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More 2026 Events

I hope everybody is having a lovely summer, and doing their best to beat the heat! I wanted to call attention to a number of new events that have been announced recently, beyond our regularly-scheduled song circles. Full details on all upcoming events are, as always, available on our event calendar.

Flyer for Gelencsers Backyard Barbecue 2026Flyer for 2026 "Music in the Mountains" event, from November 6th-8th 2026 at Camp de Benneville Pines.

Prez Sez – Summer 2026 (Picnics, Cruise Updates)

Dear Music Lovers.

I hope to see many of you tomorrow at our First Summer Picnic Jam at Dean Donin’s house in Redondo Beach 7/25/2026 from noon to 9. The final Summer picnic (and pool party) will be at Sandy and my home in Agoura starting 9/5/2026 for Labor Day Weekend! Let me know if you want to stay over in Agoura for Sunday & Monday jamming. We have at least 5 beds and tent space available. Please RSVP on MeetUp or call me so I know how much food to buy.

Songmakers Second Cruise: The bad news is that we could not sign up anyone to join Sandy and I on the Princess Cruise to Alaska next September. The good news is that Gary and Kathy Lynch (who got me into this job 14 years ago) invited us, and any other adventurous Songmakers, to join them on an Island Princess cruise to the Panama Canal starting at San Pedro on March 2nd 2027, disembarking at Ft. Lauderdale Florida March 18th. Since the Gelencsers and Louise Dobbs were already in, and our Alaska deposit was transferable, we jumped on the bandwagon! And I do mean BAND! With only one less Songmaker than the 8 on our first wonderful cruise, I guarantee this will be music cruising paradise! Anyone interested can call Princess, or our cruise planner, James Jimenez of RedWeek Travel at (833)904-4071 x932087. Our booking number is MK9J9X. James got us a lovely balcony cabin for $7329 (3665 each), including the Princess + package. The only other cost is airfare home, and we found a Delta nonstop for $157pp. The cruise price would be much lower for an interior cabin without Princess +; $1683 each including taxes and gratuities. Sandy and I hope more of you will join us on this wonderful adventure!!

Flyer for 2027 Songmakers Cruise to Panama

YOU JOINED SONGMAKERS TO PLAY IN C, SO COME TO THE SEA, AND PLAY WITH ME!!!!

Steven Berman

Topanga Banjo Fiddle Festival 2026 Report

Hi Songmakers!

Were you at Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest and Folk Festival at King Gillette Ranch on May 17, 2026? If you did, you know we had a blast!

Congratulations to Percy Hicks-Severn who won the VIP tickets in our raffle. We observed her and Sam Gross having a wonderful time with their VIP badges on!

We offered some wonderful workshops that were very, very, very well attended with lots of participation of festival guests. On behalf of our Topanga Committee, I want to give a big thank you and shout out to our stellar workshop leaders:

Here are the workshops we offered and the workshop leaders. You made it a great day!

  • Berry Jam: Sing Along with 2 and 3 chord songs (Leaders: Sally and Dana Charette)
  • Ledbelly Songs That Broke the Top 40 (Leader: Chuck Behrman)
  • Ukelele sing/strum along (Leader: David Steinhart)
  • Crazy Good Singalongs (Leader: Janice Gelencser and Louise Dobbs)
  • Let’s Folk Up Rock and Roll (Leaders: Warren Hasselberger and Michael Singletary)
  • Americana/Roots (Leaders: Gary and Kathy Lynch)

Of course, I want to give a huge thank you to all the set up crew that came out on the day before the Festival. Not only did they set up, they brought chairs, shade pop-ups, easels, tables, posters, and promo materials. Thank you to Sally and Dana Charette, Janice and Andy Gelencser, Linnea Richards, Sandy Lessner and Steve Berman, Warren Hasselberger and Michael Singletary. The set up crew was pretty much the same folks who handled the “take-down” and Helene Domon and Chris Wright also joined us in dismantling all of it !

Our Committee has had a post-festival meeting and we’re already brimming with ideas for next year!

See you next year !

Submitted by Louise Dobbs, on behalf of our Committee Members: Sally Charette, Janice and Andy Gelencser, Sandy Lessner, Chuck Behrman, Warren Hasselberger and Michael Singletary.

