1836 gegründet, erhielt die königliche Kapelle von Hawaii 1872 auf Bitten des Königs Kamehameha V. einen jungen preußischen Kapellmeister, Heinrich Berger (1844–1929). Er blieb bis zu seinem Tod auf Hawaii. Unter seiner Leitung wurde die Kapelle zu einem international anerkannten Orchester. Berger komponiert auch etliche bis heute bekannte Stücke für die Kapelle (darunter auch die Nationalhymne Hawaiis). Die Kapelle besteht bis heute.

Berger gab der Ukulele erstmals vollgültigen Platz in einem Orchester. In einem Bericht des San Francisco Call vom 23.5.1896 heißt es:

Captain Berger has transformed the Royal Hawaiian Band into a great Glee Club of forty-five members. He has for years been able to transform it into an orchestra at will and every member of the orchestra had to be able to „double in brass“. But now, he has also to be able to treble in guitar or ukulele and come in lustily on the chorus of a whole repertoire of native songs.
Captain Berger has probably tho largest glee club in the world, and its first concerts will be given In San Francisco for the relief of earthquake sufferers.¹⁾ …
There were forty-five members of the band. Ten of them played violins, three played cellos, two played bass viols and the rest were evenly divided between guitars and ukuleles. Nobody ever saw so many ukuleles being played at one time before and It was a surprising novelty even in Hawaii.