Experience Ukulele
Artistic Director
Aaron & Nicole Keim
Aaron and Nicole Keim, co-artistic directors of Centrum's Ukulele program, are masters of ukulele and old-time folk music. Known for their intricate playing and engaging teaching style, they bring a wealth of experience in both traditional and contemporary music. As the duo The Quiet American, Aaron and Nicole blend old-time Americana with innovative ukulele techniques, creating a unique and joyful experience for players of all levels. Their approach to teaching emphasizes accessibility and community, ensuring that everyone, from beginners to advanced players, can find joy in making music together.
2025 Faculty
Marianne Brogan
Marianne Brogan grew up in a musical family and played flute, piano, guitar and drums. In middle age she found her instrument – the ukulele – and that was that.
She founded the Portland (Oregon) Ukulele Association in 2001, and has been happily teaching ukulele, and organizing events for well over a decade.
Conrad Cayman
Ukulele
Conrad Cayman is a Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist who teaches and plays ukulele (tenor, baritone, and U-bass), and also performs on guitar, plectrum banjo, and bass (upright and electric). An artist for Ohana Ukuleles, Conrad has performed at the Los Angeles Ukulele Festival and UkeCon San Diego, and taught and performed at the Reno Ukulele Festival and the Centrum Foundation’s Acoustic Blues Festival in Port Townsend, WA.…
Neal Chin
Award winning artist and Maui, HI native Neal Chin, has been both an ‘ukulele educator and performer over the course of his musical career. His clear and direct enthusiasm for music has come to life in countless workshops, concerts, and private instruction. While his heart is in jazz, Neal has played with many musicians of different genres including Hawaiian, folk, rock, and hip-hop.…
Nova Karina Devonie
Nova Karina Devonie hails originally from Vancouver, B.C. She has been delighting audiences with her sensitive (and sometimes humorous) accordion playing, sonorous singing style, and sideways fashion sense since the 1980’s.
Cathy Fink
Cathy Fink is a GRAMMY Award winning multi-instrumentalist and co-artistic director of Strathmore’s UkeFest with Marcy Marxer. She loves teaching all levels and has created a series of courses on playing Clawhammer Ukulele, kin to the old-time banjo style. Cathy has taught at countless music camps including Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Midwest Ukefest, The Augusta Workshops, and Palm Springs Ukefest.…
Avery Hill
Avery Hill is a life-long musician, trained educator, and performing singer-songwriter. She began teaching music in 2013, and quickly became a staple instructor of the Portland (OR) ‘ukulele community. Over the years, she has led ‘ukulele classes, workshops, and jams that focus on building valuable skills, deepening oneʻs sense of musicality, and appreciating the place of music within our greater culture and history.…
Aaron and Nicole Keim
Co-Artistic Directors
The Quiet American is husband and wife duo, Aaron and Nicole Keim. In Hood River, Oregon, they live an artistic life: making music, building musical instruments, teaching music, writing books, crafting folk art,and raising their 10-year-old son Henry. Their connection to folk tradition is undeniable, even as they find new ways to sing old songs and incorporate music and art into their teaching and performing.…
Victoria Kolasinski
Victoria “Viggy” Kolasinski is a fingerstyle ukulele player/teacher born and raised on Long Island, New York. Under the username @jiggywithviggy, Viggy makes fun and kinetic ukulele tutorials on her social media pages and has grown a cumulative audience of over 300k followers! She’s been playing the uke for 10 years and teaching private lessons, workshops, live shows, and online for four of those years, bringing with her a youthful energy and her silly stage presence.…
Marcy Marxer
Marcy Marxer is a GRAMMY Award winning multi-instrumentalist who has been teaching ukulele since 1986. Her “Ukulele For Kids” online courses have brought up a few generations of young ukulele players. She has directed a seniors uke orchestra, taught at prominent Uke and Music Camps and is co-artistic director of Strathmore’s UkeFest. Marcy specializes in chord melody, swing and jazz uke, but plays a bit of everything!…
Ronnie Ontiveros
Ronnie Ontiveros lives in Hood River, Oregon and plays bass in about 8 different bands. He also plays guitar and uke and has appeared at many festivals, camps and musical happenings around the Northwest over the last several years. He is usually very serious and rigid about all things, however if you catch him in a good mood he may even smile and make a low key attempt at humor.…
Halehaku Seabury
Halehaku Seabury is a Grammy nominated and multi Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award winning guitarist/multi instrumentalist, composer, arranger, educator, and vocalist from Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu. Halehaku developed an early passion for music from his parents growing up in Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu. His formative musical education began assisting his father in the KCCN 1420 AM Radio station studios as a young child.…
Heidi Swedberg
When she was 5 years old Heidi received her first ukulele from the Hawaiian Easter bunny while living in Kailua, HI. She has fond memories of teaching herself chords and writing songs in her room in Albuquerque NM, the place she thinks of as home. She picked the instrument up again in 1992 in Hollywood, CA while playing a singer-songwriter for a network TV pilot. Now life imitates art, and she plays music full time.
