International Jazz Banjo Newsletter

Since my wife , Nida, and I will be travelling in Europe for May and June, we will unfortunately be missing the Guthrie, Oklahoma, festivities . On May 25, banjo honorees will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and the song, “The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise”, will be recognized and honored as a mainstay in every banjo player’s repertoire. Interestingly enough, this song was written in my hometown, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, back in 1919. In fact, I performed “The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise” for the widow of the music composer, Ernest Seitz, at a park- opening ceremony in Toronto about 25 years ago. Attending the ceremony were the Mayor of Toronto and dignitaries and historians, as well as Mrs. Seitz. The small park was named “Sunrise Parkette”, since it was the backyard of the small apartment building where Mr. And Mrs. Seitz lived when Ernest wrote this melody. June Lockhart, the famous daughter of this song’s lyricist, Eugene Lockhart, will be in Guthrie on May 25 to accept the honors on behalf of the two song composers. I’m sure she will have many interesting details to tell the Guthrie audience. If you are interested, you can hear my version of “The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise” on my “By Request” CD, or on my new 90 minute DVD, “In Concert”, found online at www.timallan.com .
Talking about Toronto, the Toronto Banjo Band just celebrated their 20th anniversary in February 2006. I was the first musical director of the band for about six months back in 1986. I’m happy to see that the TBB is flourishing and has a busy performance schedule around the Toronto area. Congratulations to the Toronto Banjo Band.
This May 22 and 23, I’ll be performing again on banjo and guitar in downtown Pforzheim, Germany, at the Bottich-Ratskeller in the Rathaus, Pforzheim, from 8:00 pm till 11:00 pm . For anyone interested in tickets (15 Euros) for either concert date, please contact Rainer Daub at (49) 723-135-6500. On Thursday, May 25, I shall be offering a 6-string guitar workshop at “Musik-City Steinbrecher”, also in downtown Pforzheim. For those banjo players interested in guitar, or at least, 6-string tuning, this guitar class will be very helpful. You can reserve a place at my all day guitar workshop by contacting store owner, Frank Steinbrecher, at info@musicmedia.de or telephone Frank at Musik-City Steinbrecher at (49) 7231-154390. The workshop fee will be only 50 Euros.
Tenor banjoists should note that I will be giving a tenor banjo workshop near Zurich, Switzerland, at the Banjo Festival Switzerland, on Saturday June 10, in the morning. I will be providing 2 hours of challenging instruction suitable for the moderate to advanced tenor banjoist, but everyone is welcome. The workshop fee will be only 40chf. I will also offer private lessons for 60chf. This first ever Swiss Banjo Festival will be held on June 9 and 10 at the Hotel zum goldenen Kopf in Bulach, just north of Zurich. The organizer of the Festival is plectrum banjo virtuoso, Ruedi Bleuer. He is turning 60 around then, so come to the Banjo Festival and celebrate his birthday! For Banjo Festival information, please go to www.banjomen.ch .
Tim Allan.