This is our illustrious leader:

Ralph Shaw

Ralph Shaw divides his time between recording music CDs, making DVDs (on how to play the ukulele), songwriting and live performance and is well known as Vancouver’s King of the Ukulele! Products of his teaching time include 3 best-selling Ukulele DVDs: The Complete Ukulele Course (on DVD, VHS or CD-Rom!) (2003), The Complete Ukulele Course for Kids (2004) and the DVD Essential Strums for the Ukulele (2005). The DVDs are distributed to stores all over the USA, Canada and Europe. 

Also in 2004 Ralph was invited to Pennsylvania for the induction of George Formby into the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum. As North America’s leading exponent of Formby’s music Ralph was asked to perform a set of George Formby songs. Ralph has since recorded an album of his favourite Formby material titled: By George! – a Collection of Songs Popularized by the Great George Formby (released Jan 2006) Ralph Shaw CDs & purchase info. Ralph has a weekly newsletter called The Ukulele Entertainer: Powerful Pointers to Perk up your Playing. You can subscribe at http://www.ralphshaw.ca/Free_Newsletter .
Read more at http://www.ralphshaw.ca
You can contact Ralph at bowlerhat@shaw.ca

And here are some of our illustrious members:

Andrew Smith - Vancouver Live Sound

Andrew is an invited honorary 6 string member of Vancouver Ukulele Circle playing the Guitar at the Our Town meetings every month, and playing Jazz guitar with ‘Black Gardenia’. www.blackgardenia.com  

Andy moved to Vancouver 6 years ago, and set up his own live sound recording business, ‘Vancouver Live Sound’, with a studio downtown and mobile recording facility.  Andrew now runs his audio recording business working with everyone from very well known musicians to semi-professionals & amateurs. Vancouver Live Sound hosts the Vancouver Ukulele Festival and the Ruby’s Ukes School Downtown. www.vancouverlivesound.com    

Andrew is a Luthier and is recommended by Mya Moe to repair and maintain The Langley Ukulele Orchestra Ukuleles. He has a workshop at the Vancouver Live Sound studio downtown where he is available to repair, restore and modify Ukuleles ~ specializing in fine repairs, fitting buttons, and installing pick-ups. You are welcome to call him or email for a Ukulele appointment. andrewjamesmith@gmail.com 604 782 1435

Daphne Roubini (otherwise known as “Ruby”)

Daphne sang some in London, England before she moved to Vancouver, but was uninspired to sing till she met the Ukulele! Now she sings with her band ‘Black Gardenia’ and her little Uke playing a mix of Jazz, Ol’ country & Blues. www.Blackgardenia.ca  

So inspired by this musical liberation Daphne set up Ruby’s Ukes, the Ukulele haven for the hip (and un-hip!) Ukester.  Daphne wanted to learn in a group so she set up the school in September 2009, which now offers four levels of courses, 3 times a year  ~ January, April & September, as well as a monthly "Uke Can" Saturday Workshop Series. Daphne is the organizer of the Vancouver Ukulele Festival. www.rubysukes.vpweb.ca  

Daphne also works in the healing field as a Bio-Energy Healing practitioner and trainer and is the author of  “Healing Massage blissful ways to relax & revitalize” Empowering people to live in health and authenticity. www.bio-energy-healing.ca     Daphne Roubini  (Ruby) 604 408 2290 daphneroubini@gmail.com

Gary Cyr

Gary Cyr has worked professionally as a musician and singer but has spent the greater part of life as an amateur. Married with two grown children and one grandson, he recently retired in January 2011 and is devoting more of his time to his greatest passion, the ukulele.

Gary teaches ukulele both privately and to groups.

Gary has successfully helped to launch and lead a new Ukulele Circle in South Surrey / White Rock which meets the last Saturday of every month at 2:00 - 4:00 at Semiahmoo House, 15306 - 24th Ave in Surrey.   You can contact Gary at garycyr@telus.net . Here's an article in the Surrey Leader about Gary's Surrey group.

Guido Heistek

Guido Heistek holds a B.F.A. Music from Concordia University and is a CANSTAT certified teacher of the Alexander Technique. He has fifteen years experience teaching, performing and recording. He presently makes his home in Vancouver where he performs regularly and maintains an active teaching practice in Music and the Alexander Technique. 

Music Lessons: (Guitar, Ukulele, Harmonica)
http://www.musiclessonsvancouver.com
Alexander Technique: 
http://www.vancouveralexandertechnique.com
Original Music:
http://www.nickyneedle.com

Jill Binder

Jill Binder is known as the Zombie Girl of the Vancouver Ukulele Circle, having co-written two songs about zombies and having affectionately followed that up with some Zombie Christmas carols. She is glad to report that her songwriting repertoire has broadened since then: gin, videogames, coding, and ninja babies.

She spontaneously picked up the uke in the summer of 2008, and hasn't put it down since (except for a year off for some schooling). She now owns many ukuleles, several of which are fancy, a couple of which are electric.

When she's not playing uke, you can find her developing websites (http://www.jillbinder.com), volunteering for arts around the city, and teaching others how to hold the ukulele and play their first song. 

