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Blackpool International Accordion
Festival - England
  The
Blackpool International Accordion Festival will take place from
April 9th to 14th at Pontins Holiday Centre, Lytham St. Annes, Blackpool,
presented by the "Accordion Profile" Magazine. The event will feature
guest performers such as Vladimir Ushakov (Russia), Svetlana Stavitskaya
(Latvia), Gregory
Frenard (France), KODA (Keith Dickson Accordion Orchestra -
Scotland), Dermot O'Brien, Gary
Blair & his Scottish Dance Band, Calum McKinnon, Heather
Smith, Johnny Coleclough and Larysa Bodell.
 The
festival will also include daily workshops, evening dance cabarets,
Scottish dancing, "Free & Easy" sessions, auction, trade stands
and the "Accordion Profile" Magazine "Award of Excellence" Competition.
Harry Hussey (UK's jazz supremo) will play "After hours Jazz" each
evening.
Orchestral workshops include Elementary, Intermediate,
Scottish, Children's, Vintage Accordions and Youth Swing Band, with
a special Russian orchestral workshop by Vladimir Ushakov & Svetlana
Stavitskaya. Open workshops include Adult beginners, French Musette
and Appreciation of Pietro Frosini. Masterclasses will be conducted
by Vladimir & Svetlana. For further details email: heather@accordions.karoo.co.uk
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"Days of Macedonian Music 2002"
Festival - Macedonia
Contributed by Anica Karakutovska
 The
"Days of Macedonian Music 2002" festival, organized by the Composers
Association of Macedonia - SOCOM, was held from March 25th to 31st
in Skopje. The festival program included a large number of premiere
performances by Macedonian composers. Another first in Macedonian
music history was composer Toma Manchev writing a work which included
the accordion playing with a symphonic orchestra, and dedicated
this work to his ex student Zorica Karakutovska. The inspiration
for this composition entitled "Exodus" came from the year 2001,
one of the most difficult for Macedonians because of the civil war
that brought a lot of restlessness in general, and put music creators
in extremely sensitive situations.
On March 28th the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra
(conducted by Darinka Matic-Marovic from Yugoslavia) performed "Exodus"
with guest accordionist Zorica Karakutovska at the Army Hall in
Skopje. The work was very well received by the large audience and
also received positive reviews from the music critics.
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Grannastevna 2002 Accordion Festival
- Faroe Islands
Contributed by Jonatan Karlsson
The annual Grannastevna 2002 Accordion Festival
will be held in Thorshavn, Faroe Islands from May 24th to 26th.
Guest performers include Lars Kirkegaard and the Duo Aktiv (Denmark),
Lars Karlsson (Sweden), Havard Svendsrud (Norway) and Ottar Johansen
accompanied by guitarist Ivar Thorsen Dagenborg (Norway).
The festival was first held in 2000 and this
year, organizers hope to see their neighbours from Iceland, Denmark,
Norway, the Orkney Islands, Shetland and Scotland attending the
celebrations. For further details email Pauli Jacobsen at: pauli-j@post.olivant.fo
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Scottish Style Accordion Workshop -
Scotland
Contributed by Margery Stirling
The University of Stirling will hold a Scottish Style
Accordion Workshop as part of their Summer Schools program from June 30th
to July 5th. Tutors include Ivor Britton, Colin Dewar and Ian Muir. The
course will cater for piano and button accordions and will major on the
traditional style of Scottish music, together with modern Scottish compositions.
Technical problems such as phrasing, fingering, bellows control, scales,
development of right and left hands will be covered and accompaniment
skills will be looked at in detail. Special attention will be given to
the study of dance tempos and the arrangement/embellishment of the march,
strathspey, and reel of bagpipe music. A demonstration of "harmony" accordion,
as used in Scottish country dance bands, will be given. For further details
email: m.f.stirling@stir.ac.uk
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Accordionist
Performs in Show "Coming Through" - USA
Accordionist Dr. William Schimmel will perform
his original and adapted score to the off-broadway play "Coming
Through", already in its 4th year of production. The next set of
performances will take place from April 16 to 19th at the New York
Historical Society.
The show travels to many different sites and
settings and is produced by the American Place Theatre and is written
and directed by Wyn Handman. It is about immigrants arriving at
Ellis Island (New York) in the 1920's, with a new updated section
that takes place at JFK (Airport, NY). Dr Schimmel has created a
composite character that comprises members of his own immediate
family. He tells his own story as an accordionist who arrives at
the island and his hopes and dreams.
Dr. Schimmel will also perform the (pre-recorded)
music of Phillip Glass at the new Broadway Revival of "The Elephant
Man" which opens on April 14th. For details email: GWILLIAMANDMICKI@aol.com
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"Anaki" Perform in London - England
 Duo
Anaki, which includes Indonesian pianist Ananda Sukarlan and Spanish accordionist
Inaki Alberdi will perform at The Duke Hall in London on April 17th. Prior
to the concert Anaki will spend the day taking part in lectures, a Question
& Answer session and open rehearsals with composers.