Prez Sez – Happy New Year 2026 

Happy 2026 music lovers! Our Songmakers investments returned 13.6% for 2025, allowing us to continue our tradition of donating about $1000/year to other worthy music-supporting nonprofits and maintaining a healthy balance over $23,000 in financial assets.  We will be starting the new year by serving our geographically Southern members with our new San Pedro Song Circle on Jan 11.

I hope to see you at our annual Round Up 2026 election meeting, concert and jam on February 21.  We return to a more central valley location this year at St. Luke Lutheran Church at 5312 Comercio Way, Woodland Hills CA 91364. You can arrive as early as 10 am to help set up, but the official start time is noon, with the signup concert starting at 1.  This year you will be able to sign-up via email for the concert beforehand.  We will reserve 3 slots on the day of the Round-up for those who might not have responded to the email signups.  Doug Kerr will be emailing out further details.

We will finish our last jam and be out by 9PM. Louise Dobbs, chair of the RoundUp Committee, will soon release the official timetable but the signup concert will be followed by announcement of election results, an early dinner provided by your club for all who PREREGISTER, and 3 song circles to choose from until 9! The parking lot is not as large as Somis was, so please carpool.

March will start with the 8th year of our Music in the Mountains-Lite gathering at Camp DeBenneville Pines in beautiful Angeles Oaks 3pm Thursday 3/5- 3pm Sunday 3/8. This both celebrates the return of the light and is a smaller more intimate gathering than our November Music in the Mountains, usually 14-20 Songmakers in luxurious Craigs Cabin for 3 nights of jamming and friendship by the central fireplace until 10PM, with later jamming in the Coffeehouse available for night owls! As our own contribution to the affordability crisis, this wonderful weekend costs only $100 per camper plus shared food costs. Sandy sends a spreadsheet to sign-up for the food you bring, and what cooking and cleanup shifts you volunteer for.  We always have a great time! Contact me by the end of January if you are interested in joining us.

March also ushers in the first of our four Kenney Grove Park musical camping weekends in Fillmore 3/26-29.  We’ll have two Summer picnics again in 2026, with the first one at past Prez Dean Donins home and the second a pool party at Sandy and my Agoura home in September.

In sum, I’m hoping to enjoy a lot of wonderful jamming with all of you in 2026!

HERE’S TO A GREAT MUSICAL 2026 AS WE KEEP PASSING THE MUSIC ON!!

Steven Berman

San Pedro Song Circle!

Please join us on Sunday, January 11, 2026, from 2:00-5:00 PM
for a song circle in San Pedro, 731 South Pacific Avenue, San Pedro, CA  90731.  Our host is Collage: A Place for Art and Culture (phone 424-450-8239).   This non-profit hosts many and varied Live music, entertainment, art shows, performance workshops and culinary programs. Check out their website—Our event is posted there! https://www.collageartculture.org/

Our host, Richard Foss, met us at Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Contest and wanted to see if we could make music together.

This is our second time at this venue and we hope to make this a semi-regular event!  Last time the Songmakers (there were about 9 of us) went out to dinner after the hoot at a local pub.
For more information, call Louise at 310-403-3351.   Song circle will be led by Songmaker, Chuck Behrman. For info on the day of the event, call Chuck at 310-849-9403.

Louise

Kenney Grove Campout Dates

Reservations can be made 6 months in advance.  Here are the campout and reservation dates for 2026:

March 26-29, 2026 (reserve c. 9/26/25)
April 30-May 3, 2026 (reserve c. 10/30/2025)
June 4-7, 2026 (reserve c. 12/5/2025)
October 1-4, 2026 (reserve c. 4/1/2026)

Far-West Campfire Zoom-based Songcircles

We have been invited by Far-West to participate in their twice a month Songcircles:

Every month on the 2nd & 4th Tuesdays Join us around the virtual campfire for our twice-monthly song circle, where artists and audiences from the FAR-West region and beyond are welcome to enjoy original songs, favorite covers, and tunes inspired by that week’s theme.

Don your slippers and join us around the campfire. First timers are always welcome!

Sign up in advance using the link to perform or be in the audience.

Every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month (with the exception of November and December due to holidays) you can register for free at found.ee/farwestcampfire. What started during the pandemic to keep us Folkies busy is still going strong! We would love to see a Songmakers presence there.

From the Webmaster: