Ted Warmbrand

Ted Warmbrand has been called a Tucson Treasure and is the recipient of a 2019 Southwest Folklife Alliance Master-Apprentice Artist Award. Born into a song filled Bronx NY Jewish home in the 1940s he began gravitating from Gilbert and Sullivan to Folk Music. As many were, he was inspired by the modeling of Pete Seeger and like Tucson meet Yourself, affirmed the value of different cultures. He learned singing the right song at the right time can connect people. After academia he took to the open road in the 1960s. Developing a vast varied repertoire he sang on street corners and saloons, picket lines and peace marches, rallies for environmental and labor rights, council meetings and of course classrooms to help our children learn the power of singing. Settling here in Tucson in the 1970s Ted set up ITZABOUTIME productions to celebrate community building culture, and bring to town x dozens of prominent socially conscious artists from around the planet. These successful concerts raising thousands of dollars over the decades for local needs. At the same time he programmed weekly broadcasts on KXCI, convened monthly singalongs, formed a a Jewish/Muslim Band of Cousins, a Tucson Labor Choir and created songs for cross border connection and coordinated neighborhood fiestas. Though Ted’s won awards for his own compositions, he relies a lot on inherited songs so the past speaks to the present. Lest we forget, with good humor and harmony we hold onto hope.