Jimmy Just Jackman

By appointment, Jimmy 'Just' Jackman is The Royal Fool of the Vancouver Ukulele Circle. Jimmy tries to do as little as possible for a living. "But", says he, "it's very hard work".

Jimmy contracted ukuleleitis three years ago, while busking as Boswell the Clown on Granville Island. This contagion was as a result of repeated encounters with HRH King Ralph. The fool says he was so impressed with Ralph's ukulele performing that he immediately knew he wanted to add a musical dimension to his clowning.

So, here's Jimmy now, three years later, sans greasepaint, sans latex balloons, but still sans any shred of common sense. These days Jimmy busks, primarily, as a licenced performer at the downtown Skytrain stations. He currently holds the triple crown of busking in Vancouver: a city permit, a Skytrain permit, and a Granville Island permit. He has pie in the sky dreams of recording an album, and going to Hollywood. His motto is in risu veritas, and you can visit Jimmy at http://www.someclown.com.

Lorene Ruymer

This is Lorene Ruymar playing her double necked steel guitar, and showing some of the other forms the steel guitar can take. Aside from playing the ukulele, Lorene is a steel guitarist and professional music teacher, Vancouver School Board. She has devised an instruction course for beginner level steel guitar, and she has done heavy duty research into the history and development of the steel guitar. You see the book she wrote, published in California, 1996. It's The Hawaiian Steel Guitar And Its Great Hawaiian Musicians. Twenty years ago, Lorene founded the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association. Find more about that at www.hsga.org. If you're interested in learning to play the steel guitar or reading the story of its development, check out: http://members.shaw.ca/steelguitar/ 
Email: ruymar@shaw.ca

Peter Dunn

Peter started playing guitar and multitracking when he was 14. Now in his early 30's, Peter plays more than half a dozen instruments including percussion, bass and banjo. In 2008 he bought himself his first ukulele, and it seems this is what his fingers were looking for because he now plays it almost exclusively.

A boisterous member of our ukulele circle since 2009, Peter often performs and leads songs and has submitted dozens of songs as new material for our new and 3rd book, the 10th anniversary collection. He has also created and administers the Vancouver Ukulele Circle Facebook fan page.

You can visit him at his youtube channel here : http://www.youtube.com/user/UkulelePeter

Ronin Wong

Ronin teaches music: ukulele, singing, piano, and guitar. His students receive a top-notch education which covers a broad range of repertoire and styles. Every aspect of music is covered including technique, theory, improvisation, performance, and composition. Recently, Ronin has started to offer ukulele lessons via Skype and is starting to teach students from all across North America.  To find out more, see http://www.gopherp.com/MusicLessons.htm, or email him at ronin@gopherp.com.
Aside from teaching, Ronin is obsessed with making Youtube music videos.  He has put out over 50 videos, most of which feature the ukulele.  Ronin's most ambitious project was a 43-person international collaborative music video:  a ukulele-infused cover of "Do They Know It's Christmas." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=272HvdsI8jQ.   Recently, his videos have been honored with 6 Nominations, including Video of the Year, from the Ukulele Underground.   
You can find the rest of his videos on his Youtube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/user/MusicMonsterW?feature=mhum or on his Facebook Fan Page - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ronin-Wong/210508260522
In addition, Ronin has acted in a number of stage, film, and TV productions.  A partial list of credits can be found on imdb. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0740104/.

Sarah Ellis

In an ideal world Sarah Ellis would spend all her time playing the ukulele and would finally master bar chords. In the meantime, she writes books for children and young adults to finance her various hobbies.

In the latest novel, Odd Man Out, (Groundwood Books, 2006) there is one reference to the uke. Keen-eyed readers may be eligible for a lavish prize if they find it. 

E-visit her at www.sarahellis.ca

Tiny Tim Overdrive

Tiny Tim Overdrive bills themselves as "Vancouver's Legendary Ukulele Cover Band".  Founded in early 2009 by soprano player Joe Mercer and bass player Kim Stewart, TTO has boasted a number of vanukes members over the years such as Paul Corriveau, Ronin Wong and Jill Binder. They are currently operating as a trio, with Joe, Kim and Laura Schubert.

Musically, Tiny Tim Overdrive covers any and all genres of music. Everything from Donna Summer and Lady Gaga to Slayer and Black Sabbath, Cowboy Junkies and Stray Cats to Pink Floyd and The Cure. You can catch them at any of the numerous live shows they perform around town, having previously played The Railway Club, Under The Volcano Fest, Cafe Montmartre, WISE Hall, The Heritage Grill and multiple others. They have declared 2012 as "The Year of the Overdrive!" You can find them on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/user/tinytimoverdrive  or facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tiny-Tim-Overdrive/159162774315 

Wendy Cutler

Wendy credits herself with bringing the ukulele to Scandinavian folk dance music, which she plays, along with bass and guitar, in a group called Gammel Dansk. She would also bring the uke to Greek folk dance music, but her Musiki Parea band mates won't let her.

Wendy is the maintainer of this website and of the yahoogroup email list. If you'd like to be notified of our group's activities, or have comments about the website, you can contact her at vanukes@vcn.bc.ca.