Thought you might like to see the people behind UKESA Hawaii. Pictured below are Master Luthier Alvin “Popaloha” Okami and his wife of 52 years, Pat “Moms” Okami from the Island of Oahu, and Ed Fiscella, from the Island of New Jersey. Alvin and Pat are the founders of KoAloha Ukulele, and Ed is the founder of Mainstage Center for the Arts, in Gloucester Township, New Jersey. How these three got together will be featured in a number of upcoming posts.
Pops is the creative genius at UKESAHawaii.com. Moms handles the business, and Ed is the online guy for all communications and sales.
Pops says, “My talent, gift or whatever anyone might label it, is that the reason ideas come effortlessly in my brain is simply because my brain contains NOTHING! If my mind was filled with so many other things, ideas that wanted to come into my mind would have such a difficult time trying to squeeze itself in to get my attention. With a mind/brain that is empty, it would be a snap for any ideas floating around to see an empty brain and welcome itself right in without hardly exercising any strenuous effort.
Ed, you and Trish are the “brains” and I am the “brainless”. What a great team we make:))))))”
Good Friday morning Ed –
I hope you and your family are doing well!
How is Moms and Pops doing?
Ed, there’s something I would love to know about the ukulele in elementary schools in Hawaii. You know that I’m a retired high school/middle school band director for half my career, then decided to change over to teaching Pre-K thru 6 grades general music the rest of my teaching career incorporating World Music Drumming to all the grade levels (including Pre-K and that was really interesting to get that age group disciplined to play drums!), guitar class to selected 5th grade students that met weekly an hour before school started and teaching ukulele to 150 third graders each year with a concert at the end of each year. I really enjoyed all of my teaching career and miss it every day!
Now, I’m very interested in knowing how the ukulele is taught in the Hawaiian schools. Is it taught in elementary, middle and high schools? Or is it taught to a certain grade group? Could you tell me ALL that you know about the teaching of ukulele in Hawaii? Are books used in the ukulele classroom curriculum? Do students use ukuleles that are provided at school?
I’m really enjoying Pops ukulele! It sets next to my recliner and I play it every day. I wrote a review about it several weeks ago on this website. It’s such a beautiful sounding ukulele and SO easy to play!
Thanks Ed-
Teresa
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