Ken Mattsson has been a musician, teacher, and event organizer for over 40 years. Performing everywhere from Club Passim to Boston Symphony Hall, he has sung and played ukulele, hammered dulcimer, wind instruments and others for crowds of two to 1000.  Ken has been writing and performing his own original music for the past five years, and brings his background in adult education to translate musical concepts to ukulele players in a clear and approachable way.

Ken's website

Workshop Description

Ukulele off the Page

Have you been an ukulele player who is always asking, "Where's the songsheet?" This is your chance to get off the page! There will be no handouts, and this will help players practice hearing chord changes and playing along.

In chronological order, Armand Aromin is a queer Filipino American musician, percussive dancer, singer, and violin maker now enmortgaged in Riverside, RI with his partner, Benedict Gagliardi. More importantly, if you can say "Arm & Hammer" you're pronouncing his name correctly!

Like many who came before him, Armand's ukulele journey, too, began with the Irish fiddle in high school. After a text-message-break-up his senior year (he's doing fine.) his heart told him, "The only way to heal is to stress-purchase a 5-string banjo." And so he did. But while contentedly clawhammering his way through college, he beheld his first ukulele, and thus his eyes were truly opened. It was as if a banjo-shaped weight was lifted from his shoulders! Now, lo these many years, the clawhammer's twang has graced and grazed many an ear with a growing repertoire of tunes and songs that continue to wonderfully confound the writer of this bio.

Armand is one-third of The Vox Hunters, a quarter of Eight Feet Tall, and at least a third of The Ivy Leaf. He proudly owns Aromin Violins, a tiny basement workshop in his first, and only, house.

Armand loves, loves, loves teaching with a focus on musicality and giving students tools with which to find their own voice. He's taught at the Nutmeg Ukulele Festival in Simsbury, Ct; and he regularly teaches private lessons at home as well as group classes at the Blackstone River Theatre in Cumberland, RI. In November 2023, The Ukulele Site hosted an Instagram contest where his submission, "Hunt the Hare", made it to the Top 10! Video below.

Armand's website

Workshop Description

Fingers to Spare? Try Chord Embellishments!

Yes, we know the C chord. Yes, we can strum it for as long as you'd like... but one can only stand to hear it for so long. Let's take advantage of our free-fingers and give them something to do: an embellishment here, a complementary harmony line there, and a better understanding of how chords work!