Welcome to our first news of the new millennium. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and successful New Year celebrations. I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank everyone for their Christmas and New Year wishes to all the staff at Accordions Worldwide. It was great to hear from you all!

Last week the team at Accordions Worldwide attended a 3 day meeting at a beach resort on the west coast of New Zealand with our representatives from USA (Kevin Friedrich), Germany (Uli Ebner) and Italy (Holda Paoletti-Kampl). We have some great new ideas planned for the year ahead so keep a look out for these.

Wayne Knights Webmaster

• New Year's Day TV Performance - Lithuania
• Arrasate Accordion Competition - Spain
• 18th Grand Prix International Competition - Switzerland
• 1st Anniversary Celebrations - Bulgaria
• Accordionist Tours France with Philharmonic Orchestra
• Accordionist at World Saxophone Congress - Canada
• New Year Performance - Italy
• Perth Orchestra Celebrations - Australia
• Texas, Where Accordion Dreams Come True - USA
• French language "News Francais" Site
• Glasgow Celtic Connections Festival - Scotland
• New Teaching Centre in Jiangxi Province - China
• Accordions Worldwide Team Meets Down Under - New Zealand
• Brett Gibson and Gabriels Gate in Kansas City - USA
• Celebration Concert - Germany
• Music Academy Anniversary Concert - Italy
• Successful Christmas Party - Bulgaria
• Echoraum Concert - Austria
• Hanni Strahl Passes Away on 84th Birthday - USA
• New Accordion CDs Released
• New Musette Video Released - France
• New Sites
• Antique Accordion Information

Contributed by Sandra Kleizaite

The Cantus Quintet performed "Tarantella" from the ballet "Aniuta" by Viktor Gavrilin on Lithuanian Television as part of their New Year's Day program. Quintet members are undergraduate and postgraduate students at the Lithuanian Academy of Music, in Vilnius and they perform both classical and modern compositions including works by Astor Piazzolla and compositions by modern Lithuanian composers. At the end of January, they will give a concert in the Estonian Embassy in Vilnius.

Contributed by Milan Tomic

The Arrasate Hiria Accordion Competition was held in Arrasate, Basque county, Spain in December 1999 organized by Gipuzkoako Akordeoi Konfederakundea. Capacity crowds of 1,000 people attended the event, which included six finalists of a high standard competing for the top prize. The jury included A. Hontoria, F. Lips, J. Mornet, M. Rantanen and V. Vasovic.

Results:

1st - Sergey Voitenko (Russia)
2nd - Dominique Emorine (France)
3rd - Vladimir Blagojevic (Yugoslavia)

Contributed by Dr Herbert Scheibenreif Manager of Friedrich Lips Productions

The "18th Grand Prix International De Piano, Organ & Accordion" competition will be held in Geneva from November 3rd to 5th 2000 with categories for soloists, duets, accordion ensembles, accordion orchestras and chamber music. The jury will be composed of well known musicians from various countries. The registration deadline will be September 10th, 2000. For all further information contact: Centre De Musique Lacroix, 15, rue des Voisins, CH 1205 Geneva. Phone & fax: + 41 22 329.97.84

Contributed by Peter Stanchev, Accordion Magic

In December "Accordion Magic" celebrated its first anniversary! During its first year, the paper has tripled its circulation and "captured the hearts of Bulgarian accordionists". The paper is now read in Bulgaria, Macedonia and the Bulgarian community in Moldova. A celebration cocktail party was held with accordion entertainment for party guests.

Accordionist and composer Eric Blin toured France from December 2nd to January 1st with the Petrozavodsk Philharmonic Orchestra (Russia), playing concerts in Lieu, Villars, Vernoux, Abbeville, Douai, Amiens, Pleudihen, La Motte, Bourget du Lac, Villereal, Montpazier, Port-Louis, Bailleau-le-pin, Mareil, Couhe, Franois, Paris, Saint-Aignan, Valmorel, La Lechere and Remiremont. Their repertoire included "Impro Swing and Blues", "Concerto for a Tango" and "Swing Mozart Melody". A future tour is planned in March this year.

USA accordionist Dee Langley will join saxophonist Angela Wyatt at the World Saxophone Congress (equivalent to our Coupe Mondiale) in Montreal, Quebec during July 2000. The duo will give the world premiere of "Shadows", a new work for accordion, soprano, tenor saxophone and cello by American composer Peter Blauvelt. At this same Congress, Dee will perform "Elusive Dreams" by Minnesota composer Carleton Macy with the Ancia Saxophone Quartet. The quartet gave the North American premiere of this work with Dee in 1996 at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

Solo accordion concerts are becoming increasingly popular in north Italy. After successful concerts by Sylvia Pagni during 1999, she was asked to perform at "Adamo Day", an event held at the Cristallo Theatre in honor of conductor Nino D'Adamo. On January 6th Sylvia played a classical and jazz program at a New year concert at the Palasport in Cesano Boscone.

