 (where Nani was one of the instructors) Keith got the idea of creating a similar ukulele festival for the DMV. By the 1st of November 2018, the Gaithersburg UkeFest website was active, and 5 months later the 2019 Inaugural Gaithersburg UkeFest was held.
We believe when you explore the website and see the 2021 Virtual workshops offered by Gaithersburg UkeFest and the instructors who are teaching them, you will agree these are events well worth your time!
Thank you for visiting the website, and especially your interest in attending virtual events hosted by Gaithersburg UkeFest. Although we were not able to hold the 2020 in-person festival or a 2021 ukulele festival, we were able to organize and produce 41 Performer Showcases since the COVID-19 pandemic locked things down. These virtual events were produced on the Zoom platform and saved to YouTube. You can access any of these productions by clicking on the link below or by clicking on the "Videos" Tab on the top right of the website.
Do you recognize anyone in the artists collage representing all those ukulele artists who appeared on one or more of the Spring Performers Showcases? You can find a bigger copy on the Events page. You can also view the video of the special event we hosted for Ukulele Artists.
While COVID-19 kept most of us indoors, Gaithersburg UkeFest was working hard to provide educational and entertainment options for the ukulele community locally, and around the world. The ukulele artists are a few of our friends who appeared at least once during the 2020 Fall 4-month Ukulele Festival. Do you recognize any of them? We had so much fun playing songs on the ukulele during themed showcases from September 5th-December 19th. You can listen to any of these artists by visiting our website (gaithersburgukefest.com), and listen to music during the following themed weeks: 70's/80's Hits, Elvis/Blues Week, Music from Musicals & Movies, Hawaiian Theme Week, Originals Week, Jazz/Swing Week, 60's, Motown and Paul Simon Week, Beatles Week, Halloween Fright Week, Country & Western Week, Valentine's/Love Songs Week, 50's Music Week, and 3 Christmas/Holiday Weeks.
The festival attendees donated $1,000 in raffle ticket purchases for a chance to win a brand new KoAloha long-neck soprano ukulele.
Margo Goldman, Director of Gaithersburg Help selected the winning ticket and receive the promotional check at the Saturday evening concert. Rick Higgens was the winner of the raffle, and absolutely loved his new ukulele!