March 13, 2025
Contact Dillon McArdle at 608-796-3730 or dtmcardle@viterbo.edu
THE UKULELE ORCHESTRA OF GREAT BRITAIN TO PERFORM AT VITERBO UNIVERSITY MARCH 26
LA CROSSE, Wis. – Celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britian with a white-knuckle dash through every kind of musical genre—from ABBA to ZZ Top, Tchaikovsky to Nirvana, Bluegrass to Broadway—all played on the “bonsai guitar” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 26 in the Viterbo University Fine Arts Center Main Theatre.
Formed in 1985 as the antidote to mindless pop, egocentric rock, and the indulgent, bluster of the music business, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain donned black tuxedos, and began giving “concerts” in tiny rooms above old pubs. Four decades (and 400,000,000 plucks) later they’re still thrilling audiences with their off-beat humor and four-stringed virtuosity from Tasmania to the Arctic Circle, Windsor Castle to Carnegie Hall.
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain uses no drums, pianos, backing tracks, guitars, or banjos, no pitch shifters or electronic trickery—just an astonishing revelation of the rich palette of orchestration afforded by ukuleles and a menagerie of voices in a collision of post-punk performance and old classics.
“This group has a beautiful chemistry that represents fun, innocence, daftness, and a genuinely enjoyable showcase of unique talent,” wrote a reviewer in the Manchester Evening News. “The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain really should be a national institution of the same ilk as grammar schools, fish and chips, traffic jams, and the NHS, such is the honesty and quirky confidence of their quintessential British eccentricity. It’s really no wonder they’re famous the world over.”
This performance is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tickets are $46 for main floor and lower balcony and $36 for upper balcony seating, plus a $3 convenience fee and $1 facility fee per ticket. All orders will include a 5.5% sales tax. For more information or to order tickets, contact the Viterbo box office at 608-796-3100 or visit www.viterbo.edu/tickets.
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