The concert tour of Mr. Valentine Abt, the mandolin virtuoso, this year extended as far west as Des Moines, Iowa, at which place he played to a select and enthusiastic audience April 5th.  Wherever he has appeared he has made a most favorable impression and his season has been quite successful.  Next season he contemplates a tour extending to the Pacific coast.

Mr. M. S. Harris, of Washington, D.C., is doing much to create interest in the banjo, mandolin and guitar in his locality, his public appearances contributing to this result in no small degree.  At a recent Grand musical and literary entertainment at the Baptist church, his own solos and the excellent playing of his mandolin and guitar club were the principal features and elicited the most favorable comment.

Alfred A. Farland, the banjo virtuoso, has made a very extensive concert tour this season and has been invariably successful.  His tour extended from New York to San Francisco and back east, thence south and west and finally east again, playing all the principal cities and many of the smaller ones.  The season of 1897-1898 has been his most successful one in spite of the disquieting times and he reports good prospects for next season.

"A well filled auditorium greeted the performers who took part in the entertainment given by Misses Mary Elitha Abbott and Ella Fagin at the K. P. opera house last Friday night.  That the listeners were pleased was evidenced by the long continued applause which followed each event on the program.  The program commenced with the overture played by the Newburg Mandolin Club, consisting of Mrs. M. D. King, Mrs. Rosa Matthews, and Missus Mary and Helen Abbott, Addie and Eva Lovell and Ella Fagin.  Their playing is a compliment to Miss Fagin and shows the result of her painstaking and careful teaching."--Pittsfield, Ill., Exchange, April 20 1898.

The Tuxedo Mandolin and Guitar Trio of New York has been touring through the North and West, giving concerts and entertainments with considerable success this season.  The members are J. Ruskin Currier, D, Francis Ramseyer and William H. Wollson.  These gentlemen are well known in Kansas City and it was here they began their career.  It is a fact, though not generally known, that Kansas City has produced more first class guitar and mandolin artists than any other town in the country.

Stratford Town Hall was crowded on Monday evening when Mr. Halfpenny gave his banjo festival.  The bright particular stars were Mr. Alfred D. Cammeyer (who almost persuaded one that the banjo is a musical instrument after all, or may be made so), and Messrs. Mays and Hunter whose playing was incredibly comic.  Their imitations of a church service, from the ringing of bells to the preaching of the sermon (the latter imitated amazingly on a single string), brought down the house; the audience would have liked to encore them until break-fast time. The Mozart banjo quartette (Mr. W, C. Pepper, Mr. Arthur Sullivan, Mr. P. C. Godrich, and Mr. S. A. Halfpenny) also delighted the audience.--Stratford, (England) Express Dec. 18, 1897.

A mandolin and song recital was given by Miss Louise M. Borden and Signor J. E. Pettine, the mandolin virtuoso, at Providence, R. I., evening of April 26th.  These artist were assisted by Signor J. E. Capone, flute, and Mr. R. A. Dickenson, pianist, and a very artistic and high class program was presented.  Signor Pettine is a performer of pronounced ability and his repertoire includes choice compositions by the greatest composers, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and other masters always being represented on his program's.  A Providence daily paper speaks of his playing at his last recital in the following terms:
"The mandolin playing by Signor Pettine was excellent, combining great technical proficiency and tasteful interpretation, and was, as usual, productive of much pleasure to the listeners.  An artistic solo upon the flute was contributed by Signor Capone and Mr. Dickenson accompanied both singer and instrumentalist with marked taste and skill.  The audience was of good size and cordially applausive throughout the evening."

Messers. Essex and Cammeyer of London, England, gave their twelfth grand Banjo, Mandolin, and Guitar festival at St. James Hall, London, May 5th.  These festivals are always highly successful as Messers. Essex and Cammeyer spare neither pains nor expense to please their patrons.  These gentlemen are the only ones who attempt to give banjo concerts in this grand hall and as they always engage the greatest artists in England to appear, their enterprise is invariably rewarded by an audience of between two and three thousand people at each concert.  The program of their last Festival consisted of 21 numbers, including solos, duets and orchestral numbers on the banjo, mandolin and guitar, etc.  Among the prominent artists appearing were, Messers. A. D. Cammeyer, Clifford Essex, Joe Morley, Olly Oakley, A. H. N. Kennedy, Alf Wood, Arthur Sullivan, and Misses Alice Walkinshaw and Gussie Clamp, banjoists, Signor Leopold Francia, mandolinist and others.  A program of rare excellence was presented.  Messers Exxex and Cammeyer are the leading exponents of the banjo in England and are doing great thing for the advancement of the banjo in Great Britain.

The Ella Carr Concert Co., headed by Ella Carr, banjoiste, recently concluded a very successful concert tour through Pennsylvania.  The people were very enthusiastic over the banjo and Miss Carr's playing, and the company was well received at each place.  We quote two extracts from local notices accorded the company:

"It is surprising that such music as that of Chopin and Paderewski can be so beautifully given on the banjo.  In her hands Miss Carr brings the banjo to the level of of the harp in musical value."--The New Era, Lancaster. Pa.

"The Ella Carr Concert Company appeared in the opera house last night and gave a fine entertainment before  large audience.
Miss Carr, banjoiste, delighted the audience her wonderful execution on her favorite instrument.  She stands in the foremost rank of banjo performers.  Her renditions of Paderewski's "Menuet a'l Antique," My Old Kentucky Home" and the encore selection "Suwanee River" were beautiful and enthusiastically received."--Columbia Daily Spy, Columbia, Pa., April 5th 1898.

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from The Cadenza, May-June 1898.

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LOL. That is a corker of a name.

Man. I would have love to have been up front at that concert!

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