Artists

Jack & The Vox

Ukulele-toting-mouth-trumpeting-songster Victoria Vox and guitar-slinging-singing-jokester Jack Maher reconnected 18 years after first meeting at the Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA). Both established performers in their own right, the moniker Jack & the Vox was almost too good to be true! Since eloping in 2016, the two have been writing and performing together in between their own gigs. Stylistically it’s a bit Americana, jazz, folk, and pop, but really, there are no boundaries. Both hold degrees in Songwriting from Berklee and have the passion for making music. In 2019, the two carved out 6 weeks together to tour the East Coast (US), Canada, Czech Republic, the U.K., and Germany, just a few months before being confined to their home during the Coronavirus pandemic. The two took to the internet performing a series of shows called “the Best Medicine Show”, which they have filmed a total of 151 episodes to date.

For more information and links to music, please visit: jackandthevox.com

Bryan Tolentino

‘Ukulele player, Bryan Tolentino has been known, for the past forty plus years, as an accompanist who performed and continues to perform, locally and abroad with some of Hawaiʻi’s most well known and accomplished Hawaiian music artists.

Bryan’s recorded on over sixty plus 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.

Bryan has performed and recorded with notable Hawaiian entertainers such as: Raiatea Helm, Jake Shimabukuro, Herb Ohta, Jr., Aunty Genoa Keawe, Pomaika‘i Keawe, Karen Keawehawai‘i, Ku‘uipo Kumukahi, Hōkū Zuttermeister, Marlene Sai, Melveen Leed, Jerry Santos and Olomana, O’Brian Eselu, Nathan Aweau, Frank Hewett, Byron Yasui, Benny Chong, Sonny Lim, Jeff Peterson, Wailau Ryder, Kalei Gamiao, ‘Elua Kane, Owana Salazar, Weldon Kekauoha, Natalie Ai, ‘Iolani Kamau‘u, Napua Greig, Kuana Torres Kahele, Aaron Salā, Keao Costa, Blaine Kamalani Kia, NUE – Nā ‘Ukulele ‘Ekolu – Bryan, Kama Hopkins and Halehaku Seabury, The Side Order Band – with Del Beazley, Chris Kamaka and Asa Young, and more!

Bryan also worked with award winning hula hālau, engineers and producers. The noted halau includes: Nā Wai ‘Eha O Puna, Hālau Kekuaokalā‘au‘ala‘iliahi, Hālau Maoli Pua, Ka Pā Hula O Kauanoe O Wa‘ahila, Keali‘ika’apunihonua Ke‘ena A‘o Hula, Hālau Ka Liko Pua O Kalaniakea and Kuhai Hālau O Kawaikapuokalani Pa Olapa Kahiko. Engineers and producers: Imua Garza, Dave Tucciarone, Milan Bertosa, Steve Kramer, Gaylord Holomalia, Flip McDiarmid, Shawn Pimental, Michael Grande, Kip and Max Ebersbach, all among the best in the music business.

In May 2005, Bryan opened another musical chapter by releasing his solo CD “Ka ‘Ukulele Lele” that became a Nā Hōkū Hanohano finalist for Instrumental Album of the year.

Ten years later in April 2015, he released a duet CD, “Ukulele Friends”, with Herb Ohta Jr. that received a Nā Hōkū Hanohano award for 2016 ‘Ukulele Album of the Year. In the Summer of 2016, he expanded his role by joining the Performing Arts Academy at Kamehameha Schools – Kapalama campus, educating young adults interested in learning and performing the ‘ukulele. He released a second duet CD with Herb Ohta Jr. ‘Ukulele Friends: The Sequel In December 2017, also winning a Nā Hōkū Hanohano award! NUE – Nā ‘Ukulele ‘Ekolu with Kama Hopkins and Halehaku Seabury released their Hōkū nominated CD “In the Heart of Paradise” on Dec. 30, 2021.

Bryan Tolentino continues to teach in person and online, sharing his love for the ‘ukulele through performances and workshops.

