Kaiser Family Band

LATEST NEWS AND UPCOMING EVENTS

October, 2008 -- Happy 19th Birthday, Ben! And to Grandma Catt too (though she's a bit past 19 now). :-)


2009 Season -

July 15 - 19 - ODPC Funfest.Evart, MI. We'll be arriving the weekend before actually, because we jam and play day and night for a week! We will be playing on stage during the show sometime. No idea when yet, of course! :-) This is the biggest and most amazing festival around. Kelly will even be teaching a workshop or two for fiddle players. If you like to listen, learn or jam, you should go! For more info, go to http://www.dulcimers.com/evartpage.html

August 9, 2009, 5 p.m. - Fiddler's Convention, Hillsdale, MI. We will be playing a concert from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Hillsdale Co. Fairgrounds. Free and fun. We'll also be there for the weekend for the festival, and giving some workshops. Come see us! For general info about this group and the festival they hold, go to http://www.michiganfiddlers.com

August 27 - 30, 2009 -- Midland Dulcimer Festival, Midland County Fairgrounds, Midland, MI. We will be there for jamming and will perform on stage at least once. This is a really nice festival -- much like Evart on a smaller scale. We'll be arriving on the Wednesday before things kick into gear. Hope you can join us! For more info, go to http://folkmusicsociety.org/festival.html


PAST NEWS/UPDATES

October and beyond -- As school comes into session, the three teen members of the band (and the homeschooling mom of two of them) will return to school duties. While we have time for some occasional weekend gigs, the schedule will slow way down. Darn it. :-)

October 25, 2008 -- Private Party, Mt. Morris, MI

October 4, 2008 -- Kelly did it again! Today she won 1st place in the Michigan State Championship Old Time Fiddler's Contest. This is her second time entering, and her second 1st place win. This year Greg was her accompanist, and did an outstanding job as well. We are very, very proud of both of them.

September 13, 2008 -- We are so excited to be featured performers at the Flint Banjo Club's annual Banjorama! The Kaiser Family Band will be performing for 45 mintues to an hour. This is an indoor concert that takes place rain or shine. Tickets often sell out early, so order them by mail when they become available in mid-summer. For more info, go to their web site at http://www.flintbanjoclub.com

August 24, 2008 (Sunday) -- Village Faire at Cherry Hill. The Kaiser Family Band will be featured performers the Village Faire, held at the Travis-Bartlett House, located at 500 N. Ridge Road, just north of Cherry Hill, in Canton. We will be performing from about 12:30 p.m. to about 4:45 p.m., with some short breaks. (They are graciously allowing us some flexibility in our start time as we return from Midland that morning!) Free and open to all, with some cool vendors and demonstrations. There will also be a Farmer's Market in the vicinity until 2 p.m. We will have CDs available. No show in the event of severe weather or heavy rain. Canton Township has more info at http://leisure.canton-mi.org/familyfirst.asp

August 21 -24 -- Hope to see you at the Midland Dulcimer Festival! We'll be there for jamming and performing and to kick back and jam with our friends! We'll have CDs available, if you care to look us up! http://www.folkmusicsociety.org/festival.html

August 16 - Private Party (wedding): Motor City Casino Hotel Ballroom

August 8-9, 2008 -- Hope to see you at the North Central Fiddler's Convention in Hillsdale. We'll be performing at the pavillion and around for the jamming! CDs will be available. http://www.michiganfiddlers.com

August 3, 2008 (Sunday) - We will be performing at the Canton Farmer's Market and the Canton Historical Walking Tour. Come see us at the Travis-Bartlett House, located at 500 N. Ridge Road, just north of Cherry Hill, in Canton. We will be performing from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with some short breaks. Free and open to all, with some cool vendors as well! We will have CDs available. No show in the event of severe weather or heavy rain.

July 27, 2008 (Sunday) -- We will performing at the Canton Farmer's Market and Olde Time Farm Days. Come see us at the Travis-Bartlett House, located at 500 N. Ridge Road, just north of Cherry Hill, in Canton. We will be performing from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with some short breaks. Free and open to all, with some cool vendors as well! We will have CDs available. No show in the event of severe weather or heavy rain.

