Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain live at Montalvo's Carriage House Theatre

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Date

Thursday, Apr 30, 2026 7:30PM

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The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, that’s the one founded by George Hinchliffe and Kitty Lux, has already enjoyed touring in the United States many times. For those who have not yet encountered it, the essential point is that it is an original musical ensemble featuring only ukuleles of various sizes and registers, accompanied by just the natural voices of the performers. 

When The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain began in 1985, the public opinion was that an orchestra consisting entirely of ukuleles in different sizes was a strange concept. This was something that attracted the founders. The Orchestra members at that time had experience of many kinds of music and yet had become tired of the conventions of the music business world as well as the conventions of performance and genre stereotyping which were prevalent at that time. The idea was to make something fresh and entertaining, both modern and old-fashioned, in a different style which deviated from the current performance fashion. People liked the result. 

In fact, audiences have reported that the music of the orchestra is variously: moving, funny, stomping, thought-provoking, surprising, or inducing the audience by sheer infectious spirit to “tap their toes” along with the beat. 

In 2015, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain celebrated sixteen million minutes of “ukuleleation,” having been “on the road” for thirty years and counting. Among their many international concerts and festival appearances, they have “Sold Right Out” twice at Carnegie Hall in New York, twice at The Royal Albert Hall in London, and also at Sydney Opera House in Australia. 

While it is not normally in the nature of these artists from Britain to “blow their own trumpets,” or in this case to “pluck their own ukuleles,” it is undeniably a fact that The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain has become not only a national institution, but also a worldwide phenomenon. 

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