Eric Jensen
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The ukulele found Eric just in time to avert a mid-life crisis.
After early flirtations with brass instruments (trumpet, tuba) and guitar, Eric was ready for something else. In early adulthood he chorally played the field: madrigals, choral masterworks, barbershop, jazz and even doo-wop. He still wasn't satisfied. Even the guitar seemed destined to play second fiddle to his voice. Enter his long-time friend Dave who knew how to behave around a ukulele. He spotted grandma's vintage Kamaka soprano with a broken E-string atop Eric's piano and properly introduced them. After restringing and tuning, this beauty became the instrument of Eric's dreams. Now on his third uke, Eric has been living in blissful harmony ever since. When not strumming his ukes, Eric enjoys cycling in all kinds of weather, hiking, mixing (and drinking) cocktails, speaking French with his bi-cultural family, and playing a wide variety of word, card & board games. |
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Gordon learned music singing in church choirs and playing the baritone horn in elementary school. When his older brother taught him to play the blues on a guitar, it was a quick down-hill slide into blues, folk and American standards. After a 30-year detour as a geographer making maps and wrassling data for the Washington State Department of Transportation, Gordon is returning to a life of music. Gordon has played the ukulele since 2010, using it to pursue a love for classical music as well as for 20th-century American songs. He also plays the high-G uke with the Greenwood Trio and sings with the Market Street Singers. |
Gordon Kennedy
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Cheryl Capron
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Cheryl is a member of our Bari-Bari Extraordinary trio of Baritone Uke players. |
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Judy is a former nurse who played the clarinet in grade school. As an adult she started playing the piano. Finding it wouldn’t fit in the overhead compartment of an airplane and being an avid traveler she switched to the ukulele. After taking a-half dozen classes at Dusty Strings Judy was thrilled to join Ukestra Seattle. She is thrilled to be part of such an enthusiastic, friendly group. |
Judy Jesiolowski
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Meg Sablinsky
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Meg’s parents were high school music teachers, so music runs in the blood. She played piano and flute in the orchestra from a young age, but has only found the ukulele in the past year. In her former life, she was a ballet dancer at San Francisco Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet, but now works as a Physical Therapist serving Veterans at the VA Hospital in Seattle. She is very excited to be playing with this great group of musicians. |
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Michael Alexander is a Seattle-based ukulele and banjo picker. He currently plays with several groups in the Northwest including the Honeyville Rascals. His interest in Americana and retro jazz has led him to the ukulele and its many possibilities. He feels that in a perfect world, everyone would be handed a ukulele at birth. |
Michael Alexander
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Kathy Herrmann
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Kathy's musical journey began at age 9 when she started playing the clarinet. Within a few years, she was also playing the saxophone and singing. She started playing the guitar 15 years ago and loved the beautiful sounds of a string instrument. In 2013, Kathy became intrigued with the ukulele and started taking lessons. Her love for playing the baritone ukulele has been going strong since then. Kathy enjoys being a member of Ukestra Seattle because of the great collaboration with other musicians and the ongoing opportunity to develop her singing and ukulele skills. She recently started learning the piano and looks forward to including those skills in future music endeavors.
Kathy is a member of our 'Bari-Bari Extraordinary' trio of Baritone Uke players. |
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In June of 2015, Sunga decided that her life wasn't quite busy enough, so it was time to realize her dream of forming Seattle's first ukulele orchestra. She reached out to teachers, performers, and prize pupils and Ukestra Seattle was born. She is thrilled to be learning and growing along side such a talented group of musicians. We are a family now. We are US. |
Sunga Rose
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Susan "Suekulele" Howell
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Susan’s musical interests developed early. She was a singer in the San Francisco Children’s Opera for nine years and can still, at the drop of a hat, sing most of the songs from the Broadways musicals of the 50’s and 60’s. Mountain dulcimer (with two books to her name and 15 years of teaching experience) and swing guitar were her primary instruments, but ten years ago ukulele became the main interest. She teaches classes and individual ukulele lessons at Dusty Strings and has written the first chord melody book for Intermediate ukulele players.
Susan has never had a television, preferring to make her own music for entertainment, swing era tunes being favorites. She plays with two other Ukestra members in the Greenwood Trio and also sings with the Market Street Singers. |
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Kathy comes from a large music-loving family that took many road trips and delighted in singing American standards and show tunes while driving and enjoying the evening campfire. This was the era of LP records and phonographs – all genres including classical, jazz, blues were often playing in her childhood home.
At age 10 Kathy began studying piano and clarinet. Throughout her teens and adult life she performed with concert and marching bands, orchestras, and woodwind ensembles. In 2012, after retiring from a long career as an educator, Kathy decided to get back to music in a fun way. The perfect option emerged after seeing a video of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain perform ‘Ode to Joy’ with a full house of 1000+ people! Now, as a member of Ukestra Seattle she fully enjoys making music and sharing that joy with others. Kathy says US is a group of excellent musicians and such great fun! |
Kathy Kimball
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Rachel Baker
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Rachel's first exposure to musical performance was a series of home "concerts" staged with her older brothers and friends when she was three, in which they mostly repeatedly played La Bamba for parents. Rachel played a mean tambourine and maraca.
In elementary school, Rachel began learning violin. She continued classical training on the violin for 10 years before trading in her violin for a guitar. Raised on a steady diet of the Beatles, Eric Clapton, and Santana, Rachel wanted to plug in and play the music of the classic rock greats. On a trip to Hawaii in 2018, Rachel happened to pick up a ukulele in a shop. It was love at first strum. She was enamored with this cheery instrument that was easy to play and just her size. She spent the rest of the trip scouring ukulele shops for the perfect soprano that was not made of tropical hardwoods. She started taking lessons a couple months later, and was delighted to join Ukestra Seattle in February of 2019. Rachel loves the camaraderie of playing with an ensemble and feels fortunate to be learning from this wonderful group of seasoned ukulele players and vocalists. |
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Cecily started play the ukulele around six years ago and has been completely obsessed. Taking lessons, going to workshops and taking classes at Dusty Strings with Sunga has brought her to Ukestra Seattle.
Cecily loves building new musical skills and is so happy to be singing and playing with this great group. |
Cecily Kaplan
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