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Hello everyone.

Ruth and myself along with our two day old grandson Emmitt Soren Ferster, are pleased to announce our July concert with violinist Ben Plotnick and cellist Kailyn Raitz.

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We have worked with these outstanding musicians before and are most excited about their concert with us on Sunday, July 31. Doors will open at 2:00 PM for a BarBQ supper and the show will start about 4;00 BYOB. YOU ARE MOST WELCOME TO PURCHASE TICKETS FOR YOUR OWN FRIENDS AND FAMILY TOO. Tickets are only $35.00 for great music, great food and great company. Please call Terry at 403 302-0782 to arrange for your tickets. All tickets muyst be paid for in advance as no tickets will be sold at the door. This process helps us to plan and ensure food quality and supply. We have ordered pleasant summer weather so come and join us in our outside Irish Country Gardens Bistro. In the event that our request for pleasant wearther goes missing, we will hold the event in our indoor studio. Our address is 14 Randolph Street in the Rosedale district of Red Deer. We are directly across from the Rosedale Park baseball diamond.

Ben Plotnick: Fiddle player, guitarist, violist, composer and arranger.

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Ben Plotnick was born 28 years ago into a musical life in Calgary, AB. His parents are both professional musicians and teachers, and as such, Ben’s lessons began at the age of 5. Since he began playing classical violin 22 years ago, he has expanded his musical palette to include many other musical styles, such as Country, Celtic, Jazz, Rock, and many areas of world music as well.

Ben has had an incredibly involved musical adolescence. With organizations such as the Calgary Youth Orchestra and the Calgary Fiddlers, Ben has played for notable audiences from an early age. He led the Calgary Youth Orchestra’s viola section in a sold out performance for Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth the 2nd of England, at the Penngrowth Saddledome in Calgary. He toured across 4 continents to places such as New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and all across North America. He founded a rock string quartet that was chosen by mayor Dave Bronconnier to represent Calgary at a festival in Toronto.

He released his debut album in 2006, entitled “The Quiet Streets”, and his second album in 2007, entitled “Music is not a Museum”. At the age of 19, Ben served as Assistant Director to the Calgary Fiddlers Association. After studying jazz at Humber College in Toronto, Ben returned to Alberta. November 2010 marked the release of his most recent solo studio work: A complex, yet accessible contemporary bluegrass project, titled “Dancing at the End of the World”. The album features world-class musicianship, and has been met with critical acclaim.

String orchestras, folk bands and jazz combos alike are playing Ben’s compositions and arrangements. He has been commissioned to compose and arrange countless pieces for string quartet, while his newest songwriting project, “Rye & Fairy Tales (http://www.ryeandfairytales.com/)”, recently received a $10,000 recording grant for their compositions. He has produced and/or co-written a number of albums as well.

Ben can be found playing with, recording, composing or producing with various acts across Canada. He has appeared alongside countless Country, Bluegrass, Swing, Folk and Celtic musicians on stage, and has recorded on dozens of professional albums.

Ben called Toronto home for some time but now has officially relocated to Nashville on his sure rise to the cream of the crop. In addition to performing with regular projects "Rye & Fairy Tales (http://www.ryeandfairytales.com/)" and "The Double Cuts (http://www.thedoublecuts.com/)", he continues to be one of the country's most sought-after freelance fiddle players.

Kaitlyn Raitz Cellist

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New York native Kaitlyn Raitz grew up surrounded by an array of musical genres, finding each one more exciting than the next. These passions have led her to a career as a versatile cellist who is equally at home playing Schubert or Sondheim, sitting in on a bluegrass jam or reading a Beethoven string quartet, and performing on stage at Carnegie Hall or The Bitter End. Kaitlyn has worked with such diverse artists as Frank London of the Klezmatics, hip-hop artist and composer Cobaine Ivory, tabla player Shawn Mativetsky, as well as numerous folk and jazz artists.

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Kaitlyn has been invited to join Matt Haimovitz’s innovative, GRAMMY-nominated cello ensemble Uccello and has performed with them at Carnegie Hall and Berkeley's Cal Performances. Her former folk duo,

Bride & Groom (http://www.facebook.com/brideandgroommusic), toured Canada and America playing numerous venues and festivals including NXNE, Canadian Music Week, and In The Dead of Winter Music Festival. She is currently touring with Montreal based band The Bombadils (http://www.thebombadils.com/) and will being touring and recording this summer with Canadian fiddler Ben Plotnick (http://www.kaitlynandbenduo.com/). As an educator, Kaitlyn believes in the value of exposing young people to a wide range of genres, including music of different cultures, as a way to create not just well-rounded musicians, but well-rounded human beings. Since 2008, Kaitlyn has been the director of the Southampton String Festival (Long Island, New York), a music camp for children that integrates classical training, improvisation, creativity, and musical discovery into one program.Kaitlyn currently holds a Bachelors degree and a Performer’s Certificate from Purchase College, State University of New York where she studied with Julia Lichten and a Master's degree from McGill University where she studied with Matt Haimovitz.

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