John Robert King (October 13, 1953 – April 3, 2009) was a ukulele

Ukulele

The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....

 player known for his interpretation of classical music.

Early life and education

The son of a navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 pilot, King was born in San Diego. His father's position took the young King to Hawaii for a few years in his childhood, where he was introduced to the ukulele by his mother. Despite his early start in the ukulele, he initially showed no aptitude for the instrument, but quickly became a proficient guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 player, studying at one point with both Pepe Romero

Pepé Romero

Pepe Romero is a world-renowned classical and flamenco guitarist. He is particularly famous for his outstanding technique and colorful musical interpretations on the instrument....

 and his father Celedonio

Celedonio Romero

Celedonio Romero was a guitarist, composer and poet, perhaps best known as the founder of The Romeros guitar quartet....

.

King attended Old Dominion University

Old Dominion University

Old Dominion University is a state university located in Norfolk, Virginia, United States, and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools...

 and later took a post as a guitar teacher at Eckerd College

Eckerd College

Eckerd College is a private 4-year coeducational liberal arts college at the southernmost tip of St. Petersburg, Florida, in the Tampa Bay metropolitan area. The college is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.- Campus :...

—where he taught for 30 years—in St. Petersburg, a city that became his home for life.

Ukulele revolution

Upon learning that the ancestor of the modern guitar

Baroque guitar

The Baroque guitar is a guitar from the baroque era , an ancestor of the modern classical guitar. The term is also used for modern instruments made in the same style....

 was tuned similarly to the ukulele, he reacquainted himself with the instrument, commissioning an Italian luthier

Luthier

A luthier is someone who makes or repairs lutes and other string instruments. In the United States, the term is used interchangeably with a term for the specialty of each maker, such as violinmaker, guitar maker, lute maker, etc...

 to make a classical ukulele for him. With it, he revived a guitar-playing technique from the Baroque era: succeeding notes are played on different strings, allowing the previous note to continue ringing.

King's repertoire ranged widely, but he is particularly noted for his interpretation of Bach. In 2008, the Journal of the Society for American Music

Journal of the Society for American Music

The Journal of the Society for American Music is a peer-reviewed academic journal and the official journal of the Society for American Music. It is published by Cambridge University Press and edited by Leta Miller. The journal is the continuation of American Music, which was published from 1983....

called King "perhaps the world's only true classical 'ukulele virtuoso'".

Works

King recorded two records, and wrote several books of ukulele arrangements. He did extensive research into the history of classical guitar and the ukulele, writing numerous essays. He wrote an encyclopedia of Hawaiian luthiers. He was working on a history of the ukulele at the time of his death.

Works and external links