Mr. & Mrs. Ukulele
For the 38th year, Kathy and Roy Sakuma’s Ukulele Festival is onstage at Kapiolani Park this Sunday, featuring Ohta-San, Holunape and many more
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FOR ROY AND KATHY SAKUMA, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE KEIKI
Arascal kid with the odds against him, Roy Sakuma was blessed with two very special mentors, Herb “Ohta-San” Ohta, who taught him the ukulele, and Moroni Medeiros, who exemplified kindness and generosity. Together they helped a troubled teenager who was kicked out of school turn his life around to become the visionary of an ukulele empire - executed, of course, with the help of his lovely wife of 32 years, Kathy.
During a time when the ukulele lacked popularity, Sakuma took a chance on an ad his friend found in the newspaper and called Ohta-San to teach him how to play the ukulele.
“I started with Ohta-San when I was 16 and I studied with him for 18 months. I remember him telling me that I learned in 18 months what it took him five years to learn,” says Sakuma. “He was a sergeant in the U.S. Marines and he was tough, but that was exactly what I needed in my life. It changed my whole life. I respected him so much. Even until this day, I have just tremendous respect for him.”
Sakuma became consumed with the instrument, sometimes practicing 10-12 hours a day. And as Sakuma puts it, “I had no time to go drift off with my friends.”
It kept him out of trouble, and Sakuma’s love for the ukulele also had him dreaming big about a career as a performer. But the course of that dream changed when Ohta-San asked him to teach his class because he was leaving for Japan for two weeks.
“I had only one week to prepare myself to teach, so what I did is, in my house I would talk to the mirror, talk to the carpet and just practice for hours,” recalls Sakuma. “I would stumble and stutter, and I would practice until I could say it comfortably. When I went in front of the class it was so natural. I just taught and I loved it. Then I changed my mind, I didn’t want to play music, I wanted to teach. So Ohta-San comes back and the first thing he tells me is, ‘You want to teach my classes?’ I was so happy. That’s what got me into teaching and I owe so much to him.”
With teaching ukulele a part-time profession, Sakuma got a job as a groundskeeper with the Department of Parks and Recreation cleaning the bathrooms at Kapiolani Park. During a lunch break, Sakuma remembers telling his lunch buddy of his dream to have an ukulele festival at the park. Encouraged to do so, Sakuma found himself at City Hall speaking to a gentleman named Moroni Medeiros.
“I told him about doing a festival and he told me, ‘I’ll help you,’” says Sakuma. “So he helped me, and I was able to put on the ukulele festival. He helped us for 14 years until he passed away. He was the nicest guy, and I never heard him say anything negative to people.”
Medeiros later became the head of McCoy Pavilion and Sakuma was his recreation assistant. Sakuma remembers being inspired by Medeiros as he greeted everyone who walked into the pavilion with a hug and offering help.
“Homeless people would come in and ask for the bathroom, and he would tell them, ‘Come, brother, I’ll take you.’ He would treat famous people, homeless people, lost people with that same love and respect - now that is from the heart,” says Sakuma. “He really had the gift of compassion and the desire to help others and I think that really made an impact on me.”
The first Ukulele Festival was in 1971. Three years later, Roy opened the first Roy Sakuma Ukulele Studio and, in 1976, he married his life and business partner, Kathy.
The two met through mutual friends and, as Roy describes it, he earned a date with her with a bit of persistence and convincing to go to see the Harlem Globetrotters.
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“I remember that I had so much love and respect for her that I didn’t want to hold her hand during our dates,” says Roy. “I finally figured out how to do it. I took her to the Punahou Carnival, because then you have to hold hands because it’s so crowded.”
The two dated as Roy taught Ohta-San’s classes and as Kathy attended UH-Manoa as a Japanese language major. And when Roy opened the first of four Roy Sakuma Ukulele Studios in Kaimuki, the students came rolling in.
“We were still dating when Roy opened the first studio,” says Kathy. “I had just graduated and was working full time, but he would need help. So I would just come after work and it just grew from there. Within a year, we both had to quit our full-time jobs.”
Both agree that the idea of teaching ukulele as a profession was a real shot in the dark. As Kathy says, “when people asked me, ‘what do you do?‘and I told them that I teach ukulele. They were like, ‘you do what?‘And then say, ‘no, what do you do as your job?’ No one really thought it could be a job because the ukulele wasn’t popular like it is today.”
This year is the Starbucks 38th annual Ukulele Festival, and staying true to Roy’s vision, the event is still free and open to everyone. It’s happening from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday, July 27, at Kapiolani Park Bandstand. Performances include Ohta-San, Holunape, Kelly Boy DeLima, Bryan Tolentino, Paula Fuga, James Hill, Yugi Igarashi and Kolohe Inamura, Michael Keale, the Roy Sakuma 800-Piece Ukulele Band and more. Emcee for the event is Danny Kaleikini.
“I think one of the main reasons why Roy started the first festival is because he really wanted to show people that the ukulele was an instrument where you could play it with virtuosity and not just strumming four-chord progressions,” says Kathy. “
The festival has grown over the past 38 years from an ukulele band of 50 students to the 800 children taking the stage this year. There are food booths, souvenir T-shirts, ukulele displays and ukulele giveaways.
Roy’s festival vision has become an annual production with Kathy at the reins of the operation. With the support of sponsors and musicians who donate their time and talent, the festival has continued to grow.
In 2004 the couple established Ukulele Festival Hawaii, a charitable nonprofit organization with a mission to perpetuate the ukulele.
“The beauty of the organization is that we have no expenses because all the board members are volunteers,” says Roy. “It’s beautiful that every cent we raise is for the children - we’re so happy.”
As for the Roy Sakuma Ukulele Studios, nearly 50,000 students have come through one of the couple’s four studios scattered throughout Oahu (Kaimuki,Aiea, Mililani and Kaneohe). And since expanding, Roy and Kathy have made it a point only to hire former students as instructors. The studios currently have 23 part-time and four full-time instructors. Some of them, Roy says, “have been with us since they were 5 years old.”
With so many students - and most of them children - Roy and Kathy have gladly taken on responsibilities as role models. Their classes not only teach ukulele lessons, but life lessons as well.
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