FIFTH ANNUAL
AMERICAN SHEET MUSIC CONFERENCE, OCT. 17 - 19, 2008
Ward Irish Music Archives, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Join the nation's top antique sheet music dealers and collectors in a weekend of enjoyable and educational conference sessions.

• Bring your favorite piece of music or a story on your favorite song for a Friday evening "Show and Tell."
• Pick through thousands of pieces of old sheet music for sale to find that special song you've always wanted.
• See a display of sheet music from all of the Academy Award winning songs over the past seventy years.
• Meet and talk with music industry experts on diverse sheet music themes: blues/jazz/ragtime; 19th century music; vaudeville, patriotic/military; comic/cartoon; post WWII, Broadway shows/ movies; silent movies; Radio/TV; rock n' roll; African American; ethnic; western; Native American etc.

$5.00 admission each day or $10 for Friday - Sunday Package
SALES TABLE - (2' x 8') $30

Schedule of Events:

Friday, October 17: 4 p.m. - 7 p.m:

• Sheet Music Show and Tell: Bring your favorite sheet music or you favorite song story

Saturday, October 18: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. (Times to be announced):

• "The March to the White House - Music in American Politics from the Revolution Through the Civil War" - Larry Zimmerman
• "Things I have Learned From Sheet Music That I Wouldn't Have Learned Otherwise" - Robert Groves
• "The Copyright Law of July, 1909"; "The First Rag-Time Song - 1897" (and why we may think of it that way, as the composer did - in 1930) - R. Michael Montgomery
• "The New Orleans Publications of Clarence Williams" (before he moved to Chicago in 1918) - R. Michael Montgomery

Sunday, October 19: 10 a.m. - 1 p.m:

• "The Songs of Irving Berlin" - R Michael Montgomery. Mike will provide a background narrative about Berlin and lead a sing-a-long which is guaranteed to get your toes tapping.
• Panel discussion: Assorted topics. (Ideas welcome)
  

SPECIAL HOTEL RATES:
Courtyard Marriott Brookfield,
16865 W. Blue Mound Road, Brookfield, WI 53005
(8 miles from Irish Fest Center)
$89.00 night. Contact: Leah at 262-821-1800.
Rooms are listed under the American Sheet Music Conference
www.marriott.com/MKEBC

Radisson Hotel - Milwaukee West,
2303 N. Mayfair Road Milwaukee, WI 53226
(4 miles from Irish Fest Center)
$99.00 night. Contact 414-257-3400.
Rooms are listed under the American Sheet Music Conference.
www.radisson.com/milwaukeewi_west

PRESENTERS:

LARRY ZIMMERMAN is a noted collector, dealer and recognized authority specializing in 19th Century American sheet music. His distinguished collection reflects the dominant issues in American life - patriotic, political and social - thus providing a unique window through which the history of our nation may be observed and studied. Most of the materials range from pre-revolutionary to just after the Civil War. One special strength of the collection is the high proportion of superb exemplars, known to collectors as "high spots." Larry will explore aspects of early American music collecting, significance of the actual music, lyrics, graphics, market trends and historical implications and insights afforded in this special area of collecting. This is Larry's second presentation at the conference.

ROBERT GROVES is a Professor of Music at North Dakota State University in Fargo. He has a large, varied sheet music collection but he concentrates on music which has historical and social significance and song sheets that relate to television. Bob incorporates a broad knowledge of 20th century American popular culture and music in his published articles, in the numerous song sheet related presentations he has given at national and regional meetings and is a past research fellow for the North Dakota Humanities Council. Bob was a presenter at the 2004 and 2006 conference. He will focus on post World War II American sheet music with particular attention given to television-related sheet music.

MIKE MONTGOMERY got turned on to ragtime as a boy. At age 16, he started collecting piano rolls - rags, blues, marches and pop songs. He later started collecting sheet music that related to the songs and artists he had on the piano rolls. In 1970 Mike began producing LPs (Biograph label) using the rarest blues and jazz rolls in his collection (Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Eubie Blake, James Scott etc.) Much of this "rescued' music was later put on Biograph CDs. Mike has contributed information and photos on rag and its composers for many books. He has performed and lectured at a number of ragtime festivals and elder hostels. He helped start the Boll Weevil Jass band in Ann Arbor,
Michigan in 1955. Since 1969 Mike has played regularly at a pub in southwest Detroit. He does two audience participation programs "The Music of Irving Berlin" and "Songs From 1918."

Sheet music of the Academy Award winning songs will be on display from the collection of Ed Ward, Brookfield, Wisconsin.