Editors Note

Christmas is coming soon and with it the time of the year for much of the world to be buying gifts for friends and family. To celebrate over 100 highly acclaimed Gary Dahl arrangements / compositions on MusicForAccordion.com there is a Christmas offer which ends 26 December 2002. For every two ordered, you will be sent an email how to receive one Gary Dahl piece of your choice FREE, a "Merry Musical Christmas" from Gary Dahl.

Wayne Knights Webmaster

Contributed by Raimo Vertainen

The annual Kokkola Winter Accordion Festival will be held in Kokkola from February 10th to 16th, 2003. This event is now one of the leading accordion and music festivals in Finland and will include performances by the well known Osthrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Veli Kujala, Pipoca, Trio Fratres, Maria Kalaniemi, Luis Bunuel silent movie "Le chien Andalou" with original live music by two orchestras, a church concert by Pasi Hirvonen, a puppet theatre and a gala concert. For further information email: raimo.vertainen@pp.inet.fi

Contributed by Anica Karakutovska

The Skopje Jazz Festival, held recently in Skopje, included international guests and positive reviews from critics. The festival opened with a performance by the "Galliano/Portal Duet" (which consisted of accordionist Richard Galliano and Michel Portal on clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone & bandoneon) at the Universal Hall. This concert was broadcast live on Macedonian Television. One local newspaper reported "Richard Galliano and Michel Portal, two wonderful instrumentalists, created amazing atmosphere in the hall, playing tango with improvisations which are characteristic only for top-level players. The atmosphere culminated when Richard played Macedonian folk music on his instrument".

The following evening, a performance by the "Kimmo Pohjonen Kluster" included Kimmo Pohjonen (accordion and vocals), Samuli Kosminen (accordion samples, voice samples) with Jukka Kaven (surround sound design) and Ari 'Valo' Virtanen (light choreographics). "Kluster" is Kimmo Pohjonen's latest new project, an expansion of his solo show featuring sampler and percussionist Samuli Kosminen. On stage, Samuli makes live samples of Kimmo's accordion and voice, reproduces them percussively via his electronic drum pads, and mixes it all together with Kimmo's accordion, voice and live FX to create a "brain bursting maelstrom of multi-dimensional surround accordion sound" unlike anything done before.

Accordionist Jon Hammond will entertain inmates at the Women's Facility, SF County Jail #8 "Pod E" on Christmas Eve. The inmates are locked up in one the most "state-of-art-high-security" facilities and some will be confined to their quarters during the concert. Because of the shape of the "Pod" they will still be able to hear the performance quite clearly.

Jon will perform a variety of Christmas favorites such as Mel Torme's "Christmas Song", Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" and "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" with Ronnie Smith (drums) and Alex Budman (tenor saxophone).

On January 9th, 2003 concertina player Louis Killen will entertain at "Folk At The Royal Oak" in Lewes. His program will include a variety of folk songs. For further details email: tinvic@globalnet.co.uk

International Festival of Performing Arts Ogledalizacija 2002 - Yugoslavia

Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

The International Festival of Performing Arts Ogledalizacija 2002 will be held in Novi Sad on December 14th and 15th, organized by the Lelastiko Associazione Culturale.

Accordionist Davide Bonetti will perform at the "Festival's Club" Caffe Gallery IZBA on December 15th in conjunction with the festival. For further details email: lelastiko@yahoo.it

Contributed by Hillebrand van der Veen

The Amsterdam Accordion Club Forzando "FLO" (Forzando Light Orchestra) will entertain in
Ravenstein, Amsterdam on January 19th, 2003. This orchestra consists of a variety of instruments such as accordions, keyboard, synthesizer, french horn, clarinet, saxophone, drums and percussion. Their repertoire includes "Que sera, sera", and "What a wonderful World". For further details email: H.J.Veen@net.HCC.nl

Contributed by Jutta Menn

A traditional solo folk instruments competition was held in Perm from November 29th to December 4th for students from the musical instrument departments of music colleges in Russia. Forty two contestants took part playing bayan, accordion, balalaika and domra.

The jury included professors B. Egorov (Moscow), M. Imchanizkiy (Moscow), V. Romanko (Jekaterinburg), R. Schaichutdinov, V. Kruglov (Moscow), S. Amirov (Jekaterinburg), plus I. Votschenko (St. Petersburg), A. Gorbatschev (Moscow), R. Koslovskiy (Perm), A. Popov (Perm) and E. Baraschkova (Perm).

Accordion Category Results:

1st: Andrey Scheliganov (Moscow)
2nd equal: Alexander Ivanov (Jekaterinburg) & Alexander Oseev (Jekaterinburg)
3rd: Igor Mokerov (Moscow)

The events also featured concerts and a seminar which included members of the jury, the orchestra of the Perm Music Institute (conducted by V. Salin) and competition winners.

Contributed by Christine Adams

The North Shore Accordion Orchestras celebrated their successful year of performances and entertainment (promoting the accordion in the Auckland district) with a concert and prizegiving in Takapuna on December 8th. Four orchestras took part in the event, which included a variety of entertainment such as classical pieces, fun songs and Christmas carols. The orchestras are now in recess over the summer holidays, resuming rehearsals in February 2003.

PickPocket Ensemble at Beastfest - USA

The PickPocket Ensemble will perform at Beastfest in Oakland on December 14th. The event will include a variety of groups and entertainers. The ensemble consists of Rick Corrigan (accordion), Marguerite Ostrovski (violin), Tim Fox (guitar), Will High (bass) and Aharon Bolsta (percussion). For details email: rickcorrigan@earthlink.net

Accordionist Claudio Jacomucci will perform with the Orchestra da Camera "Benedetto Marcello" in Teramo on December 16th. Their program will include a variety of music such as "Suite Punta del Este" (Astor Piazzolla) and others. For concert details email: hbhiac@tin.it

French Accordionist in Theatre Production - Scotland

French accordionist Bruno Maurice took part in a theatre production at the Edinburgh Theatre recently with well known trombonist John Kenny. The production covered the life of composer Shostakovich.

Prior to this Bruno took part in the Kragujevac International Accordion competition (Yugoslavia) with concerts and a masterclass, and the Carrefour Mondial de l'accordeon in Quebec, Canada.

Klezmos (which features accordionist Wendy Morrison) will perform at a Friday night dance in the Glen Echo Park Bumper Car Pavilion, Glen Echo Park, Glen Echo, Maryland on December 27th. The entertainment will be preceded by a 30 minute dance lesson. For details email: wendy@klezmusic.com

Contributed by Winfried Haushalter

The First Cologne Accordion-Orchestra 1935 have released their latest CD entitled "Accordion in Concert 4". The CD contains modern concert music directed by conductor and arranger Matthias Hennecke. The CD includes Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Hungarian rhapsody No.2 (Liszt/Hennecke), The lord of the Dance (Hardiman/Koelz), Colonel Bogey (Alford/Gengler) and many others. For further CD information email: info@erstes-koelner-akkordeon-orchester.de

www.accordions.com/vociarmoniche Information on a new company Voci Armoniche Srl, formed by the merger of Siva and Salpa, reed manufacturers based in Italy

www.accordions.com/musettevideo Updated information on musette videos by a variety of accordion performers

www.accordions.com/achouett Updated information on accordion distributors Accord Chouette, based in France

www.accordions.com/thuillie Updated information on French accordionist Patrick Thuillier