Ryson’s has a beautiful spruce and Mahogany dulcimer on display that will be raffled off at FiddleFest.
Tickets are $2 or $5 for 3.  This beautiful instrument, a $450 value, is being raffled off with proceeds going to support music scholarships.

We would like to thank the sponsors of the FiddleFest event:

Charlie Argall for a beautiful collector’s tin of Ernie Ball strings that will be raffled off at $2/ticket.

Counterpoint Music for a donation of scholarship money.

Old Time Fiddle Club for scholarships as well.

To make a donation to go towards a child’s musical education come on in and see us at Ryson’s Music before the FiddleFest.

Congratulations to Marty Allan, Dave Tufford and Corey Richards for winning the Niagara Music Award. What a great group!  Come and see the Good Rockin’ Tonight show, featuring Marty Allan.  It is always a great time when these guys perform.

You won’t want to miss them at Fiddlefest;

The 3rd Annual Car Show, Fiddlefest and Step Dancing competition will be held July 10th in Downtown St. Catharines.  Come out to a fun day with many activities.  People are coming from all over Ontario to compete.  One participant is in town from Brussels to visit family and wants to be a part of the fun.  There will be a barbeque put on by the Silver Spire Church.

Mostly Comics will be featuring a SuperHero day with costumes and great deals.  Come and get your picture taken with the largest Incredible Hulk I’ve ever seen.

Over 300 antique cars and trucks will be parked throughout St. Paul street.  There are bouncy castles for the kids, entertainment by Marty Allan and the Good Rockin’ Tonight band, a street dance from 4-6 pm, square dancing with a real caller, and performances from the Golden Hammers as well as the Rock’n Daisies.

Applications for the fiddle and step dancing contests are available at Ryson’s Studios.  Come out and have a Fiddlin’ Good Time!

Ryson’s Summer Music Camps will begin after Canada Day.

There will be several camps available:
•    Rock Band Camp
•    Ukulele Camp
•    Musical Theater
•    Keyboard
•    Brass/Woodwind

The fee for the camps is $35 daily (10:00 am – 4:00 pm) or $125 for Monday-Thursday.  This is a great way to learn to play in a group.

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to have some musical fun.  Sign up today!

Ryson’s Music has just finished the Kiwanis Guitar Festival for this year.  

Here is a list of our winners:

Class 401– Telstar
•    Edynn Murphy         90%
•    Josh Crysler            87%

Class 405- Kokomo
•    Nathan Hoang            92%
•    Dexter Sonier            88%
•    Noah Wright            88%
•    Maeghan Bunting        86%

Class 411- Pretty Woman
•    Jessica Campbell        90%

Class 417- Layla (duet)
•    Jessica Campbell        90%
•    Jessica Zugic            90%
•    Cameron Stewart        90%
•    Maxwell Stewart        90%

Class 407- Sunshine on Your Shoulder
•    Evan Dim            88%
•    Lindsay Fulcher        85%

Class 408- Guitar Boogie
•    Natasha Kowalenko        85%

Class 730- Stand by Me (duet)
•    Lucas Wainwright        85%
•    Noah Wainwright        85%

Class 414A- I Love Rock&Roll
•    Sarah Marshall        84%

Class 406- Free Bird
•    Evan Dim            90%
•    Dexter Sonier            90%
•    Nicholas Grude        88%
•    Trent Gilmour            88%
•    Jake Stevenson        80%

Class 412- Summer of ’69
•    Alex Bragg            84%

Class 409B- Malaguena
•    Jared Gilmour            87%
•    Lauren Lidstone        86%

Class 745- Bands
•    The Golden Hammers    94%

Class 803- Bands- Taylor Swift
•    Lucas Venneri
•    Evan Dim
•    Dexter Sonier
•    Cailen Rotz
•    Edynn Murphy
•    Josh Crysler
•    Basil Sonier
All Participants in 803 received 90%

Class 414B- I Love Rock&Roll
•    Jessica Campbell        87%

Class 410- I Shot the Sheriff
•    Emma Crawley        86%

Class 835- Bands- My Generation
•    Laura Lidstone
•    Olivia Dim
•    Graham Crawley
•    Matthew Bradley
•    Joey Bourassa
•    Mike Rogers
•    Jessie Gold
This band received 87%

