Ben Hassenger’s musical career began in the early 1970s when he was arrested for playing “Smoke on the Water” on accordion and singing in animal sounds in the cafeteria at Lansing Community College. It was the start of something special, for sure.

In 2009, on a trip to Hawaii, Ben stumbled upon Roy Sakuma’s legendary “Ukulele Festival Hawaii” and was captivated by the diminutive but dynamic instrument and the communal aloha spirit of the people playing it. His life changed that day.

He is now well-known as the “Ukulele Ambassador of Michigan”, teaching students, young and old, in schools, libraries, senior centers, and other community venues. Ben is also in charge of festivals such as Mighty Uke Day, Midwest Uke & Harmonica Camp, Uketoberfest at Interlochen, and the Ashokan Uke Fest. He co-founded the Lansing Area Ukulele Group (LAUGH) and established the Music is the Foundation 501(c)(3) to help bring the joy of the uke to Michigan classrooms and communities. He performs solo and as a member of The Ukulele Kings and is also a prolific songwriter, with two of his songs about the Detroit Tigers enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

Stan Werbin is best known as the founding owner of Elderly Instruments, the world-renowned music store and mail-order service located in Old Town Lansing, Michigan, just north of the Michigan State Capitol Building. He is also internationally known as an authority on vintage banjos and other fretted instruments, a member of the Arnold Shultz Advisory committee of the IBMA, co-founded the Lansing Area Ukulele Group (LAUGH), and is the co-director of Midwest Banjo Camp. In the late ’70s, he performed and recorded on banjo, guitar, and uke with Michigan’s Lost World String Band. He served as a booking agent in the early years of East Lansing’s Ten Pound Fiddle Coffeehouse and has been a proponent of the ukulele for over 50 years; proclaiming it “the instrument of the 1970s . . . uh, the 1980s . . . maybe the 1990s” . . . until finally, it reached the lofty standard of the “Instrument of the 21st Century”!

Lillian Werbin joined Ben and Stan as Co-Director in 2021. She is President of Elderly Instruments, her family’s business, in Lansing, Michigan. Lily is passionate about building communities by using communication and music to bridge social gaps. Through working with local and national boards such as the Old Town Commercial Association, Decolonizing the Music Room, and Bluegrass Pride, Lillian has learned the importance of creating and maintaining inclusionary spaces and using our differences to forge a deeper connection to one another. She is a member of the Arnold Shultz Advisory committee of the IBMA, and helps organize such other events as the Banjo Gathering (formerly the Banjo Collectors Gathering), the Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival, the Safe Venue Directory Project, and Midwest Banjo Camp.