Contributed by John Dickson

The Perth Accordion Club held their Christmas concert celebrations on December 19th. Over 120 people enjoyed a program of popular Christmas Carols and well known Christmas songs performed by soloists and the Perth Accordion Orchestra. A demonstration of a new external accordion amplification unit that was developed by one of their members in conjunction with a sound engineer was presented.

Their next meeting will be held on January 16th, focusing on Australian music to coincide with Australia Day celebrations. For further details email: jdickson@global.net.au

Contributed from www.AccordionUSA.com

The Texas Accordion Association (TAA) will host its annual National Accordion Convention from March 16th to 20th, 2000 at the Holiday Inn , Plano, Texas. Billed as the "Year of the Accordion Orchestra", the TAA Y2K Festival Accordion Orchestra will be conducted by renowned symphony conductor Gary Daverne from Auckland, New Zealand. Gary is the conductor of the Auckland Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as guest conductor with major orchestras all over the world. In addition to his conducting skills, Gary is also a prolific composer, and has written many pieces for accordion solo, duo, ensemble and orchestra, as well as making numerous arrangements for accordion orchestra.

Other festival activities will include concerts, workshops, instruments and music displays and a 24 hour Jam Session. For further information please visit the TAA on-line or phone Norman Seaton: + 1 972 270-3791 email: nseaton1@ibm.net

The premiere edition of the French language "News Francais" site will be on line on January 21st. This is a free service for associations, orchestras, concert organizers, teachers and performers in French speaking countries, to have their interesting news items published easily and without cost on the internet. Please email news to Grégory Frénard (greg@accordions.com). Future editions will be published when enough news has arrived, to put on line and you will be notified in this news.

Grateful thanks must go to Grégory for offering to donate his time and skills to put these news items online for accordionists. We encourage full use of this excellent opportunity to become your own publisher and believe this site will become a very valuable source of information and news for French speaking regions of the world.

Swedish quartet "SWAP" (including accordionist Karen Tweed) will perform at The Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland for the Celtic Connections Festival on January 27th. Their performance will also promote the launch on January 15th of their new CD "Sic" which includes "Lill Mats" and "Montreal". Over 200 people are expected to attend the event, which will include a performance by "The Two Duos Quartet" (featuring Karen Tweed, Chris Wood, Andy Cutting and Ian Carr).

A "Poozies Party" will also be held on January 29th at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall featuring the Poozies (Karen Tweed, Patsy Seddon, Mary Macmaster and Eilidh Shaw) with Sally Barker and Kate Rusby. For further information phone Sinead: +44 141 332 6633

Contributed by Li Cong

A new "Accordion Teaching Centre" was set up at the end of 1999, organized by Li Qin Yiao, accordion teacher of the Music Department at Jiangxi Normal University. The centre will offer lessons on piano and button accordions to 28 students aged from 4 to 23 years during the first term of 2000.

A recent show organized by the Teaching Centre at the Taohua Primary School in Nanchang was recorded by the Jiangxi Province Education TV Channel and reported in both Chinese and English.

On January 2nd the Centre held a free workshop and accordion concert for students from the Jiangxi Normal University. The program included "Carnival of Venice", "Tiannuu San Hua", "The song of the Gypsy", "Theme and Variation" and others. This well received concert was also recorded by the Jiangxi Province TV Channel.

For University course information, email Li Qin Yiao: liqinyao@21cn.com

Several members of the Accordions Worldwide staff met in the far north of New Zealand, at the tiny summer resort, Bayly's Beach. Discussions covered all the Accordions Worldwide sites including Accordions Worldwide (the largest accordion site on the internet), Accordion Links (the world's largest accordion links site), Search-Accordion (a search engine dedicated to accordion sites) and the Accordion Yellow Pages, which includes tens of thousands of listings of instruments, teachers, performers etc.

Another exciting venture on the news front is the development of the National News sites. Accordions Worldwide is sponsoring sites in several countries including the USA, France, Germany and Italy, with more on the way.

