Composers’ Notes with Special Guest, James Hill

Sunday, September 20, 2:30pm (45 min)
With host, Marcel Bergmann

LCMS alumnus James Hill is an award-winning singer, songwriter, educator and virtuoso instrumentalist. Hailed by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin as a “rare peer” of Hawaii’s premier ukulele players, James earned himself a JUNO nomination for his album The Old Silo.

A highly versatile and original artist, James will demonstrate aspects of his composing and arranging, with a particular focus on the ukulele as a core element of his creative output. He will share insights about how to get inspired, how to stay inspired and how to turn your inspiration into unique musical compositions.

This session will be the third of a four-part online series featuring composers working in different genres.

This FREE event will take place on Zoom.
Please email info@langleymusic.com by September 19th to receive your link to the event.

About James Hill

James Hill

James’ early recordings established him as “one of the world’s top composers for the ukulele” (Rafe Mair, 600AM Vancouver) and a “rare peer” of Hawaii’s’ premier ukulelists (John Berger, Honolulu Star-Bulletin) His later albums have “stamped him as a singer-songwriter and all-round musician of the highest calibre” (Rhythms Magazine).

A ‘third-generation’ Canadian ukulele player, James grew up in the town of Langley, British Columbia where he was a student of Jamie Thomas and Peter Luongo, themselves former protégés of ukulele visionary J. Chalmers Doane. After a decade spent honing his skills as a member of the Langley Ukulele Ensemble, James continued his study of music at the University of British Columbia where he earned a Bachelor of Music Degree in 2003.

In the mid-2000s, James collaborated with J. Chalmers Doane, the trail-blazing teacher who first pioneered the use of ukuleles in Canadian schools, to create the acclaimed Ukulele in the Classroom method book series. In 2010, James and his father Barry, a retired school teacher, launched the JHUI Teacher Certification Program, the only course of its kind in the world. With Ukulele in the Classroom established as the gold standard for classroom ukulele pedagogy, James set his sights on creating a new resource that would focus on teaching the art and science of solo ukulele (i.e. playing melody, harmony and rhythm simultaneously on one instrument). The Ukulele Way, with its rich blend of print, audio, video and social media technology, was launched in 2014.

A singer, songwriter, educator and virtuoso instrumentalist, James Hill is a man on a musical mission. It’s a mission that reaches beyond the concert stage and into communities, homes and classrooms around the world. After all, when the applause fades and the stage goes dark you can still hear the sound of ukuleles strumming happily into the night.