大不列颠尤克里里乐团（UOGB）将于10月4-12日在香港，重庆，上海，北京展开首次中国巡演，其中在内地部分的演出得到了英国大使馆文化教育处的大力支持。八位才华横溢的乐手将用自己独特、充满创意和趣味的方式为乐迷和粉丝呈现一系列世界古典名家和经典流行作品。不仅如此，乐团还会专门为中国的uku乐迷带来特别的演出惊喜。此外，英国大使馆文化教育处会携当地主办方举行乐团互动工作坊，并特邀中国知名尤克里里音乐人——张松涛和各地乐迷一起与乐团面对面，探索尤克里里创作和改编的奥秘。

演出日程：

2014年10月5日周日20.00，香港沙田大会堂

2014年10月7日周二20.00，重庆天地文化剧场

2014年10月9日周四20.00，上海交响乐团音乐厅主厅

2014年10月12日周日19.30，北京三里屯太古里橙色大厅

大不列颠尤克里里乐团成立于 1985 年，起初只是出于好玩, 但首场演出就票全部售完，自此他们就开始了正式的表演生涯。到了1988 年，他们已经发布了一个LP，受邀登上BBC 电视，在WOMAD演出，并被录制了BBC 电台的一档时间。目前乐团已经表演了20 年，并已成为英国国家知名团体。乐团已经在世界各地包括英国，德国，瑞典，芬兰，波兰，法国，美国，加拿大，新西兰和日本举办了成千上万票房完售的音乐会，他们最近在悉尼歌剧院（2012 年），皇家阿尔伯特音乐厅（2008 年）和纽约的卡内基音乐厅（2010 年），票房也皆一售而空。他们在2012 下半年返回皇家阿尔伯特音乐厅和卡内基音乐厅。

大不列颠尤克里里乐团的音乐会仅凭着“小吉他”和各种歌声在后朋克和经典老歌的碰撞中展现了趣味性，艺术性，强大的拨弦技巧，摇滚的激烈和悠扬轻松的曲调。没有鼓，钢琴，伴奏或班卓琴，无音调转换器或电声花样。只有四弦琴，歌声和一点俏皮的口哨调配在一起发出如同大乐团般的惊人乐声。从柴可夫斯基到涅槃乐队的奥蒂斯雷丁和意大利西部片配乐，乐团带领观众踏上只有手提行李的“世界旅行”，并一次又一次拨动听众的心弦。

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain 2014 China Tour

Sunday 5 October 2014 20.00 , Hong Kong Sha Tin Town Hall

Tuesday 7 October 2014 20.00 , Chongqing Taindi Theatre

Thursday 9 October 2014 20.00 , Shanghai Symphony Hall – Concert Hall

Sunday 12 October 2014 19.30 , Beijing, The Orange, Taikoo Li Sanlitun,

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is a touring musical group which has been delighting audiences, raising the roof, selling out performances, and receiving standing ovations since 1985; a group of "all-singing, all strumming" ukulele players that has been active for 29 years, using instruments bought for loose change, which holds that all genres of music are available for reinterpretation as long as they are played on the ukulele.

The orchestra is celebrated for its rapport with audiences, and eliciting a joyous feel-good reaction. A description of the concert's basis sounds astoundingly simple: eight performers, eight instruments, eight voices, (no gimmicks, no stage set, props or scenery, no fireworks, no special effects, no light show, no dancers, no laptops, no samples). And yet, as millions have enthused about over the years, the orchestra tears the house down with music, songs, catchy, emotive, stomping and toe tapping tunes, banter and wit and inexplicably draws the audience in, to a joyous world beyond the conflicts of musical genre or the difference between a serious concert and comedy. Since the first sold-out concert in 1985 "The Ukes" have released many CDs, albums and DVDs, appeared on TV and radio in many countries, and toured the world during more than 9,000 days and nights of ukulele action. The orchestra is independent, anarchic, funny, virtuosic, thought-provoking and mind blowing. It has "sixteen-handedly changed the face of the ukulele world".

The orchestra, sitting in chamber group format, and dressed in formal evening wear (regardless of the time of day or the venue, whether Glastonbury Festival or Carnegie Hall), uses the limitations of the instrument to create a musical freedom as it reveals unsuspected musical insights. Both the beauty and the vacuity of popular and highbrow music are highlighted, the pompous and the trivial, the moving and the amusing. Sometimes a foolish song can touch an audience more than high art; sometimes music that takes itself too seriously is revealed to be hilarious. As the orchestra's publicity states: "You may never think about music in the same way once you've been exposed to the ukes' depraved musicology", as "with instruments bought for loose change", on their "world tour with only hand luggage", they bring you "one plucking thing after another".

The Orchestra has spawned many imitators. In 1985 when the ukes began, the term "Ukulele Orchestra" could have sounded ironic, as one might hear "The Sahara Desert

Sub-Aqua Club". Over time, the term has become the default label for a group of ukulele players, and indeed the Orchestra can be seen to have popularized the trend for playing ukuleles in groups. Many clubs and ukulele societies exist in many countries now, and the conception of the ukulele as suitable for ensemble-playing, or as a 'consort' or as a social activity seems to have been derived from the Ukulele Orchestra. There are now literally thousands of ukulele groups, many of which call themselves Ukulele Orchestras. Some of these are conscious tributes to the UOGB, some have outstanding merit in their own right, while some merely aspire to pass themselves off as the original. Certainly, a large part of the energy in the current ukulele wave is derived from the oldest and best Ukulele Orchestra; The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

（来源：英国使馆文化教育处，编辑 Helen）