World Accordion Day Concerts and activities in India – May 2014
 
World Accordion Day Concert – Pune, India – This is a concert which is organised by Amit Vaidya every year on World Accordion Day.
 
This is a theme based concert and is free for all. Typically people from all areas of interest in the accordion society attend this program. The theme for this year was based on the subject “Can Talent be built or is in born?” The program had three sections.
 
The first section was a seminar and discussion on various aspects with Accordion at the centre of the discussion such as:

• What is Talent?
• Can talent be built with right inputs?
• How does talent look like inside our body?
• What are the challenges with respect to Accordion development specifically?
• What is the role of brain in Accordion development?
• Talent development in Young and old?
• Why are some people gifted?
• Importance of Meditation and its benefits while developing a complicated instrument like ACCORDION!
  

The discussion was led by Amit Vaidya, in which he also played some popular numbers on Accordion from Indian Film songs
 
The second section was taken over by Antonio Spaccarotella. Antonio played various arrangements; however the focal point was “Tango Moderna” and “Prima Del Core (Before the Earth)”. These arrangements were highly appreciated and got a standing ovation from the audience.
 
The third Section was an interview taken by Amit of Mr. Suraj Sathe, Senior Accordion player from Indian Film Industry.

Additional Activities In India
April and May 2014 saw a unique and extraordinary series of concerts in cities like Kolkata and Pune. This was a series of concerts organised by Amit Vaidya, an accordion Enthusiast from India. Amit has been promoting this instrument since 2011 through various informative programs to increase awareness about this lovely instrument.
 
Accordion is not a new instrument to India as it was extensively used in Indian films as a musical instrument from 1950’s to 1970’s. There is a huge audience who loves to hear accordion music.
 
It was a joint effort between Scandalli Accordions, Antonio Spaccarotella and Amit Vaidya along with Pallab Roy from Kolkatta, India, to have a series of concerts in India. Amit being the prime Organiser for the events.
 
There were five concerts that were organised, two in Kolkata and three in Pune. Each concert was arranged with a specific type of Audience so as to ensure that we cover all the layers of the Indian society.

• Concert at Kolkatta Club - This was targeted for the elite of Kolkatta. Audience turnout – 200+
• Concert at Sugar and Spice- This was targeted specifically for accordion lovers in Kolkatta
• Concert at Poona Music Society- This was targeted for the Audience who is well versed with western classical music and has been attending concerts of world renowned artists. Turn out -200+
• Concert at Gandharva Mahvidyala Pune - This concert was arranged for Indian Classical music lovers.

All the concerts where Antonio played were well received and highly appreciated. India now looks forward to more of such concerts of various different Accordion Players!!

The World Accordion Day activities were held at Kalmadi High School in Pune, India.