This week The Conversation hosted some special guests who traveled all the way from Madeira, an island over 500 miles southwest of mainland Portugal.
They were in Hawaiʻi for this past weekend's International ʻUkulele Festival celebrating the arrival of the instrument from Portugal 145 years ago.
Eugénio Perregil, the cultural director of the Center for Education and Culture in Madeira, was joined by Madeira Conservatory music professors Roberto Moritz and Roberto Moniz.
The trio described two instruments, the precursors to the ʻukulele we know today: the smaller machete and the rajão, a larger instrument with five strings. They also shared their thoughts on what Hawaiʻi musicians have been able to do with the ʻukulele in recent years.
The group will be at the Downtown Art Center for First Friday this week and at the Portuguese Festa at the Hawaiʻi Plantation Village in Waipahu on Aug. 3. There's also a UH Mānoa event on July 31.
This interview aired on The Conversation on July 30, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
