Editors Note
Accordions Worldwide staff took the opportunity of having Harley Jones and Kevin Friedrich in New Zealand to hold a meeting to discuss further improvements to the site. We have had great positive feedback to the changes currently online, so look for further improvements over the next few months. If you would like to contribute any suggestions please email: news@accordions.com

Wayne Knights Webmaster

"Gran Prix d'Escaldes-Engordany" International Accordion Competition - Andorra

Contributed by Vladimir Zubitsky

The first International Accordion Competition "Gran Prix d'Escaldes-Engordany" will be held in Escaldes-Ergodany, Andorra from July 16th to 18th. The event, which is organized by the Municipality of Escaldes-Engordany, Ministry of Culture of Andorra and the "Harmonia" Music School will include classical accordion categories for Junior (18 years and under), Senior and Variety with prize money of over 4,500 Euro.

Jury members include Vladimir Besfamilnov (Ukraine), Angel Luis Castano (Spain), Vladimir Zubitsky (Italy) and Anatoly Semeshko (Ukraine). For further details email: harmonia-music@andorra.ad

The "Bjorn Again" tribute to ABBA will be held on June 22nd at the Roseland Theatre in Portland, Oregon. This show has played 1800 times in 43 countries so far. Accordionist Miss Cybelvis Monroe (a Marilyn Monroe impersonator who sings Elvis Presley's hits to the accordion) will open the show. Cybelvis "breathes" out Elvis' hits as Marilyn might have, with crimson lip-curls and hip-shakin' shimmies. Botielus backs her up on accordion and sequencer, with surprising interpretations of familiar songs, like "Blue Suede Shoo-shoo-pee-doos" and "Dancing King". For further details email: Cybelvis@Cybelvis.com

Contributed by Catherine Steiner

The "Colorful Accordionists" will perform at the Alte Mühle in Langenthal on June 16th. The group, which includes Doris Peters, Beatrice Böhlen, Monika Portmann, Barbara Müller, Catherine Steiner and Andreas Steiner have just completed concerts in Lyss and Unterseen-Interlaken. Their program will include a variety of works by Grieg, Tchaikowsky, Dvorak, Prokofiev, Strauss, Piazzolla and Duke Ellington. For further details email: colorful.accordionists@accorda.ch

Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

Yugoslavian accordionist Dragan Vasiljevic won the PrixAzzola-Zolotarjev competition award, which was held at in the theatre Le Comoedia in Aubagne, Marseille. The event, which was organised by Jean-Marc Fabiano took place from June 2nd to 4th.

Results:

International Concert Division
12 years and under - 1st equal: Lucile Moury & Sophie Papillot
15 years and under - 1st: Irene Perrin Toinin
18 years and under - 1st: Mauro Rai

International Entertainment Division
10 years and under - 1st: Alexia Roux
12 years and under - 1st equal: Adelaide Brut & Maxime Many
15 years and under - 1st: Julien Mathieu
18 years and under - 1st: Guy Giuliano
Seniors - 1st: Laurent Derache

Contributed by Bernadette Conlon

Twelve bayanists sat their final performance exam at the Ukrainian National University in Kiev on June 8th. Each student presented a 25 minute programme of works of contrasting styles, including a polyphonic work and an original work for the accordion. The performances took place in the Small Hall of the Conservatory to an audience of friends and contemporaries. Jury members were N. Davidov, P. Fenyuk, V. Besfamilnov & Yu. Ferdorov (bayanists), S. Bashtan & L. Dediuh (bandurists), M. Shelest (domrist) and Yu. Aleksik (balalaikist).

The students Valentina Yakushenko, Vitali Bondarenko, Tiana Vasich, Dermot Donne, Mikitza Yevtich, Victor Zinchenko, Elena Costuk, Yevgen Novikov, Viacheslav Pershin, Yevgen Trohimenko, Sergei Zuhai and Alexander Shoroshev played a variety of works by Mendelssohn, Beloshitzky, Vlasov, Shostakovich, Beloshitzky, Galiachansky, Handel, Viern, Gubaidulina, Piazzolla, Vivaldi, Banakov and others.

Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

The 3rd "Città di Gualdo Cattaneo" National Music Competition, an event that is gaining more interest among young musicians was held last month in Gualdo Cattaneo (Umbria, Italy). The competition, organised by the "Roberto Fuccelli" Musical Academy and by Dr. Carla Romualdi in conjunction with the local city council and tourism board, was very successful and attracted more than twice the number of candidates that took part last year, as well as a growing audience. It is significant that participants came not only from Umbria but also from other regions such as Abruzzo, Lazio, Marche and Tuscany.

The competition (open to young musicians), was subdivided into categories according to age and instrument, with sections for accordion, piano, keyboards, hurdy-gurdy, ensemble music and guitar. Auditions took place in the Audiovisual hall of the "Il Dirigibile" Association and the final concert (featuring competition winners) was held in the courtyard of Gualdo Castle, which has hosted many prestigious musical events in the past.

Overlooking the magnificent landscape of Valle Spoletina, 20 young prize-winners entertained the audience with their competition pieces. An award ceremony was held after the concert, with the participation of town councillor Erika Ramazzotti.

Contributed by Toru Katou

On June 15th accordionist Mihoko Goto will hold a concert entitled "Modern Accordion World" at the Dohn-Center, Temmabashi Station in Osaka. Her program will include "S. Waltz", "Rainy Afternoon" and "Tango for Claude". For further information email: m-lilac@nifty.com

Contributed by Jenny Findeis

The group HISS (which includes accordionist and vocalist Stefan Hiss) will tour Germany for the next five months performing their Polka 'n' Roll show. In addition Michael Roth plays the harp and accordion during the show. The show opened on June 8th in Jameln and will include concerts in Konstanz, Baden-Baden, Zell, Neuffen, Rosenberg and Bad Rappenau during June and July. For further information email: jenny.findeis@t-online.de

Contributed by Juan Tejeda

The First International Accordion Festival (IAF) will be held from September 27th to 30th at the historic La Villita (three separate stages at Maverick and Juarez Plazas, and the Arneson River Theatre) in San Antonio, Texas. The event will feature a variety of music including, German, Irish, Polish, Czech, Canadian as well as Mexican (conjunto/Tejano), Colombian (vallenato), Dominican Republic (merengue), Argentinean (tango), and from Louisiana, the French-Creole mix that is cajun/Zydeco music. In addition there will be plenty of dancing at the festival, along with ethnic food and beverage booths.

A two-day symposium will begin the music festival (September 27th & 28th) which will include workshops and seminars (including demonstrations) on accordion-related topics conducted by prominent scholars, musicians, journalists, record producers, festival organizers, etc. The symposium will contextualize (historically, socially, culturally, and artistically) these distinct accordion traditions and the people who produce it. The entire event is free and open to the public. For further details email: oca1@ci.sat.tx.us

Contributed by Winfried Haushalter

The First Cologne Accordion Orchestra 1935 will perform a series of concerts in France from June 19th to 23rd. These concerts were organized because an earlier player of the orchestra shifted from Cologne (Germany) to Biscarrosse, Bordeaux (Southwest France). Beginning on June 21st the orchestra will perform open-air concerts in Arcachon and Biscarrosse, with a concert in the Biscarrosse Church the following day. A final concert (on June 23rd) will be another open-air event in Biscarrosse for the St. Jean celebration.

Their program will include works by Grieg, J. S. Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart, Verdi and Widor. For further details email: winfried.haushalter@ekao.de

Accordionist Heather Hawthorn will tutor at a Music Camp for children from August 4th to 11th. The camp, which introduces a variety of instruments to children, will run for four weeks at Johnny Dankworth & Cleo Laine's own concert venue near Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire. The camps were founded by Avril Dankworth in 1970 and are for children aged from 8 to 17 years. For further details email: heatherhawthorn@totalise.co.uk

Contributed by Dr Herbert Scheibenreif, Manager of Friedrich Lips Productions

The period from August 26th to September 8th will be dedicated to the further formation of musicians, clowns and artists in Imst (near Innsbruck) Tyrol. The workshops, which are open to the public will cover jazz (piano, bass, drums, violin), Austrian march music (all instruments) and classical music (violin, piano and accordion). Accordionist Professor Friedrich Lips (from the Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow) and Roman Pechmann (Conservatory of Klagenfurth, Austria) were chosen to give solo lessons and teach chamber music. The accordion course will be held from September 3rd to 7th. For further information email: info@imst.at

A number of concerts will take place during June as part of the National Accordion Awareness Month. The Central Texas Accordion Association held their annual "Accordion Free-For-All" at the Senior Activity Center in Austin, Texas on June 12th.

