A Ukelele Christmas? The UKELELE ORCHESTRA OF GREAT BRITAIN Brings A Holiday Twist To The McCallum Theatre

The McCallum Theatre presents "Christmas with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain" on Sunday, December 11, at 7:00pm. For more than 30 years, the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain has been the premier group of all-singing, all-strumming ukulele players who believe that all genres of music are available for reinterpretation (as long as they are played on the ukulele). Going from Tchaikovsky to Nirvana, via Otis Redding to Spaghetti Western soundtracks, the Orchestra takes the audience on a world tour.

Following their sold out show in 2015, UOGB are back with a program of Christmas music from sacred to secular, including "Sleigh Ride," "Blue Christmas" and "Wassail Canticle." The show also includes tunes taken from their exploration of American folk and blues, recently recorded on their album The Keeper and, of course, their popular genre-clashing antics in heavy metal, bebop, jazz, punk and reggae.

The program will be announced from the stage and will include songs where the Orchestra will invite you to play along. Bring your ukulele for an audience play along!

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (UOGB) has toured the United States several times. For those who have not encountered UOGB - it's an original musical ensemble featuring only ukuleles of various sizes and registers, accompanied by the performers' natural voices. Harsher critics stated the opinion that the Orchestra formed their repertoire based on any music considered inappropriate for the instrument, with a "shopping trolley dash through genres" and musical history.

In Europe and America, the Orchestra is known for playing rock songs and film themes, sometimes changing these so that the expectations of the audience are subverted. A rock song might be changed into a jazz idiom, or several songs which are known from different genres are combined in one "soup of contrasts." Expect the Ukes to use the same treatment on "Jingle Bells" and "Good King Wenceslas;" prepare for the unexpected!

When The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain began in 1985, public opinion was that an orchestra consisting entirely of ukuleles in different sizes was a strange concept. The Orchestra members had experience of many kinds of music, but had become tired of music business conventions and performance and genre stereotyping. They wanted to make something fresh and entertaining, both modern and old-fashioned, in a different style which deviated from current performance fashion.

Today, the Orchestra finds that wherever they go, people are playing ukuleles, often in groups. Many of these enthusiasts tell the Orchestra that they were inspired to play the instrument after seeing and hearing the original Ukulele Orchestra. Now there are many ukulele orchestras, some acknowledging the pioneering work of the UOGB, others claiming ignorance of this rich history.

In 2016, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain celebrates one billion seconds of "ukuleleation," having toured for more than thirty years. It is undeniably a fact that The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain has become not only a national institution, but also a worldwide phenomenon.

The Prince of Wales invited them to entertain Queen Elizabeth at her private 90th birthday party. They have also performed for crowned heads of Europe, at London's Houses of Parliament, and seen by millions of television and online viewers. In one territory, the Orchestra played to audiences which comprised 60% of the population!

Among their international concerts and festival appearances, they have sold out twice at Carnegie Hall, twice at Royal Albert Hall in London, and the Sydney Opera House. The Orchestra was featured in a CNN report, on CBS "This Morning," and made the front page of the Arts section of the New York Times.

The orchestra has packed the crowds in at rock festivals, including Glastonbury, The Big Chill, WOMAD, The Electric Picnic, Beautiful Days, WOMADelaide, before 170,000 people in Hyde Park, and performed in seven cathedrals in England and Wales. The group has been commissioned to write commemorative concerts, including The Cecil Sharp 100 Year Memorial Concert (2012) and The 100 Year World War One Memorial Concert (2014) for Birmingham Town Hall.

The Orchestra has been invited by the British Broadcasting Corporation to play live on air for BBC Radio 3 (the classical music channel) as well as for BBC Radio 1 (the rock, Electronic Dance Music and youth music channel) and on other BBC channels many times. They have participated in "The Electric Proms" and the BBC Promenade Concerts at Royal Albert Hall in London ("The Proms"), where they were the fastest selling late night prom in history. At this concert, the Orchestra performed "Jerusalem" and other classics of the "Last Night of the Proms," the celebrated 120 year old concert series. Around 2,000 ukulele players in the audience joined the Orchestra in playing passages from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

A DVD of the 2010 BBC Prom concert at Royal Albert Hall is available at www.ukuleleorchestra.com. For those who wish to perform with the Orchestra in the comfort of their own homes, chords and words to accompany the Ukes during their 2012 Sydney Opera House concert are available on this DVD.

The Orchestra has released records, CDs and DVDs on its own label, with CBS, Sony, Discethnique, Longman, Volume, Tachyon and The Ministry of Sound, as well as Jools Holland's Hootenany. Original compositions and songs by the Orchestra have been used in television and film, radio plays, and in performance by other musicians. They have collaborated with the British Film Institute to provide music for silent films and also musically with Madness, Robbie Williams, Ant & Dec, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Stefan Raab, Rainer Hersch and a full symphony orchestra performing at Royal Festival Hall in London.

Although there are many examples of collaboration, the original Ukulele Orchestra remains determinedly independent. Relying on their own resources and an email list of thousands, they run their own recording and publishing and eschew mainstream advertising and record companies. The arrangements of the music are made by Director and Founder, George Hinchliffe, or by other group members. The focus is to bring out the spirit of the music, to be faithful to the musical notes, while actually changing the style or genre of the music by the mere fact of playing it on ukuleles. The Orchestra's music is variously moving, funny, stomping, thought provoking, surprising, or inducing the audience, by sheer infectious spirit, to tap their toes with the beat.

Through the generosity of Ruth and Philip Elwell, Irene Weingarten and Michael Gregory, the McCallum Theatre presents "Christmas with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain" on Sunday, December 11, at 7:00pm.

Ticket prices for this performance are $87, $67, $47 and $27. Tickets are available at the Theatre's website at www.mccallumtheatre.com or by calling the McCallum Theatre Box Office at (760) 340-ARTS.

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