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

By Kiana Kalahele, September 2026

The CC Strummers and Cali Rose are performing a Strum & Sing Along Show at the 2026 Los Angeles International Ukulele Festival. This article, written by Kiana Kalahele, is produced by the Journalism Arts Initiative, which is underwritten by donations from arts organizations and others interested in supporting excellence in arts journalism. The photo above is from their Zoom interview.

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 far-fetched 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 all-star 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 https://losangelesukulelefestival.com. For an FAQ about everything else, see https://losangelesukulelefestival.com/faq.