MONROE — Squeezebox Night, a popular event held every third Tuesday of the month in the Ratskeller of the Turner Hall of Monroe, will be back starting April 18, from 6-8 p.m.

The informal jam session was first introduced in May 2007 by Turner Hall’s Swiss Heritage Series as part of an on-going schedule of programs and events that feature Swiss traditions and folk culture. 

Squeezebox Night founder and local accordionist Del Heins, along with John Waelti and others, will be on hand to lead the playing.  Intended for all ability levels, from beginners to veterans, and all types of accordion-like instruments, the sessions offer people a chance to re-acquaint themselves with the instrument in a fun and non-threatening way, as well as offering longtime players a chance to come together and play. Other instrumentalists are also invited to participate.  It’s not at all unusual to see a guitar, banjo, bass player, trumpet, or autoharp playing along as well.   

 In addition to players, listeners are also invited to come and enjoy the toe-tapping music. Due to staffing shortages, the Ratskeller’s menu will not be available, but the bar will be open from 6-8 p.m. during the jam session.

There was a time in Monroe’s past when taking accordion lessons was as common as taking piano lessons. Rudy Burkhalter (1911 - 1994), an immigrant from Basel, Switzerland and the upper Midwest’s foremost Swiss-American traditional musician, opened an accordion school in 1938 with his wife, Frances, teaching throughout south-central Wisconsin. 

Once a week, the two would travel to Monroe, New Glarus, Darlington, Dodgeville, Watertown, Beaver Dam, Richland Center, Reedsburg and Baraboo, advertising two months of free lessons as well as furnishing the accordion. Eventually teaching up to 500 students per week, with classes of 20 to 40 students, countless people in Green County learned to play the instrument. 

Two local Burkhalter students, Roger Bright and Betty Kneubuehl Vetterli, came to be well-known Swiss musicians in their own right. John Waelti, a Monroe accordionist who plays regularly around the area and throughout the state, also studied accordion with Burkhalter and is a regular at Squeezebox Night.

Turner Hall of Monroe is located two blocks south of the downtown Square at 1217 17th Avenue, and is handicapped-accessible.

More information may be found at https://turnerhallofmonroe.org/squeezeboxnight.html.