July 12-16 (prefestival) and July 17-20 (festival)-- Evart! We'll be heading up early for the ODPC Evart Dulcimer Funfest! We'll be dedicated jammers, morning, noon and night! We will have CDs available before the festival, July 12-16, and during the festival we will be selling them after our on stage performances. Hope we can see you there! It's a blast! For more info, go to http://www.dulcimers.com/evartpage.html

July 10, 2008 - IT"S READY! Our first CD is finally available! It was a lot of work, a lot of late nights, a lot of worry.... and a whole lot of fun. We are really pleased with how it turned out, and we hope you will be too. You can click on the "Our CD" button at the top of this page for info on how to order one, or where to pick one up where we are playing. We will certainly have CDs available at the Banjorama in September, but we'll have them at numerous other gigs and festivals as well. Email us for details. We hope you like it!

June 18, 2008 -- It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of our dear friend and mentor, Derek Channing. Derek was much more than a fantastic musician. He was an all around great guy, and a true gentleman. Every one who met him was enriched by knowing him, and he was truly one of a kind. He would do anything to help a friend. We first knew him as leader of the Next Generation Banjo Band, of which Kelly and Greg were members since Derek started it four years ago. From there, Derek became an important part of our lives in many other ways as well. We will miss him each day, and we will continue to try and follow the wonderful example he set both as a musician and as a person. Thank you, Derek. You will be missed my many.

June, 2008 - CD Update -- Whew! We knew this would be work, but wow! The CD is coming along, and we hope to finish it within the next two weeks. It looks like it will feature 18 tunes -- we like people to get their money's worth! -- and be titled "Now in Color". You'll have to read the liner notes to find out why! :-) The CD should be available for sale in July, and if all goes well, we will have a link to sell it from this web site as well.

May, 2008 - Congratulations to Greg on winning 3rd place in the national Fretted Instrument Guild (FIGA) competition for youth. He received his certificate on stage, during the Great Lakes International Banjo Convention, after the Kaiser Family Band performed there. In May, he received his medal. Thanks to our friend Derek Channing for encouraging Greg to compete this year.

April 26, 2008 -- Come see us play at the Great Lakes International Banjo Convention. The Kaiser Family Band will perform at the afternoon concert, and Kelly and Greg will perform with the Next Generation Banjo Band at the evening concert. The Banjo Convention is a lot of fun, and the Saturday afternoon concert is FREE.
Hope to see you there!

April 12, 2008 - We are delighted to have been asked to play for an anniversary celebration at Uncle Carl's Dulcimer Club in Spring Arbor, MI. There will be an afteroon of jamming, a pot luck, and the we will perform for about an hour. Uncle Carl's is an awesome club, so it should be a blast. We hope you can come see us. Details about Uncle Carl's can be found at http://www.unclecarls.org

April 6, 2008 - If you like classical music, we hope you'll join us at the Plymouth Library for their 2nd "Rhapsody at the Library" concert. This one features four classical musicians, each performing for 15 minutes.... and Kelly will be the final featured performer. The concert is free, and you don't need to be a Plymouth resident to attend. You can register online at plymouthlibrary.org. Update: The concert went wonderfully, and the group has already been invited back for next year!

February, 2008 -- Well, we're doing it! We were pleased that so many people asked for it, so we're finally starting to get things together to record our first CD. We've talked to some of the composers for a few of the songs we want to feature, and we've got one song most of the way done. Whew! This is hard work! We hope to have it finished by late June. Hope.

February 3, 2008 -- Kelly competed in the Plymouth Canton Symphony Society's Youth Artist Competition, playing Viotti's Concerto No. 23 in G major. She won Honorable Mention. She had to rush in and play then rush over to the Theatre for a show starting minutes later. It was a busy couple weeks!

February 1-5, 2008 -- Kelly is playing as part of the Canton Concert Band as the pit orchestra for Everafter Productions Les Miserables at the Cherry Hill Village Theatre. Come see the show -- it's awesome!

January, 2008 -- Happy 15th Birthday, Kelly!

November, 2007 -- Happy 13th Birthday, Greg!

October, 2007 -- Happy 18th Birthday, Ben!

October 6, 2007 -- Today Kelly competed in the Michigan Championship Old Time Fiddlers Contest, and she won First Place! It was her first competition, and we had to talk her into it, but she did great. There were competitors from around the state, and it was open to all ages. So now Kelly can say she is the Champion Michigan Old Time Fiddler for 2007! We're so proud of her!

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