Performers include
Shakura S’Aida, Matt Andersen, Dawn Tyler Watson and Jack de Keyzer

Blues Summit Five to feature Washington DC based Sirius Radio’s Bill Wax
at Keynote Brunch

Maple Blues Awards Voting closes Saturday, December 11 at midnight PST

Toronto, ON (December 3, 2010)
–  Raoul Bhaneja, a Toronto actor and musician most noted for his work performing Shakespeare’s Hamlet solo and his blues band,  Raoul is set to host the 14th annual Maple Blues Awards on January 17, 2011 at Koerner Hall in Toronto.

A cast of some of the best National
blues musicians will be performing at the ceremony, including Tom Lavin (Powder
Blues Band, British Columbia), Shakura S’Aida (Ontario), Dawn Tyler Watson
(Quebec), Matt Andersen (New Brunswick) and Jack de Keyzer (Ontario), all
backed by The Maple Blues Band featuring Gary Kendall, Michael Fonfara, Teddy
Leonard, Al Lerman, Tom Bona, Chris Whiteley, Pat Carey and Chris Murphy.
Following the ceremony will be the popular after-party, featuring live music.
Tickets for the Maple Blues Awards are $20 – $28 and can be purchased at The Weston
Family Box Office, located in The Royal Conservatory building at 273 Bloor
Street West, Toronto or online at https://tickets.rcmusic.ca/public.

The Maple Blues Awards is
Canada’s national blues awards program. Its goal is to promote blues
music across Canada, and to recognize outstanding achievement in the field.
Each year, the Maple Blues Awards recognizes a leader in the blues community
with the Blues With A Feeling Award (Lifetime Achievement Award). This
year the nominees are Alec Fraser, Danny Brooks, Ellen McIlwaine, Joe Murphy,
Ken Whiteley, Michael Fonfara, Paul James, Rita Chiarelli, Stephen Barry, Terry
Wilkins, and Tom Lavin.

The Maple Blues Awards will be
wrapping up the biannual Blues Summit, a weekend of panels, discussions and
workshops for blues artists, promoters, agents and festivals. On Sunday,
January 16 the keynote speaker for Blues Summit Five is Bill Wax, the host of
Sirius Radio’s popular program, B.B. King’s Bluesville, which can be
heard all over the United States and approximately 200 miles on each side of
the border into Canada and Mexico.  The program audience is just above 2
million listeners per week.  The keynote brunch is held at The Delta Chelsea
Hotel at 11:00am.

Public voting for The Maple Blues
Awards opened in October, and over 2,000 voters from across Canada have
registered to date.  Voting closes Saturday, December 11 at midnight PST. Blues
fans cast their votes online at www.mapleblues.ca.

Now in its 25th year, The Toronto Blues Society is
a non profit membership organization dedicated to the promotion and
preservation of the Blues. Koerner Hall at The Royal Conservatory is a 1,135-seat venue designed in the tradition of the
classic “shoebox” venues of Europe, built without compromise and
with a mission to provide acoustic perfection for music of all genres.

                                                          -30-

For more information contact:

Sarah French

Sarah French Publicity

[email protected]
416-566-4188

Barbora Kršek

The Royal Conservatory

[email protected]

(416) 408 -2824 x265

Jordan Safer

The Toronto Blues Society

[email protected]

(416)538-3885