Editors Note

This week we have daily reports from the 56th Coupe Mondiale in Štúrovo, Slovakia and Esztergom, Hungary. Accordions Worldwide Director Harley Jones and USA representative Kevin Friedrich are both attending the event.

Wayne Knights Webmaster

Daily Reports at http://www.accordions.com/cia

The 56th Coupe Mondiale in Stúrovo, Slovakia and Esztergom, Hungary officially opened with a concert organized by the Ministry of Culture featuring the Bratislava State Music Conservatory Symphony Orchestra with accordion Soloist Michal Polak. Welcoming speeches were offered by Ministry of Culture representative Robert Dohanyos and CIA President Kevin Friedrich. The opening concluded with a concert by the 2002 CIA Coupe Mondiale winner Alexander Poeluev (Russia). Alexander was extremely well received and was called back to the stage for several encores.

Almost 100 candidates have gathered in Slovakia for the 56th Coupe Mondiale which is jointly sponsored by the Methodical Centre of Accordion "Marta Szokeová" in Slovakia and the Hungarian Accordion Association in Hungary. This Coupe Mondiale held in Stúrovo, Slovakia and Esztergom, Hungary is the first time that the festival has ever been held in two countries.

The 56th Coupe Mondiale will finish with a Gala Concert in Budapest on Sunday featuring all six Coupe Mondiale winners as well as other international guest artists.

For full details, please visit CIA which offers daily reports and a full list of prize winners as they become available.

Contributed by Dr Herbert Scheibenreif Manager of Friedrich Lips Productions

Friedrich Lips performed the world premier of a special new work by Sofia Gubaidulina in Stockholm's Berwaldhallen on October 10th. The work entitled "Under the Sign of Scorpio" (variations on six hexachords) is a concerto for bayan and symphony orchestra.

The composer writes about it, "With the bayan, there is the possibility of changing from one sonic/spatial dimension into another. This is done by switching from the single-tone manual, where each button corresponds to a particular tone, to the standard-bass manual, where each button corresponds to a chord. I made use of this special characteristic of the instrument in the bayan concerto: three melodic notes on the single-tone manual are here transformed into five or seven-voiced chord complexes by switching manuals. But another possibility of the standard-bass manual was the most important one for me: by simultaneously depressing two buttons corresponding to a major and a minor chord respectively, and then shifting the hand gradually upwards or downwards over the instrument's entire range - without changing the finger position - six different hexachords will result. These six hexachords lend the entire composition the structural foundation for its material and form: variations on six hexachords - thus the work's subtitle.

The title of the bayan concerto "Under the Sign of Scorpio" arose from the fact that this work is dedicated to one of the most serious musicians of our time, the bayanist Friedrich Lips, who was born under the zodiacal sign of Scorpio. (Incidentally, this is also my own zodiacal sign.)

Contributed by Faithe Deffner, Titano Accordion Co., International

The accordion picture in The New York Times article (page one of The Arts Section), is captioned "An Artist Makes Music Touchable". It is one of two Titano accordions built especially for American artist-musician Christian Marclay's exhibitions, by the Titano Accordion Co., International in New York.

The first instrument was an accordion of white pearl celluloid with gold trim boasting a 20-foot bellows. The second, shown in the Times, is black and has bellows which extend an incredible 30 feet.

Marclay's concept of making music touchable led him to these accordions of unique proportions. The model he chose was the Titano Virtuoso, an instrument played by many accordionists. His creativity dictated arranging the accordion in a long, serpentine curve, with the accordion conveying both realism and fantasy which Mr. Marclay describes "As if it were an impossible transformation which somehow jumped into the real world."

His merger of art with pop culture alluding music as a vision, has been exhibited in a number of museums throughout the US and Europe. Referencing the visual statement of his accordion creation, Marclay says, "By pleasant coincidence, this make of accordion carries a name inspired by the giants of classical myth: Titano."

Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

The 53rd Trophée Mondial de l'Accordéon was held in Acquappesa Terme Luigiane (CS) Italy from October 1st to 5th. The international jury included Gina Branelli (England), Pol Quick (Belgium), Denis Modrusan (Croatia), Daniel Rodrigues (Spain), Jacques Mornet (France), Emanuele Spantconi (Italy), Vlach Jaroslav (Czech Republic), Kosnar Miroslav (Slovakia), Roman Jbanov (Russia) Isacco Comardini (St. Marino) and Miljan Bjetetic (Serbia).

Results:

Senior/Classic category: 1st Jelena Milojevic (Croatia)
Junior/Classic category: 1st Rade Mijatovic (Serbia)
Senior/Varieté category: 1st Vincenzo Abbracciante (San Marino)
Junior/Classic category: 1st Julien Gonzales (France)

Trio Fratres Perform at Cervantino Festival - Mexico

Trio Fratres will entertain at one of the biggest music festivals in Mexico - the Cervantino Festival from October 28th to November 3rd. Concerts will be given in Guanjuato and Léon. Their program will include works by Musorgski and others. The Trio Fratres has played in 13 countries and commissioned many works from Finnish composers. For details email: raimo.vertainen@pp.inet.fi

Contributed by Winfried Haushalter

In the past, the annual concert by the "First Cologne Accordion-Orchestra 1935" has been overwhelmingly popular, so this year the group will hold two concerts. Both concerts will be held at the Concert Hall of the Cologne College of Music on November 29th and 30th.

Their program will include "Finlandia" (Sibelius), "Donna Diana" (Reznicek) pieces from James Bond films, Abba medley and arrangements by their conductor Matthias Hennecke.

The concerts will also feature a special surprise!! For further details email:
info@erstes-koelner-akkordeon-orchester.de

Contributed by Christine Adams

On October 18th and 19th the North Shore Accordion Orchestra (conducted by Lionel Reekie) traveled to Taupo for a combined concert with the Taupo Silver Brass Band. The accordionists entertained the large crowd with a variety of solos, before the orchestra performed such pieces as "March" (Bach) and "Locomotion".

The following day the group performed the same program at the Fairfield Presbyterian Church in Fairfield, Hamilton. At the completion of the concert they were invited to a fair at a local school, where various groups were entertaining. As soon as the local people realized a group of accordionists had arrived, they asked for some entertainment. Grayson Masefield and Lionel Reekie played some well known popular songs such as "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (Elton John) much to the delight of the audience.

On September 16th the Accordion Association of Cape Town was established. About 50 people attended the first meeting. Chairman of the association is Stanislav Angelov, a member of the Cape Town Tango Ensemble which entertained recently at the Bellville Library Centre in Cape Town.

Their 2nd meeting was held on October 14th with more new members attending. Nearly every person present had the chance to perform at this meeting, which was very exciting. The association has regular meetings planned for the future. For further details email: sangelov@netactive.co.za

Accordionist Performs with Ensemble - Spain

Accordionist Angel Luis Castaño will begin recording a new CD of music by Cesar Camarero in Madrid with the Plural Ensemble in November.

On November 7th, he will perform "5 Tango Sensations" (Piazzolla) for accordion and string orchestra in Segovia. For concert information email: angellui@teleline.es

Contributed by Ron Bennett

The Crawley Accordion Orchestra (directed by Bill Booth) will perform at The Cranleigh Arts Centre in Cranleigh, Surrey on November 7th. The concert will feature guests David Lukins (Uxbridge) and George Syrett (Leeds).

This event is a fundraiser with all proceeds going towards the cost of their forthcoming trip to Wuppertal in Germany on November 29th where they will play alongside orchestras from Germany (Villakkordeon) and France (Club De L'Accordeon Orchestra De Flanders).

Their program will include "China Swing" (Bui), "Blue Tango" (Anderson) and "Flieger-Marsch" (Dostal). For further details email: RonWBennett@aol.com

Stolen Accordion Now Found - Argentina

In our October 10th Weekly News, we included an item regarding an accordion stolen on September 22nd from Alcides Maretto. We are pleased to announce that this instrument has now been recovered.