Bryan Tolentino
‘Ukulele player, Bryan Tolentino has been known for the past forty plus years as an accompanist and soloist who has performed locally and abroad with some of Hawaiʻi’s most well known and accomplished music artists. Bryan’s recorded on over 60 CD’s for other artists as well as compilations adding his unique “fairy dusting”, as he calls it.…
Daniel Ward
Daniel Ward’s polymath approach is born from his passion and appetite for the diversity of music. Born in Los Alamos, NM to a nuclear chemist/conductor, he holds degrees in classical guitar and composition from the University of New Mexico. As a performer and composer, his work spans a wide ranging gamut: flamenco guitar, heavy metal, virtuosic ukulele, classical string quartets and four-hands piano pieces, kid’s music, jazz, commercial jingles, film soundtracks… he has what musicians call “big ears”.…
Matt Weiner
Big tone and solid rhythm have made Matt Weiner one of the busiest bass players in the Northwest. Inspired by the “prebop” bass players and their music, he’s slapping out a syncopated jazz feel on one tune, on another bowing a folksy melody.
Lightnin’ Wells
Mike Lightnin’ Wells hails from North Carolina and has had a long time interest and fascination with the ukulele. His main interest is in the mainland style of uke which was made popular during the jazz age during the 1920s and he has a repertoire of over one hundred pieces originating from this era. He owns a family of at least a dozen vintage ukuleles of various sizes and shapes including banjo ukes and a tiple.…
CLASS DESCRIPTIONS
JOIN THE UKULELE REVOLUTION! - Marianne Brogan
3 day class (Beginner)
Looking for fun to last the rest of your life? Start playing the ukulele! This class is designed for the beginner. Class will be paced appropriately and will introduce you to a whole world of bliss! Topics include: How to hold and tune your ukulele, how to produce clear tones and how to practice efficiently. But wait - that's not all: how to build your chord library and studies in rhythm. Rhythm is perhaps the most important component of playing. Learning how to be the best rhythm backup player for your band of one, or band of many will enrich your musical experience. learn the fundamentals of strumming and finger style. Loaner instruments available.
BASS AND STUFF- Ronnie Ontiveros
Drop in class (All Levels)
Bass, everyone needs you, they just might not know it yet. Let’s talk about what we are supposed to do as bassists, where and how to put our hands, and make fun of guitarists. We will go over some basics, some soloing, and some philosophy.
Please bring a bass if you have one (any type!), but even if you don't, you are welcome to bring your uke!
UKULELE ENSEMBLE- Marcy Marxer
3 day class (All Levels)
The Ukulele Ensemble Class will be an geared to all levels. There will be fun parts for everyone. Beginners will have a Score with mostly open Chords. Intermediate and Advanced players will have a written Score with Melody, Harmony and Baritone Parts. Bass players welcome! Tunes will be: "Blue Monk"" by Thelonious Monk, "El Condor Pasa" - Trad. Peru 1913 and "Don’t Fence Me In."
CHORD MELODY- Marcy Marxer
Drop in class (Advanced)
Chord Melody combines chords and melody to make full sounding arrangements. You’ll sound great playing these tunes solo or with others. Tunes will be "Whispering", "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" and "Moon River". Chord charts will be available for Baritone and Bass.
