Avery Hill
Avery Hill is a singer-songwriter, a storyteller, and a teaching artist known for her thoughtful lyrics, intricate melodies, and warm, engaging presence. She was inspired early on by the likes of Joni Mitchell, The Beach Boys, John Denver, and Dar Williams.
Her original songs find remarkable insight in the simplest human moments. When she sings them, something in you already knows this voice — wise and curious at once, familiar before you've heard a note.
A staple of the Portland ukulele community, Avery has taught at festivals and camps across North America — Menucha Ukulele Band Camp, the Reno Ukulele Festival, Ashokan Ukulele Weekend, and the Kamloops Ukulele Festival among them. She also hosts a YouTube channel of ukulele tutorials, and has recently brought her gifts to songwriting instruction, including at the Songwriter Soirée Retreat.
Avery teaches from a simple conviction: before music was something we buy, it was something we do together — one of the oldest and richest forms of human community. Drawing on an M.A. in Education and the spirit of the oral tradition, she coaxes out the musician already inside you, building confidence and self-knowledge along the way, and keeping the room laughing while she's at it.
Larry Wyatt
Larry Wyatt grew up captivated by guitar music — Chet Atkins, Buck Owens, the twang of steel guitar on Hee Haw — never imagining it would become a career. Then in the 1980s he picked up a ukulele, and a simple question followed him ever since: wouldn't it be cool to teach groups of kids to play?
It turns out, yes. For over twelve years Larry was the music teacher at Hood River County schools, building a ukulele program that has measurably increased middle and high school band participation. His approach draws on a modified Suzuki method — playing by ear, feeling chord changes, internalizing rhythm — believing that once those roots are in, everything else grows more easily.
Larry's classroom is lively, student-led, and genre-blind, moving from folk to classical to jazz to "Here Comes the Sun" without missing a beat. He's also the schools' unofficial sound engineer, because good live music deserves to be heard properly.
His teaching philosophy is simple: hook people into music early, make it cool, and the instrument almost doesn't matter. They'll keep playing something.
We're glad he's bringing all of that to camp.
