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Elections were held at the 108th General Assembly of the Confederation Internationale des Accordeonistes (CIA) for the Executive Committee and the Music Committee. Elected officers will hold their position for a term of four years.

The results of the CIA Elections are as follows:

CIA Executive Committee
President: Kevin Friedrich (election for office of the President was held last year)
Vice President: Raymond Bodell, United Kingdom
Vice President: Kimmo Mattila, Finland
Vice President: Tibor Racz, Slovakia
Public Relations Manager: Harley Jones, New Zealand
President of the Music Committee: Frederic Deschamps, France
Honorary Vice President for 2003: Panna Grigoncza, Hungary

Music Committee
President: Frederic Deschamps, France
Vice President: Joan C. Sommers, USA
Member: Max Bonnay, France
Member: Viatcheslav Semionov, Russia
Member: Jacques Mornet, France
Member: John Leslie, United Kingdom
Member: Harley Jones, New Zealand
Secretary of the Music Committee: Raymond Bodell, United Kingdom

Contributed by Dr Herbert Scheibenreif Manager of Friedrich Lips Productions and Raimondas Sviackevicius

25th Anniversary accordion celebrations were held recently at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where Matti Rantanen has been teaching since 1977. Rantanen developed a new teaching process in Finland together with Heidi Velamo (his wife) and Helka Kymäläinen. Nowadays Finnish accordionists are very successful at international competitions, for example Mika Väyrynen is making a world career on his accordion.

During the festival there were solo performances by Matti Rantanen, Mika Väyrynen, Marjut Tynkkynen, Petri Makkonen (Finland), Margit Kern (Germany), Raimondas Sviackevicius (Lithuania) and Iñaki Alberdi (Spain). These artists presented a large range of contemporary accordion music from around the world.

On October 27th, an "Accordion Marathon" took place where former and current students performed. This event featured the world premiere of "Out of crooked timber..." by American composer Paul Rudy, which included 25 accordionists with soloist and conductor. The accordionists sat around the concert hall (on the stage, on the sides of hall, behind the audience and up on the balcony) so the surrounding sound effect made a huge impression.

Contributed by Angel Russo and Agustin Anibal Gomez

The Universal Accordion Day will be celebrated with lots of enthusiasm on Friday 15th in many Argentinean towns and cities. Vice President of the International Association of Accordionists, Agustín Anibal Gomez, invites all accordionists to participate in this day, which will include accordionists strolling the streets playing a variety of traditional music.

A "walk" has been organized in Federal Capital, which will begin in Calle Florida and Av. Córdoba, and will end in Av. De Mayo. The day will end with a dancing show in the "Rincón de Anibal" in the Capital's Floresta district, Admission is free.

The "Universal Day of the Accordion" is celebrated every year throughout Argentina and many other countries. To celebrate this day accordionists go out to the streets and perform for their respective towns, as has been done before in Buenos Aires, San Miguel, Córdoba, Bahía Blanca, Parana, Rafaela, Osborno (Chile), Vigo (Spain), Ravenna (Italy) and others.

For further details email: maquinapastarusso@fullzero.com.ar

"Melodeons at Witney" will be held at the Henry Box School in Witney on November 16th and 17th organized by Hands On Music Weekend, directed by Tim van Eyken & Dave Townsend. All teaching at this event will be in relation to the standard G/D melodeon with eight basses. Tutors include Katie Howson (An Introduction to East Anglian Repertoire and Flying on One Row), John Kirkpatrick (The Ins and Outs of English Dance Music and Really Good Morris Music), Geert oude Weernink (Irish Music and Introduction to Italian Music), John Spires (Building Arrangements and Putting the Lift into Dance Music), Tim van Eyken (Crossing the Rows and Masterclasses for advanced players). For details email:
Homweekend@aol.com

Pitocco Directs an Opera - Switzerland

Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kamp

Accordionist Massimiliano Pitocco (who has held over 200 concerts in Europe), recently performed and directed the opera "Maria de Buenos Aires" in four concerts held in Schwyz (Switzerland). Massimiliano's recent commitments also included concerts in Bari (Italy) with the Collegium Musicum (performing Piazzolla's double concerto for guitar, band and strings), solo accordion concerts in Pescara and Foggia, and finally a concert with the Four for Tango quartet in the castle of Avezzano (province of l'Aquila).

Contributed by Klaus Wenger

A Concertina Meeting will be held at the Landgasthof Moreth in Altenplos on November 10th. This is an annual event, which began in 1996 by the "Beratungsstelle für Volksmusik in Franken". This year's event will include concerts and concertina demonstrations. For details email: klaus.wenger@allgaeu.org

Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

A workshop entitled "Homage to Nam June Paik" will be held at the Modern Art Gallery in Gallarate (province of Varese) on November 9th. Tutors Marina Rossi (choreographer and dancer) and Davide Bonetti (accordion) will tale inspiration from Nam June Paik's work on the body, space and sound through Contact-Improvisation, a dynamic technique that aims to establish communication through contact. The workshop is open to a maximum of 25 participants. For bookings phone: +39 331 791 266

After their October concert tour of Denmark, the Paris-Moscou Duo then attended the 53rd Perth Accordion Festival, one of the biggest accordion festivals held in Scotland. The event was organized by accordionist Bill Wilkie with the assistance of Bill Colburn.

Over 1,200 people attended, enjoying performances by a variety of accordionists, dancers, singers, violinists and comedians. The crowd enjoyed the duo's performance of music from Paris and Moscow which included French musette and Russian folk pieces, as well as pieces from their new CD.