The 15th National Accordion Festival began in Mans on October 23rd and will run until October 26th. The event will include performances in restaurants with accordionists accompanying a variety of dancers.

Performers include the Pennec Quartet, René Armange, Cécile Juliard, Philippe Plard, Gérard Drnovsek, Alain Vetillard, Sébastien Farge, Pascal Terrible, Stéphanie Methot, Patrick Thuillier, David Kasmareck, Denis Glomeau, Alain Veron, The Joie dancers accompanied by the Sandrine Tarayre Orchestra, Sylvie Maubert, Pascal Rabigot, Raphaël Gachet-Mauroz, Mickaël Vigneau, Fréderick Langlais, Alexis Lambert and Carine Bellet.

For details phone: +33 6 11 97 59 59

Contributed by Maya Niethard

The Akkordeon Club Bammental 1968 e.V. will hold an international accordion concert at the Elsenzhalle Bammental on November 9th.

During the first part of the concert, performances will be given by the Akkordeon Club Bammental Youth Orchestra and a guest orchestra from Coulommiers, near Paris (France). This partner orchestra of the club has been invited to take part in this event. During the second half of the concert, the 1st Orchestra will perform.

The program will include "We have a Dream", "Germany Looks for a Superstar", "Birdland", rhapsodies, suites and overtures. To conclude the concert the two orchestras will combine to perform "What a Feeling" from the film Flashdance. For further details phone: +49 6223 40514

American concert accordionist Henry Doktorski will perform Carlos Gardel's "Tango from Scent of a Woman" with violinist Gil Shaham and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on November 28th and 29th. Doktorski said, "It's always a pleasure for me to perform with such a world-class orchestra as the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. It will be an added treat to accompany the great violinist Gil Shaham."

The concerts will be held at Pittsburgh's Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts and will be conducted by PSO music director Mariss Jansons. For more information email: Customer_Service@pittsburghsymphony.org

The latest log files of the accordions.com site show that over 29,000 people visited the site in the 7 day period from 06 to 12 October 2003. This does not include the other accordions.com family sites of the Accordion Yellow Pages, Accordionlinks, Search-accordion or MusicForAccordion.com which are also enjoying greatly increased traffic. This continues the very high rate of viewer growth enjoyed by accordions.com and its associated sites since the site began in October 1996.

The Flores family duo which includes Rudi Flores (guitar) and Nini Flores (accordion) performed successful concerts in Formosa on October 16th and 17th. The duo will play again in Corrientes on October 25th and 26th, then in Buenos Aires on October 30th. For further details email: rudiflores@pop.wanadoo.fr

Accordionist Norman Quinlan died on October 10th of poor health. Norman was only 60. Norman Quinlan and Gina Branelli (his wife) are well known in America as Romany Rye. They are also very well known in the UK.

Gina works tirelessly to help deprived children in the Blackpool and Manchester Area of Britain.
She teaches, sells accordions, has an accordion shop, is Chairperson of the N A O. and much more. Please see Memorials for an obituary for Norman Quinlan.

Guy Klucevsek (composer/accordionist) and Phillip Johnston (composer/saxophonist) will celebrate the release of their new duo CD "Tales From the Cryptic" (Winter & Winter), with a series of concerts. Beginning on October 26, they will perform at Joe's Pub (the Public Theatre), in New York City, USA, followed by a 10 day tour in Europe. Concerts there will be held in Italy, the Bimhuis in Amsterdam, culminating in a performance at the Berlin Jazz Festival (Germany) on November 8th. For details email: Guysqueeze@aol.com

A new edition of the Italian Fisarmonie National News is now online. If you would like to contribute an item for this news please email Holda at: holda@accordions.com

www.accordions.com/contet Updated information on French accordionist Pascal Contet including details of upcoming concerts