Hill, James

In school, James Hill became a member of the ukulele orchestra at Langley College in Langley (British Columbia), under the direction of Peter Luongo. After studying music, he has been active as concert musician and music educator since 2002.

James Hill is regarded as one of the most versatile and accomplished ukulele players who strives to not only use the ukulele to play originally differently orchestrated music, but to prove its fitness as a solo concert instrument. In particular, he draws attention to the percussive characteristics of the ukulele. In addition, he launched the James Hill Ukulele Initiative (JHUI), an international movement for training ukulele teachers.

James Hill is one of my favourite musicians and what’s great about him is that he’s a virtuoso performer but he writes all of his own music and it’s all super high quality. There are other virtuosos who don’t write their own music, they play other people’s. But James can do both and that’s why I think he’s tops.¹⁾

• Hill, James; Doane, John Chalmers: Ukulele in the Classroom I, Crystal Lake Media (2008) (ISBN 9780980932607)

• James Hill
• Ukulele in the Classroom (Website)
• Ukulele Hotsprings