APPALACHIAN UKE- Cathy Fink
3 day class (Intermediate/Adv)
How do you make a ukulele exude the sound of the Appalachian Mountains? We’ll explore these secrets along with a few songs that can help you create that “High Lonesome Sound” on your Ukulele. We’ll work on the bluegrass rhythm “chop” and on chord sounds that evoke tones made by dulcimers and banjos.
From Wiktionary.org:
1. (music) An expressively emotional, powerful and earthy style of musical expression associated mainly with bluegrass, old-time and country music, characterized by unmetered music and use of gapped scales in singing.
WHERE'S THE BEAT? - Cathy Fink
Drop In Class (All Levels)
Music is organized around both sound and rhythm. When the rhythm is off, the sound ain’t so good. Do you play “on time?” Can you keep a beat? Come find out. We’ll work with a metronome, listening exercises and practice techniques to improve your sense of timing. And you’ll leave with a few things that you can practice on your own, or with a partner.
ADVANCED MUSIC MAKING: THE ART AND RITUAL OF PRACTICE - Daniel Ward
3 day class (Intermediate/Adv)
Using several methods and materials, we’ll focus on how to create and manage a great inner and outer space as you work on your music. By running through a daily ritual, we’ll build a way to practice that keeps working long after you’ve left the festival. Right- and left-hand work, ear work, ergonomics, and mind focus are the building blocks we’ll use as well as playing material where we can improvise in a group. Material will be layered to fit the levels in the class.
MELODIC MEDITATIONS- Daniel Ward
Drop in class (Confident Beginner to Advanced)
We'll play a different song each day from the Melodic Meditations book – easy to learn short songs that sound fantastic but each have a special technique to acquire. Learning to manage chord melody and deeper music skills are the big benefits of this class, as well as having a little gem to play for others.
SONGWRITING: FLOW AND FORM- Heidi Swedberg
3 day class (All Levels)
Sometimes you’ll hear a songwriter say, “that song just wrote itself.” In this class we will work on exercises to help you surprise yourself lyrically and melodically, and loosen the flow so the magic can happen. Tap into form and give your fresh ideas a place to stick, and you might find yourself singing a song which wrote itself!
WORLD OF CELEBRATIONS- Heidi Swedberg
Drop in class (All Levels)
Learn unfamiliar holiday songs from around the world in a variety of languages- from Tagalog to Swedish, as well as enjoy some old favorites in a new way. Ensemble playing, chord melody, rhythm patterns will lift your spirits throughout the year!
SONGS FOR ACTIVISM: MUSIC OF HARRY BELAFONTE & FRIENDS- Avery Hill
3 day class (Intermediate/Adv)
In the 1950s and 60s, Harry Belafonte was one of the most popular entertainers in the country. He toured nationally, curated a TV special, and performed at Carnegie Hall. Behind the scenes and eventually in front of the camera, he used his fame, success, and artistry to advocate for the underrepresented and for a variety of human rights causes. This workshop will cover the songs of Harry Belafonte's career (and a couple others) that exemplify the work of the artist-activist, from his 1956 album Calypso to the idea he had that turned into the global hit We Are the World in 1985.
HOW TO SING AND PLAY AT THE SAME TIME- Avery Hill
Drop In class (All Levels)
Do you rock a mean strum pattern, hold down a solid chord progression, but then start to sing and everything falls apart? This workshop walks you through some exercises you can apply to any song to help you bring all the layers together effectively.
STRUM AND DRUM: Percussive Ukulele- Viggy
3 day class (Intermediate/Adv)
Turn your ukulele into a drumset! Become a one-man band with percussive ukulele, a three day workshop series where you'll learn the basics of percussive ukulele and how to apply it to your strumming technique, fingerstyle technique, chord melody, as well as different time signatures. Each day will contextualize "Sunday Morning" by Maroon 5 in three different percussive styles, along with many more modern songs to practice your kicks and snares. Let's strum & drum!
FINGERPICKIN' FUN- Viggy
Drop in class (Confident Beginner/Intermediate)
Want to learn how to fingerpick? We'll learn proper right and left hand technique for ukulele fingerpicking, how to read ukulele tablature, and fingerpicking patterns that we can apply to any song. A new song will be taught each day!
