8th November Daily Report
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| There was free time during the day before the evening concert and so many peopled congregated in the coffee shop for a chat. On the right is Mimmo Vicari (Roland) chatting with jury and friends. Left to right. Raymond Bodell, Kimmo Mattila, Mirco Patarini, Kevin Friedrich, Tony Davies-Jones, Frederic Deschamps, Mimo Vicari. | Grayson Masefield (New Zealand), Harley Jones (Accordions Worldwide) discussing the Roland sounds with Roberto Gaetani (Roland R&D Department & Chief Sound Engineer). |
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| Saturday involved two rehearsals at the concert venue, the beautiful Auditorium Parco della Musica Sala Petrassi. In the Foyer was a nice Roland display with very excellent graphics around and a video presentation as well. | Mimmo Vicari of Roland taking a break from setting up the Roland display. |
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| Another photo of the excellent promotion signage. There were lots of signs and posters around Rome too, with accordion advertising banners on over 150 buses. | German Roland distributor, Editor of Intermusik Ulrich Schmuelling, Harley Jones (Accordions Worldwide owner). |
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| Many Roland staff travelled across Italy to come to the event. Monica Polidori (Roland Marketing/Sales Manager) is pictured here Sergio Terranova (Roland Brazil). | Takao Shirahata (President Roland Brazil) and Akira Hanechi (Roland Europe Manager). |
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| The hall was fully sold, seating about 800 people. | Monica Polidori and Mario D'Amario. Mario was sitting in the audience front row in casual clothes, and during the FR-1 Promotion, walked on to the stage with a gameboy, then gives up this to play the accordion, joining in with the dancers and singer Laura Di Mauro. |
Jury photograph left to right: Chairman of Jury Kimmo Mattila (Finland), Raymond Bodell (UK), Frederic Deschamps (France),
Kevin Friedrich (USA), Mirco Patarini (Italy), Lech Puchnowski (Poland), Wolfgang Russ (Germany).
The concert started with a walk in by the contestants, each holding a flag for their country. Some 17 countries in total being represented.
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| The contestants then stood on the stage while they were individually | introduced and welcomed by the Presenter Alessandra Bellini. |
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| In the background you can see the large screen, right stage, that showed what was being filmed - Alessandra on screen. There was a similar screen on the left for contestant information, the water paintings and Roland graphics. | The graphics animation expert Stefano Mori was introduced to the contestants and Roland guests the night before. |
Roland had done a tremendous job of stage presentation. Large screen to right, the very artistic color painting logo by Sandro Mori in the center
and to the left, another screen, showing different information. This time the Roland logo showed below. This superb stage presentation,
was the responsibility of graphics animation expert Stefano Mori who is the son of artist Sandro Mori.
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| Roland logo on the screen left above, that is just out of the photo above. | Next was a video message on the large stage screen to the Finals Concert from the Founder of the Roland Corporation Ikutaro Kakehashi showing the very highest levels of support for the exciting V-Accordion project. |
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1. Matthias Bender (Germany) was the first contestant
to take the stage.
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2. Johnny Lee Leslie (UK). In the background you can
see on the large screen a picture of the Sandro Mori water painting
that was presented to Johnny Lee Leslie as the UK representative depicting
the famous landmark London Tower Bridge.
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3. Ivan Preanacov (Canada).
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4. Joseph Natoli (USA) with Sandro Mori USA water
painting in the background. You can see the USA landmark Statute of
Liberty.
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The film crew had camera's right up close on the stage
as well as further back, able to take shots from all angles of the contestants
performances.
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5. Marie Zichova (Czech).
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6. Grayson Masefield (New Zealand) started off with
a Maori Haka Dance. You can see the background big screen with the information
put on the screen about each contestant as they began performing including
national flag etc. Preparation for the event was of the very highest
level.
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6. Grayson Masefield finishing his performance and in the background on the large screen is the New Zealand water painting image. |
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7. Jackson Jofre Rodrigues (Brazil) continued the
amazing choreography show of his first performance which was a real
rock band type show. In these two photos, you can get some idea of all
his movement with
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hair flying everywhere, really moving around the stage,
plus a real talent for improvisation and using the accordion in his
own unique style. The audience for the Finals certainly got a variety
of types and styles of music.
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8. Marcin Wyrostek (Poland).
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You can see from this photo just how spectacular the large screen and the stage graphics were.
Left is Presenter Alessandra Bellini and on the large screen is pictured Chairman of the Jury Kimmo Mattila (Finland), his comments
about the competition being translated into Italian language for the audience by jury member Mirco Patarini (Italy).
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9. Josep Mª Costa Perarnau (Spain).
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10. Michal Cervienca (Slovakia).
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11. Prin Jean-François (France).
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12. Bojan Mladenovic of Serbia.
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13. Toni Perttula (Finland).
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14. Emir Bosnjak (Denmark).
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15. Zhu Jingbai had a creative program that included
a lot of Chinese styles that the audience enjoyed.
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16. Oleg Vereshcagin (Italy).
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| 17. Danylo Denisov (Ukraine) came out with a Bach type wig as he performed a Bach work using the free bass capability of the Roland FR-7. | |
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Joan Garrobe and Sergio Scappini made a duo of lovely
music that showed another contrasting use of the very versatile Roland
FR-7
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in concert with other instruments.
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After a very exciting Competition and Final Concert, the results of the 2nd International V-Accordion Contest were announced.
First Prize being presented by Akira Hanechi (Roland Europe SpA. Manager) to 1st Placegetter Toni Perttula (Finland).
Picture left to right: Famous presenter Alessandra Bellini, Toni Perttula (Finland), Akira Hanechi,
Luigi Bruti, (Marketing Director of Roland Europe SpA.), Kimmo Mattila, Chairman of the Jury (Finland).
Left to Right: 2nd place - Oleg Vereschagin (Italy), 1st Place - Toni Perttula (Finland), 3rd place - Michal Cervienca (Slovakia)
The full days report will be added to this page shortly.
-The promotional introduction of the Roland FR-1 V-Accordion at the Festival was superbly spectacular. Alex La Rosa, who is involved
in making many video clips of famous pop and rock artists, had been hired by Roland Corp., to design the dancing and musical introduction
of the new Roland V-Accordion FR1 model tonight. In the pictures below, you can see international competition winner, accordionist Mario D'Amario (Italy),
playing with the singer Laura Di Mauro with 6 professional dancers.
"Its gonna be your next ........"
Download the MP3 track of "Its gonna be your next ......"
FR-1 Promotion-Show
Text of the FR-1 Promotional Song
