Amazing & Talented Instructors teaching online workshops

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From April, 2020 to June, 2021 Gaithersburg UkeFest hosted 150 workshops. Not counting July and August, 2020, we averaged hosting 11.5 ukulele workshops a month during the pandemic. 

If you had told me when we first started organizing ukulele festivals, that we would be rubbing virtual shoulders with the likes of Peter Moss, Elisabeth Pfeiffer, Samantha Muir, Natasha Ghosh, Phil Doleman, and Marcus Rantanen, I would have asked, "Who are they?" But now I recognize them as some of the premier ukulele artists in Europe. We made friends with 19 ukulele artists from Europe altogether, and are still baffled how it all came about.

Known to some as the "Jake Shimabukuro" of South America, Vinicius Vivas dazzled us as a performer, but also as an instructor. Aline Kelly, also from Brazil, and Flor Ansaldo from Argentina, wowed us with their incredible notes for their workshops, and were registrant favorites! Jenifer Cabrera performed wonderfully during a couple of Performer Showcases, and also shared the instructor duties with Aline Kelly during a workshop selection. We were thrilled to have these 4 South Americans join our instructor corp.

Collectively, we hosted workshops taught by instructors from the lower 48, Canada, and Hawaii. There were 42 instructors who taught one or more workshops during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you add in the 23 ukulele artists from South America and Europe, you come to the realization that we organized 150 distinct ukulele workshops taught by 65 instructors from around the globe!

Many folks were curious how we pulled this off...and for 13 months! Keith did the prep work. He was contacting the instructors, sometimes guiding them to a title for the workshop, and scheduling them at a time that would work for them and our overall schedule. Keith also registered people for the workshops, and worked on the finances, from the registrants, and paying the instructors.

Nani handled the hosting duties, opening up Zoom, welcoming students to the workshop, and working with the instructors to make sure they knew how to use the shared screen, etc.  

When considering who to invite to the festival, there is some preference to those who have worked with us virtually since April of 2020. We envision it a kind of reunion, where we can all meet together in person with our ukulele friends we made virtually in the Gaithersburg UkeFest efforts.