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. 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 invite you to explore the website, to see what Gaithersburg UkeFest has created for the ukulele community. The 2019 and 2022 in-person festivals were very successful, and the 2018 Kanikapila Kollective was a fun and worthwhile community event, including performances from Ukulele Clubs and Jams from Northern Virginia, Maryland, and the panhandle of West Virginia! During the shutdown periods of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gaithersburg UkeFest created and produced 4 separate virtual ukulele festivals of 3 or 4-month durations of time. A summary of these events are discussed below, along with collages of the ukulele artists who appeared during each period of time. Whether you were one of the artists who performed on them, or attended as an observer, I hope you will agree that these events were 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.
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