Editors Note
This month Accordions Worldwide is proud to celebrate its 5th birthday. To mark this great occasion we would like to bring you some of our first Weekly News items from 1996, which we hope you will enjoy reading. We will also feature these items on our Home Page each week.

Wayne Knights Webmaster

Contributed by Raynald Jadoul

The 4th Festival Namurois de l'accordéon will take place on October 14th at the Salle de la Baie Vitrée in Floreffe, Namur. The event is organized by the S.P.T.J.A, the R.T.B.F. Broadcast, the S.A.B.A.M and Canal C (television community of Namur) and will be presented and animated by JJ Lionel, well known French musician, author, composer and singer of the international "La Danse des Canards".

Guest accordionists include Guy Denys, Patrick Sengers, André Loppe, Guy Tilleux, Sabrina Guislain, Erika, Cyrielle, Christian Boeur, Cindy Delvaux & Arnauld Delsaux and traditional folk bands from Ukraine and Doumka. For further details email: sptja.honorez5@yucom.be

Contributed by Paul Pasquali

The Las Vegas International Accordion Convention will take place from October 14th to 18th at The Plaza Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada. Guest performers include Dick Contino, Art Van Damme and Peter Soave. For further details email: LasVegas@AccordionInfo.com

The 42nd Little Missenden Festival will be held on October 13th in Little Missenden (near Amersham). The Czardas Duo, which includes Ian Watson (accordion) and Matthew Forbes (cello) will give the premiere performance of "..into a Several World" by John Webb, which was commissioned by the festival for the duo. In addition their program will include works by Bartok, Gershwin, Bach, Gubaidulina and Piazzolla. For further details email: ianwatson99@lineone.net

The Duo Paris-Moscou gave successful concerts in Give, Gram and Terndrup during their tour of Denmark from October 1st to 4th. The duo entertained with classical works, Russian folklore and French accordion music. For details on the Duo's 2002 concerts please phone Vagn Jacobsen at:
+45 97.17.51.27

Contributed by Dr Herbert Scheibenreif Manager of Friedrich Lips Productions

On October 12th, to mark the occasion of Astor Piazzolla's 80th birthday, Friedrich Lips and his quintet "Piazzolla-Studio" will perform a concert in the world famous Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, dedicated to the music of this unique Argentine bandoneonist. The quintet, which consists of Friedrich Lips (bayan), Svjatoslav Lips (piano), Vladislav Igolinski (violin), Kirill Rodin (cello) and Mark Pekarski (percussion) have recorded and released their CD "Tango Piazzollata" of music by Astor Piazzolla in Japan. The CD has also been released in Russia. For further details email: herbert@accordion-cd.co.at

Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

On October 7th accordionist Ivano Battiston and cellist Mario Brunello performed at the Quirinale palace in Rome, the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic. Their program included pieces by Marais, Piazzolla, Gubaidulina and Tosti. The concert, organised by Radio 3, was broadcast live on radio by the third channel of the national broadcasting corporation (RAI).

Contributed by Judy Brunton

The annual Brian Laurie National Accordion Fun Festival will be held at the Paisley Town Hall in Paisley from November 23rd to 25th. This event will include a variety of competitions and concerts throughout the weekend including the biggest Ceilidh Band Competition for 300 dancers, with over UK£1,000 in prize money. For further details email: brian_laurie_paisley@hotmail.com

Contributed by The Classical Free-Reed, Inc.

Accordionist Henry Doktorski performed "Kammermusik" No. 1 (Paul Hindemith) with the Duquesne University Contemporary Ensemble on October 11th. The concert took place at the Duquesne University Recital Hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, conducted by Jonathan Niederheiser.

The fifteen-minute work (in four movements) is scored for a string quintet with flute, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, accordion, piano and a battery of percussion, including xylophone, a siren and a tin can filled with sand. It was written in 1921 and was the first of seven "Kammermusik" pieces (literally "Chamber Music"), which have been called "A twentieth-century equivalent of J. S. Bach's "Brandenburg Concertos".

Kammermusik No. 1 was one of the very first pieces written by a classical composer to include accordion and is a cheerful, irreverent suite, which manifests clear reference to Hindemith's early experience performing in dance bands and musical comedy orchestras in and around Frankfurt. Strong rhythms, sparkling instrumentation, and incorrigible impudence are the work's distinguishing features.

Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

The 13th National Festival of Accordion will take place on October 20th from 12 noon until 3am in the Park of the Exhibitions of Le Mans. The festival will include thirteen musicians accompanying a variety of artists who will perform non-stop for 15 hours at this festival, which is one of the biggest dance festivals in France. Bookings can be made at the Office of Tourism of Le Mans (+33 2 43281722) or at the Bar of Brittany (+33 2 43280674), which offer reduced rates (140 francs) for advanced bookings.

Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

Twelve young musicians were recently given the opportunity to meet with famous composer Sofia Gubaidulina, who will turn 70 on October 24th. She assisted them in studying some of her chamber music works. The Pro Musica e Cultura organization invited the famous composer to Moritz to a Chamber Music Symposium at the end of September where she assisted musicians from all over Europe. Sofia also heard De Profunids for solo accordion performed by Cao Xiao-Qing.

Over 3,500 at Shanghai Accordion Examinations - China

Contributed by Li Cong

The 2001 Shanghai City Annual Accordion Examinations were held at the Fengyang Road Primary School from October 4th to 7th. Young accordionists gathered at this venue and spent four days testing their accordion progress and levels. Over 3,500 children and 5,000 parents made the school and surrounding areas looks like "Accordion Square"!