Class 491-Bands- Day Tripper
•    Katie Green
•    Jared Gilmour
•    Lucas Venneri
•    Trent Gilmour
•    Gabriel Baloga
•    Noah Wright
•    Emma Stevenson
•    Jake Stevenson
This band received a mark of 91%

Class 492-Bands- Flight of Icarus
•    Alex Macpherson
•    Cameron Ethier
•    Jessica Campbell
•    Mike Merny
•    Mike Deschamps
•    Natasha Kowalenko
•    Jordan Phelan (instructor)
This band received a mark of 92%

Congratulations to all of our participants in the Kiwanis festival; well done!  A big thank-you to our judge, Guy Cayen who is an accomplished musician and school teacher.

Women In Music ,  shines again this year for the 18th annual celebration and benefit for Gillians Place, Womens Place.

Please note that there is a change in Venue, oh yes…. now we are at the Club Roma on Vansickle road, March 7th , doors opening at 2 :00 p.m.
We welcome  a lovely band of young women…our very own Rockin’ Daisies! They will play a warm up set before BroadBand comes on to play the concert set. The Daisies are teenage girls from St. Catharines who all have taken music lessons at Rysons Music Studio.

Tickets are $20.00 , available at Rysons and the Peanut Mill.

Hope to see you all there.

Our young rock group, the Golden Hammers will be performing at Canal Days in Port Colborne on Sunday August 2nd, 12:00noon.

As a bonus, you’ll get to see our brand new all girl band, the Rockin’ Daisies perform at 12:30pm.

Both groups will also be performing at the GM  Car Show on August 7th at the Glendale GM Plant around 12:00noon.

We hope you’ll join us for these events.  Come on down and say hello to these young performers.

Ryson’s is very involved in creating young bands with our music students.  They have a lot of fun, but it also a great musical and educational experience.  If you have a child who would like to join one of our groups, or if you’d like to have these young musicians performa at your special occasion, please give me a call at 905-682-6832, or send me an email at anne@rysonsmusic.com.

Father’s Day is a day honouring fathers celebrated on the third Sunday of June in 52 countries.   On this day fathers, grandfathers, sons, grandsons,  usually receive gifts and cards  straight from the heart.  Whether a  game of golf, sailing, day out relaxing, or his favourite meal , let it bring  lots of  love  and kindness on Dad’s special dayl

Did you know the first Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19  1910? Sonora Smart Dodd was doing a sermon on Mother’s Day and was so thankful her dad took care of her and her siblings after the death of her mother she wanted a special day for dad who was a civil war veteran.  Sonora’s mother died when  Sonora was 16  in Jenny Lind Arkansas, Sonora was honoured at the world fair in  Washington in 1974 for helping in the creation of Father’s Day.  She died at 96 years old in 1978.   In 1924 President Coolidge recommended that Father’s Day became a national holiday.

Roses  are the flowers for Father’s day.  Red for Fathers still living and white for those who have passed on like my dad many years ago, which always leaves a void in my life so I always put a white rose on his grave site and say a prayer.

Rysons Studios will be doing  a Father’s Day concert on Sunday at the Silver Spire Church at 1:30.  Tickets are $10.00.
There will be a Father’s day raffle as well.  Tickets for the raffle  are 5 for $2.00 and the proceeds will go to the fiddlefest scholarship fund.

Saturday Rysons will offer some super acoustic guitar specials with a  2 year warranty to celebrate  Father’s Day.

A dad is a person who is  loving and  kind.
And often he knows what’s on your mind
He’s someone who listens suggest and defends
A dad can be often one of your best friends
He’s proud of your triumphs but when things go wrong
a Dad can be patient and helpful and strong.

In all that you can do a dad’s love plays a part
there’s always a place for him deep in your heart
and each year that passes you’re even more glad
more grateful and proud  just to call him dad.

Hope to see you at our Father’s Day concert or at the store for our Father;s day special .

Give dad a guitar a gift that keeps on giving.

Muscially yours Anne

Ryson’s Christmas Concert

will be held on December 21st at the Silver Spire Church, formerly St.Paul United Church.

We hope you’ll join us as musicians of all ages showcase their talents through the seaonal sounds of Christmas Music.

