NameLangley Ukulele Ensemble
Country
Foundedca. 1980
AbkürzungLUE

In the 1970s, under the influence of J. Chalmers Doane, Canada introduced the ukulele as a standard musical instrument for elementary school music education. The school district Langley in British Columbia also began with such a program. In order to motivate the students and to promote them beyond the lessons, they founded advanced groups, from which the best were included in the „Honors A group“. From this developed, during the 1970s, the LUE, first under Lorna MacPhee, at whose guidance since then Peter Luongo – at first as an assistant, from 1982 as a director (followed by his son Paul in 2013) – was involved. The most famous graduate of the LUE is James Hill.

Teaching ukulele is my release. It's the thing I do to try to bring balance to my life.1)

The leading group of LUE initially consisted of 15, later 30 and today 25 musicians aged between 12 and 25 years. Since 1984, a voyage to Hawaii has been a regular program, introducing young people not only to the music but also to the culture of the islands and making music with locals. Tours in Canada, the US and Japan (2004) are also part of the program. The Senior A-Ensemble gives 50 to 80 performances a year.

Today (2015), the LUE consists of five groups:

NameAge groupLevelMembersObjective
Junior8-10Beginners 10 songs
Intermediate B9-14Some2020 songs
Intermediate A
Senior B10-14Advanced18polyphony
Senior A12-21Advenced25exzellence
Africa (2013)
Senior B-Ensemble: Ouverture of Wilhelm Tell (2013)