(13 YEARS, 2011-2024!! And counting…)

R.I.P. our dear friend, Bill Sturgeon

Bill was our Senior Emeritus Ukestra Member, and had been with the group since it began officially (as Ukestra) back in 2012.  His last show with us was at St. Joseph Hospital 2017 holiday festival in the Atrium, and he kept in touch and visited even after he couldn’t attend practice meetings anymore. Bill had facilitated and added SO MUCH to the group spirit…along with locating and setting up our rehearsal space for those years at Palm Square, he loved the Ukestra, added many laughs and stories, and was a vital and kind musical man.  He will be missed!  Thank you Bill.

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THE ORIGINAL STORY

Well, this is how it all began. I started a ukulele club at a terrific music listening room called Studio 99 in Nashua, NH in summer 2011. I felt the time was right to offer a loosely organized music workshop/group whose focus was not on a specific style of music, which was very common, but on an instrument.  I had picked up a ukulele for my own fun, and having brought it to a guitar lesson almost as an afterthought, I noticed my student’s excitement and requests to teach it. And so it started, and led to this:

 Sometimes you know that the time is right to do something. But you can’t predict how it’ll turn out.  All I knew in 2011 was that this was a good, fun thing to do, as the people who have, and continue to participate have told me.  It’s turned into a collective, a guild of enthusiasts who enjoy this little instrument for it’s own sake. Folks who don’t feel a need to necessarily abide by a tradition, but by what their own feelings make them express on the ukulele.  There’s a real freedom here. That’s made me more grateful than anything else, so I continue to do my best for the group.

More to come! Thank you! (Mike)

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BIG THANKS TO “ACTION DAN” BRIDEAU FOR LOGO AND WEB HOSTING!!