The "6th Annual Squeeze-off" will be held at the West Fraternal Auditorium in West, Texas on June 16th and the 12th Annual Accordion Kings event (presented by Texas Folklife Resources) began on June 14th and will run until the 16th at Miller Outdoor Theatre in Hermann Park, Houston, Texas.

On June 26th, the Accordion Roundup at the Broken Spoke in Austin will be held with entertainment by Debra Peters.

Contributed by Toru Katou

On June 2nd, concertina and melodeon player "Coco" performed with accordionist Mitsuyo Sakamoto at Hoochie Koochi, Daikanyama, Shibuya Ward in Tokyo. Their successful program included Irish and English traditional tunes.

The following day, the annual "Viva Accordion 15" was held at the Matsubara City Culture Hall. This was a free event. In Saitama Prefecture on the same day accordionist Ryozo Yokomori performed with vocalist Shizuru Ookaka at the "Shiki Municipal Hall" in Shiki City.

Contributed by Cliff Furnald

The Free Reed Festival is now officially open to the public and began with new works from Peter Pot with Philip Baumgarten (Netherlands), Amy Denio (USA) and Ciuma/Salvi/Tombesi (Italy). Other performers include The Edge City Collective (with Ranji Kumar and Paul Woznicki on accordions), John Williams (concertina) accompanied by John Doyle (guitar), Guy Klucevsek with saxophonist/composer Phillip Johnston and John Redmond (USA/Ireland).

Each Wednesday in June accordion artists from North America and beyond will be featured on radio along with regularly scheduled eclectic roots programming of Vancouver's "Folk Oasis". This week's performer was John Jeski, who presented "Accordion Polkas". Tune in at 9pm (Pacific time) to CiTR at 101.9 FM in southwestern British Columbia (Canada) or live on the Internet. For further details email: cliff@rootsworld.com

Contributed by Olga Kopylova

The quartet "Non Stop" performed at the opening ceremony of the arts festival entitled "We - Samara People" held from June 8th to 12th in Samara. The event was devoted to the 150th anniversary of the Samara Region. Special guests Mr Vasiliev (France), Bella Ahmatdulina (Russia) and Robert Sturua (Giorgia) were invited to attend the festival. The quartet also performed at the festival closing celebrations to over 80,000 people.

Accordionist Jim Vandelly performed the accordion and bayan on the television program "Finland Calling" (Suomi Kutsuu) hosted by Carl Pellenpaa on WLUC, NBC Marquette, Michigan recently with 84 year old Art Moilanen. Their program included Finnish folk songs and several solo pieces on the bayan. The program is aired for one hour each week and broadcasts on Sunday mornings. Jim has been invited to play on the program again in August of this year.

A new solo CD by Finnish accordionist Mika Väyrynen entitled "A Flight Beyond Time" was recently released by Naxos Finland. The CD includes original works for the accordion by Kaipainen, Kantelinen, Kuusisto, Makkonen, Murto, Nuorvala and Segerstam. Six of these pieces are performed solo and one piece ("Hymns" by Ilkka Kuusisto) is performed by cello and accordion. Six of the pieces are also premiere recordings. For further information email: mika.vayrynen@pp.inet.fi

http://www.accordions.com/ivanopescari Information on Italian accordion entertainer Ivano Pescari, who performs Italian classics, folk and entertainment music.

http://www.musicaneltempo.it Information on Gianluca Bibiani, composer and arranger of popular Italian folk and entertainment music.

http://www.accordions.com/contet Updated information on accordionist Pascal Contet including concert details.

http://www.accordions.com/zubitsky Updated information on accordionist Vladimir Zubitsky including his new compositions.

http://www.accordions.com/cantus Updated information on the Cantus Accordion Quintet (Lithuania) including details on their new CD.

Jody Crocker would like information on a 12 bass Ancona piano accordion (either b12 or 812), possibly made in the 1930's or 40's. Email: jomedic195@hotmail.com

Beate Hornack would like information on a diatonic accordion Typenschild with "O. C. F. Miether Musikinstrumentefabrik Braunschweig" inscribed on it. Email: beate.hornack@bzv.de