SOLOING AND THE ART OF NOODLING- Neal Chin
3 day class (Intermediate/Adv)
This is the one class where noodling is encouraged! In this class we will learn some strategies for creating melodies and look at different ways to use them. We'll learn some classic riffs and ways to use all those chord shapes for more than just strumming. From soloing to noodling, this class is for those who want to explore the fretboard, be creative, and learn a bit of theory along the way. Jazz and blues leaning in approach but all genres are welcome.
FUNKY 'UKULELE- Neal Chin
Drop in class (Intermediate)
Learn a few funky riffs let’s see just how deep of a pocket we can make together! We’ll learn some techniques to help us become more agile,spice up our fretboards with some funky chords, and of course play that funky music! Must be rhythmically flexible with some basic picking to get the most out of this class.
LET'S PLAY TOGETHER! ACCOMPANYING AND ARRANGING FOR TWO UKULELES- Conrad Cayman
3 day class (All Levels)
This series will give you ways to make playing with others more fun and interesting! Each session will combine one person strumming while the other uses voicings, rhythms, fingerpicking patterns, riffs and licks, and more to complement the strumming. Great for when there are players of mixed levels, and will apply to your duets, ukulele groups, jam sessions, and solo / band arrangements. Bring a friend that you like playing with for more fun! Baritones welcome.
JAZZ SONG FORMS- Conrad Cayman
Drop in class (Intermediate/Advanced)
Jazz songs are easier to memorize than people think. Majority of the time they are 32 bar patterns with a couple of cliched patterns. This drop in series will explore the most common forms: AB (L-O-V-E, All of Me, Fly Me to the Moon, I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, After You’ve Gone, etc), AABA (Blue Skies, I Got Rhythm, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, 5 Foot 2, Bei Mir Bist du Schon, Honeysuckle Rose), and Blues / Jazz Blues forms (St. Louis Blues, Basin St. Blues). Once you see the structure, the songs become much easier to learn, memorize, and understand. Baritones welcome!
1960’s FOLK HOOTENANNY- Aaron Keim
Drop in class (All Levels)
Join Aaron for a good time singing and playing some of the best songs of the ‘60s folk revival. We will use spirituals, traditional songs, civil rights anthems and originals from folks like Phil Oaks, Joan Baez, Dave Van Ronk, Woody Guthrie, Josh White and Odetta Holmes as inspiration. All instruments welcome (that means you, Baritones and Basses!).
FRETBOARD LOGIC- HAWAIIAN STYLE- Bryan Tolentino
3 day class (Intermediate)
We will work on navigating up and down the fretboard in logical way using the chromatic scale and applying it to a Hawaiian songs. This will include Hawaiian style vamps/turnarounds, picking, chord substitutions and Hawaiian song structures. We'll build upon these concepts every day.
FRETBOARD LOGIC- HAWAIIAN STYLE- Bryan Tolentino
Drop in class (Intermediate)
We will work on navigating up and down the fretboard in logical way using the chromatic scale and applying it to a Hawaiian songs. This will include Hawaiian style vamps/turnarounds, picking, chord substitutions and Hawaiian song structures. A more casual version of the 3 day class- there will be something for everyone!
INTUITION AND FLUENCY ON THE BARITONE UKULELE- Halehaku Seabury
3 day class (Intermediate/Advanced)
In this cumulative workshop, we'll build fluency using a simple Hawaiian song form (applicable to many other songs), using voice leading and chord substitutions specifically for the baritone ukulele.
CADENCES AND VAMPS FOR BARITONE UKULELE- Halehaku Seabury
Drop in class (Intermediate)
In this workshop, we'll learn to utilize voice leading on baritone ukulele to navigate traditional cadences/vamps of the Hawaiian song form. These short voice leading patterns are applicable to many songs and styles!
LEARNING CHORD MELODY ON THE UKE- Lightnin' Wells
3 day class (Intermediate/Advanced)
Learn "Shine On Harvest Moon (1908)" including a chord based melody instrumental break. Participants need a ukulele in re-entrant tuning (high G 4th string) for this class. Handouts will include lyrics, chords and basic melody.