Second Colombian Cultural Week - Spain

During October the Contrastes Duet, which includes Colombian accordionist Lácides Romero and Venezuelan pianist Arnaldo García performed concerts at the Salamanca University in Spain. The concerts were held in conjunction with the Second Colombian Cultural Week, celebrated by the "Caro y Cuervo" Institute from Colombia.

In addition Lácides performed as part of the Nuevo Mundo Quartet, which also included Jorge Ariza (flute), Francisco Rivera (clarinet) and Leonardo Guevara (bassoon).

Their well received program included works by Colombian and Latin American composers such as Piazzolla, Cervantes, Nazareth and Romero.

The accordion world is saddened by the recent passing of Dolly Galla-Rini, the loved wife of Maestro Anthony Galla-Rini. Dolly passed away on October 29th, 2002 at the age of 101.

Dolly is pictured above with husband Anthony Galla-Rini and son Bud during a recent visit from Val Keisser from San Francisco. Val stopped in to visit Tony and Dolly only days earlier and at Dolly's request, brought in her accordion and entertained the family for quite some time.

For many of us in the accordion family, the love story of Tony and Dolly has been the inspiration of a lifetime.

The family is kindly requesting that no flowers are to be sent, but cards may be sent to:
Anthony Galla-Rini, 500 East Valley Parkway, Escondido, CA 92025, USA.

Orchestras Perform at Autumn Concert - Germany

Contributed by Ralf-Rainer Damm

Four orchestras including the Akkordeon-Orchesters 1938 Rossdorf, will perform at an Autumn Concert in the Rehberghalle in Rossdorf, Hessen on November16th. For details email: presse@aor-online.de

Accordeon Melancolique (which includes Cherie de Boer and Jean-Pierre Guiran) performed a "sell-out" concert at the "Mosterdzaadje" in Santpoort-Noord (near Amsterdam) recently. The duo aim to provide the accordion with a new image. Straight from the heart and with love for their instrument, they play original compositions, Italian folk tunes, Antillian waltzes, Indonesian kronchong melodies, Argentinean tangos, Jewish folk, Merengues, Tex mex and more.

On November 7th the duo performed at the Provadja Theatre in Alkmaar with special guest John Ligthart on guitar.

Young accordionist Jessica Chen won a music scholarship last month, from the Northern District Knights Templar Foundation. There were twenty-six scholarship applicants, including a drummer, vocalists, a cellist, violinists, pianists and four piano accordionists. The awards were presented at a recital evening. Jessica hopes her success will encourage more accordionists to apply for the scholarship in the future.

Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

Following its twentieth anniversary (celebrated last year), the International Accordion Museum of Castelfidardo (director Beniamino Bugiolacchi) has released a series of CDs dedicated to the "fathers of the accordion" in order to bring to light the historical recordings that have shaped the development of the instrument.

This journey into the past begins with the undisputed father of the accordion in the United States, namely Pietro Deiro. The Deiro CD includes many of his recordings for the Victor label on 78 rpm discs made in the Twenties and Thirties and donated to the museum by his family. This selection of the artist's vast musical output (more than five-hundred published works) includes original compositions, medleys and transcriptions of operatic pieces by Rossini, Verdi and Gounod. The last track is a real gem: a simple but sophisticated rendition of the Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss, which, according to our current knowledge, is the first accordion recording on disc ever (1910). The exclusive use of original recordings, which are not always in an ideal state of conservation, increases the historical and cultural value of this initiative.

The second CD in the series features the fathers of the accordion movement in Italy, including "Gallo" and Kramer, Principe and Beltrami. The project takes advantage of the contributions of art director Roberto Picchio, sound restorer Roberto Morbidoni and graphic designer Andrea Vaccarini. The Castelfidardo Accordion Museum wishes to extend its special thanks to Claudio Sabbatini's Musictech, which has kindly and intelligently chosen to support and finance this initiative.

Contributed by Jenny Findeis

Accordionist Stefan Hiss has just released his first solo album entitled "König der Schmerzen" (King Of Pain). The CD includes tracks sung in German, Spanish and English. Stefan is a member of the popular group "HISS".

A CD presentation evening will be held at Club Hi in Stuttgart on November 27th. For further information email: jenny.findeis@t-online.de

Maxine would like information on an antique "Schutz marke" button accordion made in Germany possibly in the late 1800's with the bellows and much of the body made up of extremely detailed tooled leather. Email: MSA@cinci.rr.com

www.art-italia.com/cicoria New site includes oil paintings of accordion subjects from Castelfidardo by local artist Nicola Cicoria

www.accordions.com/ivanopescari Updated information on Ivano Pescari including details on his new CD

www.borsini-accordions.com Updated information on the Borsini Accordion Factory

www.borsini-accordions.com/artists.htm Updated information on Borsini artist Vincenzo Abbracciante including details of his new CD

www.accordions.com/duo Updated information on the Paris Moscou Duo which includes accordionists Domi Emorine and Roman Jbanov

Gary Dahl has released eight new arrangements in digital format. The digital Acrobat pdf format allows the pieces to be emailed to you and printed by your own computer. The Acrobat software is free and is now included with most computers.

These eight new arrangements add to the list of highly acclaimed Gary Dahl arrangements and compositions being published on the MusicForAccordion.com site. The titles include such famous pieces as Mattinata, O Mio Babbino Caro, O Solo Mio, Santa Lucia and others. There is now a total of 74 Gary Dahl arrangements plus many works from other arrangers and composers on this relatively new site. New selections are being steadily added.