The parents and kids of UFP threw a very sweet going away party for me today (that's us in the photo above). I put together a rough mix of the songs we've worked on, and the kids were very happy with what they have accomplished, and couldn't get enough of hearing themselves on the recording.

As for me, after five weeks of rehearsals, recordings, performances and general mayhem, it's almost time for me to go back to Canada. I can't deny that this is all a bit sad for me - working with these wonderful people, young and old, from Tira and Hod Hasharon, has been one of the most inspiring experiences of my life. But far from being an ending, this project has opened doors for many of us - and more are opening all the time.

The future is very, very bright for the Ukuleles For Peace orchestra. It will take a couple months for the recording to be mixed, mastered, pressed and packaged, but once it's done UFP will have both a document of their work and a powerful tool for raising more funding and awareness. The next step is raising enough money to expand UFP within Israel and to fund a tour abroad for the orchestra. If you're reading this and want to help or get involved, don't hesitate. You can donate to or contact Ukuleles For Peace at www.ukulelesforpeace.com, or email me at mathiaskom@yahoo.ca.

I haven't put an mp3 on this blog entry - now that we're all done you'll just have to wait for the album to come out. But in the meantime, pick up a ukulele yourself and learn a few chords. You might be surprised to find that the ukulele is more powerful than it looks.

Then again, if you've been following this blog, you won't be surprised at all.

Peace.

- Mathias

Well, the Ukuleles for Peace orchestra really has a lot to be proud of today: two out-of-town shows in less than half a day! We all woke up at the crack of dawn, climbed on a tour bus and headed for the first show, at a school near Beit Shemesh, south-west of Jerusalem. The orchestra made a totally stellar effort (see above), and performed a half-hour set to huge applause from the few hundred students and teachers in the audience. Afterwards they had a meeting with some of the local students to discuss co-existence projects and, of course, ukuleles.

The next show was a 20 minute drive away, and while the orchestra put on another solid performance, it was a tough gig for them: the sound system was far from adequate and the kids in the audience weren't

We're right in the middle of the busiest week yet! So much news, so many accomplishments...first of all, it's Hanukkah, and this morning the kids in Aleph (5-6 years old) performed 'Row Row Row Your Boat' to great applause at the finale of the school Hanukkah party...unfortunately I was concentrating so hard on shooting a good video of them that I didn't get any still

Today was the first day of what is going to be a very busy week...I started off the day by video-interviewing the headmaster of the Democratic School in Hod Hasharon about her perspectives on coexistence and education in Israel. After that, Daphna, Paul and I helped some of the younger Hod Hasharon ukulele enthusiasts...the youngest group, pictured in the photo above, practiced dilligently for their upcoming debut at a school Hanukkah party on Wednesday. And yes, those are ukulele cases on their heads.

After that it was off to Tira for more lessons and a bit of recording, and now we're getting everything ready for the coming week...it's going to be a full one! There's a gig in a senior's home tomorrow for a few of the advanced players, the beginners will perform 'Row Row Row Your Boat' at the school party on Wednesday, and the UFP orchestra has a couple of shows on a kibbutz on Thursday...AND we'll be squeezing in two more recording sessions somewhere! For now, check out what I have officially decided is the cutest thing to emerge from the recording process so far: Drunken Sailor, complete with pirate lingo.

Anatomy of a Ukuleles For Peace Recording Session:

Today I've posted an mp3 of the kids doing "All Together Now", and I've intentionally posted the unedited, untrimmed file so that you can get a clearer idea of what these recording sessions are like. This particular song was from the session last night, with 15 UFP kids. But first, a few things you need to know before you listen...

1) The whacking sound you can hear right at the beginning is Paul hitting a wooden cabinet with a newspaper - the cabinet is home to a very noisy woodworm (you can actually hear the woodworm making little clicking sounds right after Paul says "shhhhh"), and the woodworm was apparently getting

With Annapolis and reactions to Annapolis making headlines around the world, I'm sure you've already heard a lot about Israel today. But just in case the news hasn't reached Reuters yet, I should probably tell you: Ukuleles For Peace got some great work done this evening - a few more excellent takes for the album.

It was also Suhair's birthday today, and at the end of the recording session while everyone else brought out cakes, I sneakily kept the machine rolling. Below is an mp3 of a little magic moment when some of the girls (joined by a backing chorus of parents) sang a birthday song for

The photo above is of one of the UFP orchestra kids, who along with another girl gets a nearly one-on-one lesson every Monday morning before Paul moves on to teach the younger ones who haven't yet graduated to the orchestra. And today, instead of focusing on the UFP orchestra itself, I thought I'd give you a taste of what the younger kids are up to. The mp3 I've posted below is a brief segment of one of the classes this morning - most of these kids are in 'Bet' (like Grade 2), and some of them still need to work on the three golden chords of the ukulele: C, F, and G7 (or 'G-sheva' in Hebrew). Take a listen to Paul leading them through these chords...and remember, this is only a very brief segment! The kids are great to work with, but I hope you can get a sense of just how much effort Paul spends with them...

Torrential rains all day today - Tira is apparently experiencing a minor flood and here in Hod Hasharon things aren't much better. Consequently tonight's orchestra rehearsal was canceled, which is probably for the best, and I definitely don't blame parents or kids for not wanting to be on the road in this weather. The extra time has given me a chance to look at some of the recordings from last night. I've attached an mp3 of Mayan, Hillai, Noya and Leah playing the same Jazz Medley I posted from Day One - this time a lot more polished!

One thing I'm learning very quickly: recording an album of a children's ukulele orchestra is not as easy as it sounds. Tonight some of the advanced kids from the orchestra came by to try a few more songs. They really are very, very good, and their energy is amazing and inspiring. But it IS hard to find a balance between preserving the energy of their usual performances and managing to capture a relatively nice take of a particular song.