The duo held their successful debut performance at
the Vienna Schauspielhaus on February 28th to a "sell-out" crowd. Their
repertoire includes "Soinua" (Gabriel Erkoreka), "Monodias Españolas"
(José Evangelista), "Quatorze Portraits sans Laure" (Frederic Iñigo) and
"Noise Enough" (Iain Matheson). The following two days the duo will take
part in a studio recording at Kingston University. For further information
email: anaki_spain@yahoo.es
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Pennsylvania Newspaper Attunes
to Accordion - USA
53,000 readers of
the March 3rd, 2002 issue of the Beaver County Sunday Times (Pennsylvania)
were treated to a full-page life-size color photograph of an Excelsior
piano accordion on the cover page of the newspaper, as well as a
comprehensive article entitled "Attuned To Their Accordions" by
staff reporter Karen Ferrick-Roman.
Although the four-page article included in-depth
interviews with four prominent Pittsburgh area accordionists and
teachers, Andy Dokmanovich, Arlene Fejka, Al Roginski and Henry
Doktorski, the crux of the article focused on the activities of
two talented teenage accordionists, fifteen year old Nick Fejka
and seventeen year old Brian O'Boyle.
The two young men (former students of Henry
Doktorski and who currently study with Slovenian master and former
Duquesne University Tamburitzan Andy Dokmanovich) are members of
the Slavjane Folk Ensemble of McKees Rocks (directed by Arlene Fejka)
which specializes in authentic Eastern European music and dance
performances. The article included four photographs of Nick and
Brian rehearsing with the Slavjane Ensemble.
Author Karen Ferrick-Roman commented, "The
response to my article was tremendous; I had no idea that the accordion
was so incredibly popular. One of the calls I received was from
the mayor of a nearby town who told me he performs on diatonic accordion
with the Pennsylvania-Ohio Button Box Association!"
For a copy of the article, contact author Karen
Ferrick-Roman at: krojman@timesonline.com
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New Sites/Updates Sites
www.accordions.com/orla
Updated information on new products by the Orla Musical Instruments
company
www.accordions.com/rmac
Updated site for the Rocky Mountain Accordion Celebration to be
held in Philipsburg, Montana during the first weekend of August,
2002.
www.ameraccord.com
Updated information on the American Accordionists Association Festival,
including a schedule of events and information on the new World
Music Fest competition.
www.accordions.com/atg
Updated information on the Accordionists and Teachers Guild, International
festival in Orlando, Florida held from June 26th to 30th, 2002,
including schedule of events and on-line registration.
www.accordions.com/ruggieri
Updated information on Italian accordionist Renzo Ruggieri
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Finnish
accordionist 
A
World of Accordions Museum have scheduled the official opening ceremony
of their new Magnante Exhibit to coincide with the 
The
museum is known internationally as a unique accordion research center,
attracting students and scholars from many countries. The Museum
houses about 1,000 accordion-family instruments, thousands of recordings,
hundreds of thousands of pieces of music, accordion-related art
works, and many diverse reference materials. The Magnante collection
represents an important contribution to the Museum resources, and
this site of its permanent placement is viewed as most appropriate
for reaching a wide audience.
Colombian
accordionist Lacides Romero will perform concerts in Toluca (Mexico)
during April. His first performance will be at the Casa de Cultura,
Centro Regional Toluca on April 11th. This will be followed by a
performance at the Museo de Arte Moderno, Centro Cultural Mexiquense
on April 14th. For further information email: 
Argentinean
bandoneonist Dino Saluzzi performed successfully in Vienna recently.
During his musical career Dino went every conceivable way and, without
any doubt, "found himself in his music". Born in the Argentinean
province of Salta, Dino (now 67 years old) was employed by Radio
El Mundo performing traditional Argentine music for some time. In
Buenos Aires he studied the tango, chamber music and improvisation.
Since his first recordings at the end of the seventies, Dino has
been regarded as a cult figure who only occasionally appeared in
Europe. He doesn't celebrate the traditional canon of the tango
in his concerts but goes back for the folk music of its childhood
- to the music of the Latin-American Indians. Saluzzi is never afraid
of the pathos of the bandoneon, but he expresses its sounds in the
finest nuances.
The
3rd "Encounters of Concertina Players" Festival will be held in
Águeda during the month of April, organized by Grupo Folclórico
e Etnográfico de Macinhata do Vouga, Grupo Folclórico da Região
do Vouga, Grupo Folclórico Senhora da Saúde and d'Orfeu - Associação
Cultural.