Attendees included AWW founder and owner Harley Jones, Web Master Wayne Knights, News Coordinator Christine Adams, Office Manager Tatiana Lanchtchikova, European Manager Holda Paoletti-Kampl, German representative Uli Ebner and US Office Manager Kevin Friedrich

Contributed from www.AccordionUSA.com

Noted accordionist Brett Gibson has announced a featured performance in Kansas City at the Community Christian Church on the Country Club Plaza, on February 5th. Brett, formerly from New Zealand, studied at UMKC with Professor Joan Sommers and now resides in Kansas City. He has performed with the band "Gabriels Gate" for many years, and is featured on their latest recording which will be available at the concert.

The concert is being organized by the Missouri Valley Folk Life Society and will feature four Celtic Bands. Tickets are available at the door. For further information on the concert and Gabriels Gate email: brettski@worldnet.att.net

Contributed by Constanze Krause

The Akkordeonclub Scharnhausen will perform at a celebration concert "Musikalischer Besen" on February 26th in the Ludwig-Jahn-Turnhalle, Scharnhausen/Ostfildern (near Stuttgart). Their program will include song and dance pieces. Last year over 200 people attended this free concert. For details email: ckrause@integrata.de

Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

Accordionist Ivano Battiston performed works by Galliano and Piazzolla at the 25th anniversary of the "G. Rossini" Music Academy in S. Giustina Bellunese (Belluno Province) on January 8th. Ivano's next two concerts will be held at the "L. Cherubini" State Conservatory, Sala del Buonumore Florence on February 9th and 16th. His program will include recorder and accordion pieces plus works by Ortiz, Corelli, J.S. Bach, Bellugi-Battiston and Bartok. For details phone: + 39 55 292180

Contributed by Peter Stanchev

On December 17th a successful Christmas party and concert was held in the "Dobrin Petkov" Music School in Plovdiv, which included performances of polkas, tangos, foxtrots, waltzes and Bulgarian folklore music. Guests were impressed by the performance of 8-year old Petia Petkova who lives at a local orphanage and won the hearts of the audience. The music school works in co-operation with the orphan's institution, "Raina Kabaivanska Foundation".

Accordionist Krassimir Sterev will take part in a concert of Bernhard Lang works this week in Echoraum, Vienna playing "Schrift 3" which is part of a series of solo pieces, called "Schriftstücke". Austrian composer Bernhard Lang studied composition with Polish composer Andrej Dobrowolsky and now teaches theory of harmony and counterpoint at the University of Music and dramatic Arts in Graz. He is currently a member of the improvisation group "Picknick mit Weimann". For concert details email: krasster@hotmail.com

Contributed from www.AccordionUSA.com

Hanni Strahl, long time accordion teacher resident in Texas, has passed away on her 84th birthday. Hanni was visiting with her daughter, prominent accordionist Helmi Harrington of Minnesota. For more information see Memorials.

Contributed by Giuseppe Scali

Two new accordion CD's recently released include "The Classical Accordionist" by Salvatore di Gesualdo which includes works by F. Landino, C. Merulo, W. Byrd, G. Frescobaldi and B. Pasquini. The second CD entitled "Keyboard Music" by Alessandro Dei features works by D. Scarlatti (11 sonate), Handel (Suite in B flat) and Bach (Partita II in C minor). For further information email: 03485310655@mail.omnitel.it

Contributed by Frédéric Deschamps

A new musette video featuring French accordion music entitled "Sous le ciel de Paris" (Under Paris Sky's) was released recently by Kiwi Video. Featured artists include J.Miche Sonnerat, Samuel Garcia, Sebastien Farge, Martine Latour and André et Isoline Trichot. For details phone: + 33 5 49 91 76 99

http://www.accordions.com/mschool-pula Information on the Accordion Orchestra of the Ivan Matetic-Ronjgov Music School in Pula, winners at the 24th International Competition of Accordion Orchestras in Castelfidardo this year.

http://www.accordions.com/prixazzola Information on the International accordion competition Prix Azzola held in France from June 10th to 12th.

http://www.accordions.com/fabiano Information on accordionist and conductor Jean Marc Fabiano

http://www.accordeon.com/francais French language "News Francais" Site

http://www.accordions.com/dellarole Information on concert accordionist Giorgio Dellarole

Marcel Drubbel would like some information on an antique Settimio Soprani Cardinal piano accordion. He would like to know how old his accordion is. If you can help please email: marcel@astros.demon.nl

Louise would like some information on an Atlas or Sterling black onyx accordion with mother of pearl keys, made in Italy, which is over 50 years old. Please email: eugene.wright@gte.net

Marie Jones would like information on an old 19 inch Italian made 120 bass Bolero accordion, with 41 treble keys. Please email: jonesrdm@earthlink.net

L. Barnes is looking for information on a Moreschi-Donsant accordion made in1935. Please email: LBARNES548@aol.com