UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The singing, strumming Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain celebrates its 40th anniversary of niche weirdness with a tour of classic rock and sing-along music hits on four strings. The officially middle-aged ensemble will perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 9, in Eisenhower Auditorium.
Call the Arts Ticket Center at 814-863-0255, or visit Ukulele Orchestra online for more information and to purchase tickets. The Center for the Performing Arts and the Arts Ticket Center are parts of the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture.
‘People want to go to the show’
“A concert by the Ukulele Orchestra is a funny, virtuosic, twanging, awesome, foot-stomping obituary of rock-n-roll and melodious light entertainment, featuring only the ‘bonsai guitar’ and a menagerie of voices in a collision of post-punk performance and toe-tapping oldies,” said a writer for JournalofMusic.com.
A typical setlist might include Broadway showtunes, TV theme songs, and radio hits by Lady Gaga, The Cure, ZZ Top, Nirvana, Paul Simon and more.
Musician Peter Brooke Turner joined the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain in 1995. After over 30 years of touring with the band, and the advancement of so many new types of technology, Turner said he isn’t sure what the next big thing could be. But he said he thinks that people will always be drawn to the experience of a live performance.
“It’s a pretty amazing thing to actually get people to come out of their houses ... because I can go on YouTube now and see films of, you know, long dead musicians, but people want to go to the show,” Turner said in a Center for the Performing Arts interview. “They just want to have that human connection now.”