BLUES SONGS FOR THE UKE- Lightnin' Wells
Drop in class (Intermediate/Advanced)
Learn some classic tunes including "The Blues Ain’t Nothin’ (‘Lassas Blues)" – "Crazy Blues" – "Waitin’ For The Evening Mail" – "Am I Blue?" – "Sweet Georgia Brown."
2025 Cost
Cost:
Tuition: $535
Private Dorm Room: $250
All Meals: $265
Lunches Only (3): $70
Shuttle to/from Seatac: $60 each way
Departs SeaTac at 2pm on May 1; departs Fort Worden at 9am on May 5.
Scholarships
If you need financial assistance, Centrum has a robust scholarship program. Apply online as you register. Please note that except in rare cases, scholarships are available for tuition only. Centrum requires a deposit of scholarship applicants, which is fully refundable before March 23 if you are unable to attend.
Cancellation/Refund Policy
Full tuition is due upon registration, $50 of which is non-refundable. No refunds of any kind are available after April 9, 2025.
Room & Board
Most participants stay in private dormitory rooms at Fort Worden. There are a limited number of double rooms, that is, rooms with two twin beds. If you’d like a double, please request one, and list another registered participant who has signed up for room and board in order to share that room. It is first come, first served.
Meals are served at Fort Worden Commons.
Room and board final payment is due by April 9, 2025. We tend to run out of rooms as the workshop approaches, so if you’d like room and board we recommend signing up for it when you register.
If we haven’t answered all of the questions you may have, please contact Peter McCracken at 360-385-3102, x127, or peter@centrum (dot) org.
Schedule
General Schedule
Thursday, May 1, 20252pm: Shuttle departs from SeaTac Airport
4pm: Check-in starts at Fort Worden.
6pm: dinner
7:15pm: Late check-in at Wheeler Theater
7:30pm: Orientation/Welcome Session
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
9 - 10:15am: Choice of classes
10:45 – noon: Choice of classes
1:30 – 2:45: Choice of classes
3:15 – 4:15: Serendipity Hour
4:30 – 5:30: Open Mic
Evenings
7:30: Friday and Saturday - public shows in Wheeler Theater
Sunday - Party in the USO
Monday, May 5
8am: Breakfast
9am: Shuttle leaves Fort Worden for SeaTac Airport
11am: Must be out of housing
Skill Levels
Are the Ukulele Festival workshops appropriate for my skill level?
The Port Townsend Ukulele Festival is a gathering appropriate for advanced-beginner, intermediate, and advanced players. The word “beginner” covers a lot of ground. Most offerings at the workshop are geared towards people who know more than a few chords, and are capable of changing chords smoothly and in rhythm. In 2025 we are offering beginner level classes led by Marianne Brogan.
You’ll get the most out of your experience if you can do the following exercise in three different keys. Use a metronome!
At 60 beats per minute, play each chord four times (four beats per chord). Play the chords without diagrams, that is, by heart.
C – Am – F – G7 – C
It should take 20 seconds. Try it in these keys as well:
F – Dm – Bb – C7 – F
G – Em – C – D7 – G
If you can do this, then this workshop is for you! If you need to look up any of these chords, then you know what you have to work on (and master) before the festival starts.
FAQ
If we haven’t answered all of the questions you may have, please contact Peter McCracken at 360-385-3102, x127, or peter@centrum (dot) org.
If you are under 18...
Most of our workshops are family events, and we welcome musicians of all ages and abilities to participate. Our programming has annually evolved to meet the needs of very young musicians, and we devote considerable resources to this end.
If you are under 18, you must be accompanied by a registered adult. Please register the adult first, as you will need a confirmation number.
PAST FACULTY
Brook Adams
Past Faculty
Brook is an atavistic dinosaur of 20th century pop. His songs evoke a timeless blend of soul, surf & psychedelia. He is a skilled player on guitar and ukulele.
Jere Canote
Past Faculty
Washington
Jere Canote is a teacher, musician, and luthier. Since the mid seventies, Jere has honed his skills playing old time country, swing, and novelty songs on guitar, banjo and ukulele. Jere has recorded many projects with his twin brother Greg, including “Uke Snack” (old time tunes and songs), and “Uke Life” (clawhammer and flat picked Uke).…
Nikki Dee
Past Faculty
Nikki Dee is an award-winning vocalist and transformational vocal coach based in Honolulu. Her renowned Deeva Method takes the mystery and confusion out of vocal technique, making vocal power, confidence, and healing accessible to singers and speakers around the world.
