"Ukommunity"--Isolated by Covid, Cali Rose created a new following in the Cloud

Even before Bob Dylan, musicians were making up life

stories to give themselves a more memorable brand for their

performances. Cali Rose was able to skip this step of

career enhancement because her true story sounds more farfetched than fiction.

She was in nursing school and working a late-night shift in

the emergency room when her epiphany occurred. “I realized

that I’m not doing what I want to do. Is that all there

is?” she said in a recent Zoom interview.

Her supervisor met with her that night and said, “You’re

doing great, but I have a feeling something is really

bothering you.”

Cali broke down, admitting that all she wanted to do was to

play music in piano bars. Her supervisor listened and then

told her, “If you don’t do it now, you never will.”

She dropped out of nursing school and a short time later,

through a friend of a friend, got her first paid gig in a

Los Angeles red-light district piano bar.

She laughs as she remembers those early nights and how

excited she was. The women working the streets took her

under their wing, teaching her how to dress for a piano

bar, how to carry herself. Those first performances were

terrifying, she admits, but also electrifying. When someone

left Cali her first tip, three dimes, she was so overjoyed

that she glued them to a piece of wood and made herself a

trophy.

Piano got her started, but ukulele turned out to be her

teaching passion, and that’s what she’ll be playing at the

10th Annual Los Angeles International Ukulele Festival in

Torrance Sept. 18-20, 2026.

Born in Washington, D.C., Cali was raised on the keys of

her great aunt’s Steinway and learned early on that music

could be both refuge and rebellion. Even as a child, she

gravitated toward sound, treating music as a second

language.

“It’s just one of those things where I could hear

something, and then could plunk it out on the piano,” Cali

recalled. “I think maybe I was 5 or 6 years old.”

She resisted the structure of lessons, instead choosing to

follow her ear. Her great aunt did not appreciate that

approach, but when she moved with her parents to California

when she was 9, her new piano teacher embraced it and

encouraged her to explore music in her own way.

“A good teacher wants to check in with the student and see

where they are, where they want to go, to listen and follow

their lead in a gentle but persuasive way,” Cali stated.

“Ultimately, they remind the student that they are also the

teacher.”

Her mother was a nurse, and as Cali started to follow that

career path, she felt music pulling her. But she thought

back to the fateful night that changed her life. “It’s

crazy to me how many people in the world are not getting

paid to do something that at least gives them the feeling

of being alive,” she said. “And I thought, ‘Well, maybe I

have a crack at that. Who knows?’” It helped that she also

played guitar, banjo and wrote songs.

She stayed in piano bars for more than 20 years. It was at

one of those restaurants that she met her husband, Craig

Brandau, who sat in with her on his guitar and eventually

embraced the ukulele himself.

Craig ordered her first custom ukulele. A Ko’olau Tenor.

“It took them months to build it,” she recalled. Holding

the beautifully crafted instrument in her hands, Cali knew

what she had to do. “Oh my god, I better learn how to

really play it!”

The quality of the instrument made her want to keep

learning, and by May 2010, she was teaching her first

beginner ukulele class at a local senior center. Within a

week, her class began to grow.

“The staff asked me to teach another day and I said, ‘Well

okay.’” Soon she was running a Monday beginner’s class and

a Thursday intermediate class and it didn’t stop there.

“We outgrew the room. They had to put us into another room,

but we outgrew that room too, and they had to put us in the

really big room.”

For Cali, this momentum wasn’t a mystery. “It kept growing

because of the magic of the ukulele and the magic of the

community,” she said. “It creates a sense of ohana, of

family.”

Today, Cali continues to write songs, has recorded several

albums and teaches in person and online. “Before the

pandemic, I had never even heard of Zoom,” she recalled.

Yet within two weeks of the shutdown, she was online,

welcoming anyone from anywhere into her classes. “I

started Zoom classes to let anybody join our group, and

that has persisted over the years.”

Cali’s ukulele community, the CC Strummers, now reaches

more than 600 people through her weekly newsletter. “After

the pandemic, people jumped right back into their lives,

and I just let them know our doors are always open. Come

when you can.”

Washington State based couple Bobbie Hasselbring and Anne

Weaver are among the students who joined Cali’s beginner

classes when she moved her teaching to Zoom.

“When the pandemic hit, I wanted to learn a new skill, and

one of our friends was a long-time ukulele player who knew

Cali,” Hasselbring said. “I’ve now been playing ukulele for

six years.”

Both Hasselbring and Weaver credit Cali for opening the

door to a new passion. “Everything I’ve learned about

ukulele is from her,” Weaver said, noting she had no

ukulele experience at all before starting classes.

Since then, the pair have gone on to teach their own

beginner and intermediate classes for people in their

community. “We call ourselves the PT Strummers,” Weaver

said. “Most of our strummers have never played music, and

most of them are retired. So having that community part is

the most important.”

Togetherness is at the heart of Cali’s teaching philosophy.

She describes the feeling that emerges in her group as

collective effervescence. “It’s the spark that happens when

people gather, play, and become part of something larger

than themselves.”

Even at ukulele festivals, collective effervescence

happens. “There’s no hierarchy of performer, teacher, and

student there,” she said. “Everyone is on the same ground

floor, playing side by side and learning from one

another.”

Cali can’t imagine another musical setting where that kind

of connection comes so naturally.

At the festival, Cali and The CC Strummers, will lead a

strum and sing-along for attendees. She hopes to get

everyone playing, even if it’s just a chord or two. “It’s

that type of togetherness that creates community,” she

shared. “You’re not just watching the performance, you’re

part of it.”

For Cali, the magic happens when people simply sit together

and let the ukulele do the talking, because it’s in those

moments when something real and communal can unfold. “I

just don’t think you can achieve this with any other

musical instrument.”

Kiana Kalahele, hailing from Oahu, Hawaii, is a 2024

graduate of Chapman University with dual degrees in

business administration marketing and journalism. She

currently works in accounting at her high school alma

mater, Kamehameha Schools, while actively pursuing her

passion for writing on the side.

This feature is produced by the Journalism Arts Initiative,

which is underwritten by donations from arts organizations

and others interested in supporting excellence in arts

journalism.

10th Annual Los Angeles International Ukulele Festival,

Torrance Cultural Arts Center, 3330 Civic Center Drive,

Torrance. Friday, Sept. 18, 7 P.M. Feng E concert, $40,

including fees. Saturday, Sept. 19, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

(doors open at 8:30 a.m.). Entrance of $59, including fees,

is for all performances by Cali Rose Brandau and other allstar

ukulele artists throughout the day, plus all workshops

by her and other performers. Performance pass of $29,

including fees, is for performances only. Children 17 and

under are free with a paid adult. Onsite parking is free.

Ukulele Marketplace (instruments, accessories, open mic,

food and shave ice) is free and open to the public, and

there will be free classes for total beginners (does not

include admission into the festival Saturday). Sunday,

Sept. 20, Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. is $69,

including fees, for food, intimate ukulele workshops and

jam sessions by festival performers. Sunday at 2 p.m. the

internationally touring Langley Ukulele Ensemble performs

at 2 p.m., $27.50-$37.50, including fees. For more

information and ticket purchase,

see losangelesukulelefestival.com For an FAQ

about everything else,

see losangelesukulelefestival.com/faq.