BRIAN FERGUS
Certified James Hill Ukulele Instructor
Brian Fergus is a life long musician and music educator. His first experiences with music were in the late 1960s and 1970s, which found him singing in choirs, taking piano lessons, and playing the sousaphone and tuba in band and orchestra, and bass guitar in teenage rock bands.
While studying film at Penn State University, Brian discovered experimental music, which diverted his interest for the next thirty years. Brian earned his Masters Degree in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College in Oakland, Ca. in 1986, then immediately took a job teaching Electronic Music at City College of San Francisco. He taught at the school from 1987 to 2014 to over 10,000 students over the course of his career. So much could be said here about what a fantastic, rewarding experience it was to teach at CCSF.
In 2008, Brian encountered a fateful moment in his life. He had decided to get either a mandolin or ukulele to “play around with.”. Well, he decided on the ukulele and he has never been the same! For the last eight years, Brian has shifted his musical focus to “all things ukulele”.
In 2014, Brian stepped down from his job at CCSF to move to Portland, OR, with his wife Maggie and their daughter, Anais. He founded Woodstock Ukulele Studio in 2015, a venue for rehearsal, recording, and private and group instruction.
Brian is a third level graduate of the James Hill Ukulele Initiative.
Brian plays in two ensembles: “UkeFoote” (which is also one of Brian’s performance monikers), and “Fleffikon”. UkeFoote is a duo with Ubass virtuoso Borfus Wallaby; they do covers of mostly classic popular music. Fleffikon is also a (mostly) cover band, and features the aforementioned Borfus on Ubass and also Brian’s daughter Anais on electronics.
Here is a link to Fleffikon’s first ep, Aurora:
https://soundcloud.com/fleffikon
Here is a link to UkeFoote’s first LP, Uke-Lear Destruction:
https://soundcloud.com/ukefoote/sets/uke-lear-destruction
In addition to ukulele, Brian plays Ubass, standard bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, Theremin, and other electronic instruments.
While studying film at Penn State University, Brian discovered experimental music, which diverted his interest for the next thirty years. Brian earned his Masters Degree in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College in Oakland, Ca. in 1986, then immediately took a job teaching Electronic Music at City College of San Francisco. He taught at the school from 1987 to 2014 to over 10,000 students over the course of his career. So much could be said here about what a fantastic, rewarding experience it was to teach at CCSF.
In 2008, Brian encountered a fateful moment in his life. He had decided to get either a mandolin or ukulele to “play around with.”. Well, he decided on the ukulele and he has never been the same! For the last eight years, Brian has shifted his musical focus to “all things ukulele”.
In 2014, Brian stepped down from his job at CCSF to move to Portland, OR, with his wife Maggie and their daughter, Anais. He founded Woodstock Ukulele Studio in 2015, a venue for rehearsal, recording, and private and group instruction.
Brian is a third level graduate of the James Hill Ukulele Initiative.
Brian plays in two ensembles: “UkeFoote” (which is also one of Brian’s performance monikers), and “Fleffikon”. UkeFoote is a duo with Ubass virtuoso Borfus Wallaby; they do covers of mostly classic popular music. Fleffikon is also a (mostly) cover band, and features the aforementioned Borfus on Ubass and also Brian’s daughter Anais on electronics.
Here is a link to Fleffikon’s first ep, Aurora:
https://soundcloud.com/fleffikon
Here is a link to UkeFoote’s first LP, Uke-Lear Destruction:
https://soundcloud.com/ukefoote/sets/uke-lear-destruction
In addition to ukulele, Brian plays Ubass, standard bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, Theremin, and other electronic instruments.