Stu Fuchs
Past Faculty
Stu Fuchs is a heart centered, award winning musician and teaching artist. His passion is helping others learn to play music with greater ease, freedom and joy. Over a 25 year career, Stu has played music across the globe: Django Reinhardt’s gypsy jazz with symphony orchestras, presenting workshops at ukulele festivals on three continents, facilitating drumming & music improvisation at yoga retreat centers for everyone from children to college music students, prison inmates to Fortune 500 CEOs.…
Daniel Ho
Past Faculty
From his simple beginnings in Honolulu to his life amid the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles, Daniel Ho has worked over the years as a musician, producer, singer/songwriter, arranger, composer, engineer, and record company owner. The most compelling of these roles has been as a six-time GRAMMY Award winning producer, featured slack key guitarist, and artist in the “Best Hawaiian Music Album,” “Best Pop Instrumental Album,” and “Best World Music Album” categories.
Abe Lagrimas, Jr.
Past Faculty
Abe Lagrimas, Jr. is a musician, composer, educator, and author who plays the drums, vibraphone, ukulele, and studied at Berklee College of Music. He competed in the highly prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Drums Competition and has worked with many different artists such as Eric Marienthal, Eric Reed, Kamasi Washington, Katisse Buckingham, Lalo Schifrin, Barbara Morrison, Michelle Coltrane, Jake Shimabukuro, Kenny Endo, and continues to be an in-demand session musician.…
Casey MacGill
Faculty
Casey MacGill plays music that swings. Nat “King” Cole Trio meets the Mills Brothers. Fats Waller meets Fats Domino. Slim Galliard meets Fred Astaire. It is American music of many decades and no decade in particular, all happening at the same time, woven into a seamless, beautiful whole. At the core of his sound are his band’s sometimes sweet, sometimes rough-hewn three-part harmony vocals.…
Rachel Manke
Past Faculty
Rachel Manke has been playing the ukulele for over 20 years. It’s the passion that has fueled adventure and friendships in her life. She is a skilled player in a vaudeville vein who has taken flourish and technique from that stage into various genres.
Bernadette Mata
Past Faculty
Bernadette is a music teacher with a master’s degree in education and a bachelor’s degree in music. She first developed her passion for music at the age of 10 when she joined her elementary school’s band and began playing the saxophone. Bernadette continued to hone her skills on the saxophone throughout her time at Cal Poly Pomona University.…
Del Rey
Faculty
Del Rey started playing guitar when she was four years old. At thirteen, she was immersed in the world of folk music, via the San Diego Folk Festival. She has tried to get a whole band onto her solo instrument from the beginning. This gives her music an interesting complexity, especially when applied to the ukulele.
Gerald Ross
Faculty
Gerald Ross is a musician specializing in American Roots Music – Swing, Early Jazz, Western Swing, Hawaiian, Ragtime and Blues. Playing the guitar, lap steel guitar and ukulele he has performed throughout the USA and Europe and has recorded seven solo CDs. Ross is one of the finest instrumentalists on the scene today and his music expresses a sense of rhythm and melody that is rare in contemporary music.…
Grace Van’t Hof
Michigan native Grace van’t Hof has taken their unique shade of ukulele playing across the United States and overseas with such groups as Bill and the Belles, Aaron Jonah Lewis’ Ragtime Banjo Revival, and Chris Jones & the Night Drivers. Driven by inspiration from 1920s and 30s country and popular music, Grace thoughtfully incorporates their uke stylings into all sorts of genres from Bluegrass to Spanish Baroque music.…
Victoria Vox
Faculty
Victoria Davitt, better known as Victoria Vox, is an award-winning, ukulele-toting, performing songwriter. With a passion for writing songs since she was 10 years old, she went on to graduate with a degree in Songwriting from the Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA).
Daniel Ward
Daniel Ward is an accomplished musician, composer and educator, who has become one of the country’s top clinicians and performers on the ‘ukulele circuit’. He is known for his command of Latin styles and teaches right hand techniques, adapting his style and knowledge from the classical and flamenco guitar.
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