Instructors
Las Cruces UkeFest 2022 features some of the ukulele world’s most sought-after instructor/performers, so you’ll want to be sure to sign up early so you won’t miss working with them here in the Land of Enchantment!
Join us to learn from this year’s amazing instructors. Each instructor has a page featuring biographical information so you can learn more about them. As we get closer to festival time, we’ll also post their workshop offerings.
Del Rey
Del Rey says: I started playing guitar when I was four. At the age of thirteen I was introduced to the world of traditional acoustic music, when a friend and I stumbled into a concert at Folk Arts Rare Records in San Diego. About 20 people were sitting on the floor under the record bins listening … Continue reading Del Rey
Casey MacGill
Casey MacGill plays rhythm on the ukulele with a super-solid feel supporting his stellar vocals. Whether it’s his classic swing strum, the groovy shuffle strum, or the sensuous rumba strum, he brings a deep pulse to the music. He began strumming during the folk music scare of the early ’60s, busked movie lines for “Easy Rider,” … Continue reading Casey MacGill
Gorton Smith
Gorton Smith will be the first to tell you he is not an instructor, but a workshop leader. He will be guiding the festival’s Sunday morning “Gospel According to Uke” sing-along session, which he has conducted with great success at every Albuquerque Ukekopelli Festival and Las Cruces UkeFest. One of the Las Cruces Ukes board members, Gorton is … Continue reading Gorton Smith
Mood Swings: Dani Joy & Perry Stauffer
Duo: Mood SwingsMoody Swings Genre: Disney meets David Bowie in 1930. When you hear Dani Joy’s velvet vocals, you’ll forget your worries and drift away on a cloud, through Latin rhythms and vintage throwbacks. accompanied by Jazz virtuoso Perry Stauffer who’s talent is only exceeded by his incredible good looks, The Mood Swings are … Continue reading Mood Swings: Dani Joy & Perry Stauffer
Daniel Ho
Hawai‘i-born, Los Angeles-based Daniel Ho is a six-time GRAMMY Award winner, fourteen-time GRAMMY Award nominee, six-time Taiwanese Golden Melody Award winner, and recipient of multiple Hawaiian Music awards. He is an ‘ukulele virtuoso, slack key guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, singer-songwriter, producer, audio engineer, and record company owner. He is the designer of the iconic Romero … Continue reading Daniel Ho
Vocals and Percussion
Chris Sanders Las Cruces musician and music instructor Chris Sanders, who is one-third of the Hard Rock Trio, will present a vocal techniques workshop on Sunday. Creating music has been a passion of Chris’s since she crawled up on a piano bench and began picking out tunes as a toddler. Her tunes can be heard … Continue reading Vocals and Percussion
Las Cruces UkeFest 