The Shanghai Accordion Examination Board was set up in 1991 and have held 12 examinations. In recent years, the entries have increased steadily, but this year was an all time record with over 3,500 entries. The exams have 10 grade levels with 91 entries in the top level, Grade 10. For additional exam information email: licongk@online.sh.cn

Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kamp

Accordionists Daniele Ravaglia and Roberto Lucanero toured Canada in early September with the sponsorship of the Excelsior Company of Castelfidardo (Italy). Their first performance was in Montmagny (Québec), which for the last thirteen years has hosted the Carrefour Mondial de l'accordéon. This festival has become an important event for accordion enthusiasts worldwide. Montmagny and the festival's artistic director, Raynald Ouellet, deserved a mention in the well-known novel by E. Annie Proulx "Accordion Crimes". Roberto Lucanero played a series of folk-oriented concerts, which also featured John Whelan (USA), Chris Parkinson (England) and Alain Chatry (France), while Daniele Ravaglia played (on MIDI accordion) a series of performances alongside Andrei Romanov (Russia), Artango (France) Baikal Duo (France) and Milen Slavov (Bulgaria). Excerpts from the Montmagny concerts were recorded and played by Elizabeth Gagnon on Radio Canada.

The two musicians also took part in a concert in the auditorium of the Central Library Complex of Mississauga (Ontario), organized by Richard Szymczyk of Accordions Exclusively in collaboration with the Cemex Company of Castelfidardo, Italy. The concert was attended by students of the Siemens School of Music in Kitchener (Ontario).

The tour continued with a concert in the Emile Legault hall of the Cegep de Saint-Laurent, in Montreal, organised by ADAM (Accordionists' Association of Montreal). In recognition of the numerous Italians in the audience, Ravaglia and Lucanero concluded their concert with an original rendition of the Italian national anthem and of "La bella Gigogin".

Accordionist Florencia Herrera performed a theatre concert in Buenos Aires recently. The concert was held in conjunction with a number of street performances by accordionists in Florida Street during September.

The "Aywah!" dance company performed traditional & tribal bellydance music from the Middle East & Balkans at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco on October 5th and 6th as part of the Ottoman Empire exhibit. Musicians included Katarina Burda (accordion), Vince Delgado (percussion), Coralie Russo (oud) and Natalie Hicks (saxophone).

Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

Accordionist Lydie Auvray has just released her new CD entitled "Triangle". The CD was named as Lydie (who now lives in Cologne) was born in the Normandy region of France and her husband was born on the Island Martinique. It is a triangle relationship, which is mirrored within her music. The CD includes tracks such as "Le Paradis" and "Der vierte Mann". For details email: Scala.Weissenberger@t-online.de

Canadian accordionist Joseph Petric will perform the world premiere of a new theatre work "Le Chauffe-eau ou Café à l'Indigo" by Alain Trudel and Felix Mirbt at Place des Artes, Montreal's largest hall from October 12th to 14th.

"Le Chauffe-eau ou Café à l'Indigo" is based on stories by German writer Burkhart Ellinghaus and adapted for this production. It tells the capricious and sometimes sad story of a young man in the adventures that daily life affords.

Each performance will have a cameo appearance by one of Montreal's outstanding jazz soloists. Each night the soloist will be different and each night both the musician and the audience will be surprised by the challenge he faces. For further information phone Barbara Scales at: +1 514 277-1072

Concertina player Simon Thoumire performs on the latest CD by All Ireland Flute Champion Claire Mann. The CD entitled "Claire Mann" features Claire on violin, flute and vocals, with backing by Aaron Jones (cittern, guitar & vocals), Brian McAlpine (piano & vocals) and John Joe Kelly (bodhran). The CD, which is released by Foot Stompin' Records has been described as "Astonishing" by The British Flute Society. For details email: sales@tartantapes.com

Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

Ivano Battiston (accordion) and Mario Brunello (cello) have released a new CD entitled "In Croce". The album, published by Velut Luna, includes pieces by Marais, Gubaidulina, Piazzolla, Bach and Tosti.

A new edition of the Accordion USA, United States National Accordion News is now online. If you would like to contribute an item for this news either send it via the online submit form or email Kevin Friedrich at: usanews@accordions.com

www.boite-accordeon.com Information on La Boite D'accordéon, accordion, bandoneon and accordina manufacturers and repairers by specialist Laurent Jarry

www.pigini-accordions.com/distributors.htm Updated information on distributors of Pigini srl accordions

www.accordions.com/brogan Updated information on jazz accordionist Shane Brogan

This month Accordions Worldwide celebrates its 5th birthday. As part of these celebrations we would like to bring you News items from 1996. We hope you will enjoy reading these items from the past.

"Flashback - 5 Years Ago"

AAA Celebrates 1996 - The Year Of The Accordion - USA

Contributed by Faithe Deffner, President of the American Accordionists' Association

Hundreds of accordionists flocked to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July 11-15 to declare their passion for the musical instrument which is fast soaring to new heights of popularity. The festival honored Myron Floren, who is widely acclaimed as the star of the Lawrence Welk TV Show which ran for 32 years.

The festival included many special events, such as six spectacular Entertainment AAA showbands, the "Endless Performance Ballroom" featuring accordion entertainment, a Floren Memorabilia room containing many souvenirs of Myron's long and distinguished career, a Memory Lane Breakfast, plus an accordion and accessory exhibit room featuring product demos.

For further details see Past News

Jean-François Hecq would like contact information on the manufacturer of Ranco accordions. Email: jeanfrancois.hecq5@yucom.be