Michael August

Musician and class instructor Michael August attributes his flexible style to his lifelong interest in the many forms of music he enjoys. Mostly self-taught, his journey into the world of playing began with a simple purchase of a harmonica to occupy himself during his long drives. Along the way Michael mastered playing the guitar, mandolin, banjo, dobro, bass, and ukulele. Over the years Michael has moved effortlessly in the worlds of playing folk, americana, blue grass, gospel, and Delta blues.

His approachable style enables him to be at home performing center stage or accompanying other musicians, or instructing at ukulele festivals. Recently Michael has conducted harmonica and slide uke classes at some of the most popular ukulele gatherings in the Eastern US, including Brown County Uke Fest, Funky Frets, Tampa Bay Uke Fest and Gaithersburg Ukulele Festival. The formats of his classes engage and entertain along the way, introducing attendees to new and surprising musical experiences.

https://www.youtube.com/@MichaelAugust

Ray Cygrymus

Ray has taught elementary school music for over thirty years, most recently specializing in ukulele instruction in the classroom. He has lived in the Pittsburgh area his entire life, and attended Duquesne University where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education, with an emphasis on voice.  Ray has performed in many musicals and plays with theaters throughout the Pittsburgh area and has fronted many rock bands where he was the lead singer and played various instruments.

Over this past year, Ray was honored to be a featured performer and workshop instructor at TBUG and a performer at the Brown County Ukulele Festival.

Ray’s goal is to share his knowledge and experience to influence other ukulele players to look at their instrument in a different way by gaining knowledge of different techniques, expanding new skill sets, and effectively using sound effects. Ray hopes to continue to grow, entertain, inspire, and educate the world on the beauty and diversity of this spectacular little instrument that brings people together in such a big way!

YouTube@SURFN-RZ / Facebook@surfn-rz

Kirk Jones

Kirk Jones is a semi-professional “FUNsician” who teaches and performs in and around the Huntsville, Alabama area as well as the South East.

Orangutan Or Lion is a slogan he uses to describe himself because he loves being goofy and having fun like an Orangutan but, can also muster up the courage, like a lion, to pull on your heartstrings.

He is the founder of Ukulele Gatherings Of North Alabama Facebook group and helps to book traveling Ukulele artists for performances and workshops, when they come through town.

https://www.youtube.com/@kirkjones-orangutanorlion

Sharla Rae

For Sharla Wiens (also known as SharlaRaePlays) singing and music have always been a source of community, inspiration and beauty and a means of sharing a range of emotions from exuberant joy to heartbreak to wonder and awe.

It all started harmonising with her sisters while doing the dishes and mimicking her favourite artists on the local radio station. With over 30 years experience, Sharla has been a principle soloist, has lead multiple church bands, toured with Canadian ministry group Lost & Found, performed with Gospel Music Association of Canada Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Connie Scott, opened for Dr James Dobson and has performed on the longest running Canadian television program 100 Huntley Street.

Sharla, received an ukulele for her 50th birthday. She was so intimidated to learn her first instrument that it sat collecting dust for two years. Finally, with encouragement from her family and friends, the help of YouTube play-a-longs and a class at the local Niagara-on-the-Lake Ukesters group, she picked it up and found a new way to express her heart through music and song.

When she’s not in the barn on the family peach farm, Sharla can be found making music on various social media platforms, at markets, parties and events, you’ll catch her leading that very same local uke group… ….and she still harmonises with her sisters.

Webb-Tigert

Ok, y’all: this is NOT background music for a corporate luau or a re-hash of Tip Toe Thru The Tulips. Lisa Webb and Bob Tigert are seasoned Nashville pros, both for LIVE gigs and in recording studios, who are playing Americana, country, rock and roll, R&B, jazz, blues and more…, using an assortment of ukuleles (huh?!?!?) in amazing and engaging ways.

They write much of their material (and they write REALLY well!); and their performances as they travel across the United States have been glowingly described in national media as “awesome,” “compelling,” and “a force to be reckoned with,” and they have been written up as “genuinely nice people.’ Their first album together (who can count how many records they have appeared on, individually?), The Webb-Tigert Ukulele Duo, was released in March, 2023, at an international ukulele festival, and audiences and artists from around the globe started playing, singing and recording their songs immediately.

Unique, groove-based, intricate, polished, beautiful, funky – it all applies. Webb-Tigert just might be your new favorite group.