By PETERSON GONZAGA

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD-Music company KoAloha hosted a special music event “Ukulele Beatles” at the Grammy Museum which featured ukulele music artists Ryo Montgomery of Australia and Ryan Imamura of Guam. The ukulele artists brought the music of the Beatles to life through their own ukulele instrumental and vocal styles.

For Ryo Montgomery, he would have never thought he would be playing at an iconic venue like the Grammy Museum. He was just elated that KoAloha brought him on board for this special event. Ryo also explains that the reason for a Beatles inspired music event, was because George Harrison wrote many song while using the ukulele. “I read somewhere that he came up with some crazy chords on the ukulele because it has the high g’s and it has those weird inversions and I think the ukulele inspired them,” added Montgomery.

Fellow music artist Ryan Imamura added that a lot of people didn’t know that George Harrison was an ukulele player.

He also said felt awesome to be in Los Angeles and at the Grammy Museum to showcase his musical styling of the Beatles. “I traveled 14 hours to be here and it’s definitely a great adventure and a great feeling to be playing at the Grammy Museum,” explained Imamura.

Granted Ryan has been in Los Angeles before, he said that this is considered his first official gig in Los Angeles. Imamura can thank his dad for his budding ukulele music career as his father opened up a youtube account and started posting Ryan’s performances online. This garnered him attention and fans around the world and helped him land the gig with KoAloha giving him the opportunity to travel around the world to showcase his ukulele performance with other artists that are part of the KoAloha group. Interestingly, Imamura wanted to keep his legacy at his middle school alive in which he created a ukulele club that he helped fly from Guam to Hawaii in 2011 for a music festival. He also helped connect his fellow classmates to take a tour of the KoAloha music factory which led him to become a featured artist of the KoAloha Ukulele company.

It was a full  house for the duo and received a standing ovation after their performance.