Santa Claus himself is expected to arrive for the young ones around 12:30pm, and the Christmas Show will begin at 1:00pm.

This year our Christmas Concert will feature Christmas Carol Choirs, our own Christmas Band, The Golden Hammers with Natalie Vurro and Nikki Kent, and lots more soloists and instrumentalists.

Tickets are $10.00 per family and are available at Ryson’s Studio during the week. There will also be tickets at the door the day of the performance.

All proceeds go to “Out of the Cold”, a charity for the needy.

To get into the Christmas Season, the Downtown St.Catharines Association has provided Rysons’ with a supply of their Christmas pewter ornaments.  These will be available at the Silver Spire as well on the day of the Christmas Concert.

For Christmas Carols, traditional Christmas music, and Cool Santa, come and be part of our 71st annual Christmas Concert. Meet and greet our professional music teachers and inquire about our music lessons. Who knows, you too could be performing at next year’s Christmas Concert.

Mr. George Bartram has been playing fiddle in Niagara for over 28 years.  George is a highly accomplished musician and a great piano tuner.  In fact, he has been tuning Ryson’s pianos for over 30 years.  He also provides estimates and does repairs on all Grands and Uprights.

Four years ago George began competing in Fiddle Contests and has seen much success.  In 13 competitions he has earned 2 firsts, 5 seconds, 5 thirds and 1 fourth place finish for a total of, yes, that’s right, 13 awards.  That’s some track record!  His top finishes came in Sturgeon Falls and Durham with second place finishes from Tavistock and Collingwood among others.

This year Mr. Bartram began travelling on May 20th and was on the road until September 30th.  His dedicated roadies were by his side for the entire trip.  In case you’re wondering his crew consists of his wife, Pauline and his seeing-eye dog, Felix who is always on stage to accept the awards.  Pauline occasionally dons her dancing shoes and kicks up her heels in a step dance.  She recently won 5th in Sturgeon Falls and 3rd in Dorchester.

When he’s not on the road, George participates in various Niagara Music bands including Niagara Fiddlers and Friends with Cassandra Swan.  This group can be seen at local senior’s homes and house parties.  Another one of his groups is called Fiddling Gem which plays at charity concerts and benefits.

Many of you may remember George from his 2nd Place performance at the Niagara Music Fiddle Fest back in July.

ATTENTION:  St. Catharines’ 2nd Annual Fiddle Fest will be held on July 11th, 2009.  Contact Anne by email or phone for more details.

Preachers at The Pepper : Thursday Sept. 25 Preachers of Slow Death 9.15 Don’t watch TV come and see a live performance.  Danielle Oegema is a University graduate
of performance.  R.C.M. qualified teacher and certified Suzuki instructor at Ryson’s Studio.  Celebrate Wine Festival at the Red Hot Chili Pepper.
Hope to see you there.

The Golden Hammers : Students of Rysons Music will be performing at 2.3o. at HARVEST FESTIVAL at 8 Church Street Head office of Niagara Wine Festival.Come meet and greet Evan,Trent, Jared, Dexter, Lucas and Tyson. Special Guest Nikki Kent will be singing with the Golden Hammers, come and support and cheer on a local young band. LOVE TO SEE YOU THERE. Saturday September 27th.

Legend Tribute-DAVE Tufford,Lauren Gasbarini and Group will be doing a charity concert at Smithville LEGION: Saturday at 7.00 PROCEEDS for a good cause. Lauren and Dave are excellent music teachers at Rysons Studios. MEET AND GREET Dave . Lauren and the Group and walk the line.

Philosopher Kings: MONTEBELLO PARK Sept 28 8.30 PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS
Great Group for your enjoyment : Songs like Castles in The Sand , Beautiful Creature,
Show no mercy, and Somebody to love me. JAMES BRYAN McCOLLUM gUITAR Players is a former student of Laura Secord and a former guitar student of Ryson’s Music, who is dedicated to the love of music. Calling all fans to support PHILOSOPHER KINGS and have a great time. HOPE TO SEE YOU! ENJOY THE EVENING. WISHING THE PHILOSOPHER ALL THE BEST FROM MUSIC TEACHERS AND MUSIC STUDENTS FROM RYSONS MUSIC .