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International Musical Saw Association

Welcome to the International Musical Sawplayers Association website. The first California Musical Saw Festival was held in Santa Cruz in 1981. The California Saw Players Association was established in 1994, and several years later changed its name to the International Musical Saw Association. We present the annual "California Musical Saw Festival" annually at Roaring Camp in Felton, California - www.roaringcamp.com

California Musical Saw Festival 2024

We are pleased to announce that the California Musical Saw Festival will take place on Sunday, August 18th, from 10 am - 5 pm at Roaring Camp in Felton, California. We look forward to seeing you there.

SUNDAY - August 18th, 2024 - 10:00am to 5:00pm at ROARING CAMP in Felton, CA - www.roaringcamp.com

CONTEST:   SUNDAY - August 18th, 11:00am

California Musical Saw Festival Flyer

California Musical Saw Festival Information

California Musical Saw Festival Program

Enter the Saw Contest

Saw Player News in PDF Format!

Old issues of Saw Player News published by IMSA from 2003 to 2011 are now available in PDF format. Click on the links below to download a copy of each issue.

Saw Player News Spring 2003

Saw Player News Summer 2003

Saw Player News Winter 2003-2004

Saw Player News Summer 2004

Saw Player News Winter 2004-2005

Saw Player News Spring 2005

Saw Player News Summer 2006

Saw Player News Winter 2005-2006

Saw Player News Winter 2006-2007

Saw Player News Summer 2007

Saw Player News Winter 2007-2008

Saw Player News Summer 2008

Saw Player News Winter 2008-2009

Saw Player News Summer 2009

Saw Player News Summer 2010

Saw Player News Spring 2011

Festival 2022

This was our first festival after taking a two year break due to the Covid outbreak.

Festival 2019

Many fabulous saw players visited our last festival.

Saw Festival 2018

In 2018 we had two international visitors, Klasse Mollberg from Sweden and Haris Gershom from India.

Saw Festival 2017

The 2017 Saw Festival was a wonderful gathering of mostly California based saw players.

Saw Festival 2016

In 2016 Alistair "Azo" Bell visited us from Australia and took first place in our musical saw contest.

Saw Festival 2015

In 2015 we were joined by Shou-Bai Yu from China. Mr. Shou-Bai Yu impressed the audience with his excellent showmanship, beautiful tone, engaging manner, and heartfelt music!

Saw Festival 2014

In 2014 we were joined by Dr. Haris Gershom from India and the saw playing trio, Kara-a-ge from Japan.

Saw Festival 2013

Our festival continues to amaze us with the performances and camaraderie we have developed and diversity of entertainment, including Brownie, Donnie's parrot.

Saw Festival 2012

The 2012 festival, our 35th annual, had great entertainment and appeal - we were blessed again with some of the world's finest sawyers including six from Japan.

The entrants in the contest drew numbers and appeared in the following order: Hideo Kato (Japan), Maika Saito (Japan), Hirohisa Nakoji (Japan), Yuki Nakamuira (Japan), Tomomi Kamiya (Japan), Donald Hodges (Berkeley, CA), Thomas Spearance (Felton, CA), Cindy Weyuker (Alameda, CA), Hiroko Sakai (Japan), and Art Peterson (El Cerrito, CA).

The winners were: 1st place - Maika Saito (pictured below on the right), 2nd place - Tomomi Kamiya, 3rd place - Thomas Spearance, and a most unique performance award went to Donald Hodges.

Next year, August 10th and 11th, will be our 36th annual Saw Festival.



Pictured on the left is Jackie Jones and on the right is Maika Saito. Both pictures are from our 2010 festival. Click on the photo page above to see other past photos.

We had a wonderful festival in 2011 with our friends from the Bay Area and beyond. This year we were graced with two guests from Japan, Yoshiko Saito and Shinsaku Murakawa, and two guests from China, Liu Ya and En Wu Du. All excellent players of the musical saw and Liu Ya won first place in our contest.

 

Makoto Ogihara, one of the world's finest sawyers, is pictured on the right:

Another standout, Giriko Shimizu, has brought her musicality and fun personality to the festival.

Referring to the photos below: The 1st photo is a picture of the Tom Scribner statue produced by artist Marghie McMahon, and permanently installed in Downtown Santa Cruz, California. Tom was the saw-playing lumberjack that the original "Festival of the Saws" was organized around in 1978 - he was a beloved and extremely talented sawyer. The 2nd picture is a photo of Tom himself. The 3rd picture is of Charlie Blacklock, legendary sawyer whose musical saws are sold world wide. Charlie organized the California Saw Players Association (which evolved into the International Musical Saw Association in 2003). Charlie is also featured in the "National Old-Time Country Music Hall of Fame.” The 4th photo changes as we feature different members, and this time it is of Rosalyn Claret, 2009 Saw Contestant.