Highly Successful 2006 Hohner Fun Tour – China
Contributed by Horst Fausel, Hohner Accordion Product Manager

The ‘2006 Hohner Fun Tour’ to the universities and conservatories of the major cities of Shanghai, Chengdu and Tianjin, was received with tremendous enthusiasm by the Chinese audiences.

The performers were Jerome Richard, Cyril Blanchard (picture right) of France who perform on the specially designed ‘Hohner Fun Line’ accordions. Viktor Romanko of Russia on the new ‘Hohner Genius’ bayan accordion.

The Hohner artistes performed music from classical through to pop-style including improvisations of famous Chinese folk songs and Chinese pop-songs.  These exciting performers were demonstrating a new way of performing accordion music and all the audiences were enthusiastically impressed.

Frederic Deschamps and Professor Viktor Romanko (picture left) held workshops at the conservatories. The Chinese students were eager and showed a lot of talent and ability to learn from the masters. All participants asked for more concerts in this style and for implementation of the popular music style at the conservatories. This tour was sponsored by the Hohner distributor in China ‘KTS’.
 

43rd International Competition, Klingenthal - Germany
Contributed by Dr.Herbert Scheibenreif of Friedrich Lips Productions

From May 5th to 11th, the 43rd International Accordion Competition was held in Klingenthal (Germany). This year’s Jury consisted of famous teachers and performers: Jürgen Ganzer, Fritz Dobler, Stefan Fraas, Tobias Morgenstern, Gudrun Wall, Ulf Seifert (Germany), Professor Wang Yu Ping (China), Professor Matti Rantanen (Finland), Professor Friedrich Lips (Russia), Elsbeth Moser (Switzerland), Jacques Mornet (France), Professor Dr Lech Puchnowski (Poland), Tibor Racz (Slovakia), Ivan Kjoval (Czech Republic), Jeanette Dyremose (Denmark), Claudio Jaccomucci (Italy), Professor Radomir Tomic and Alexander Nicolic (Serbia and Montenegro).

The opening concert saw a performance of the Vogtland Philharmonic Orchestra (Stefan Fraas, conductor) with soloist Per Arne Glovigen (bandoneon) and Niko Kumpuvaara from Finland (accordion), winner of the 2005 Klingenthal competition. On May 8th, Ivan Koval (accordion) showed his abilities in performing contemporary music together with Christiane Apel (violin) and Thomas Müller-Pering (guitar).

On Wednesday, May 10th the concert with Per Arne Glovigen, Sveinung Lillebjerka (violin) and the vocal ensemble ‘Amarcord’ was surely one of the highlights of this event.

International Accordion Cruise, Larvik – Norway
Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

Sweden, France, Russia, Denmark and Norway were all represented in Norilds ‘Accordion-Cruise’, on the boat ‘Peter Wessel’, on April 22nd and 23rd.  The tour went from Larvik in Norway to Hitshals in Denmark, and back. During the 6-hour stop in Denmark, all the accordionists went to the local inn, ‘The Skipperkroen’, to entertain, along with members of the accordion club ‘Ørskog and Omegn Trekkspillklubb’.

The travelling passengers were met with beautiful weather and accordion music featuring many different performers and styles throughout the trip, ensuring a great atmosphere.

Accordionists included Kjetil Skaslien, Anders Larsson, who played in the style of the great Carl Jularbo, Henrik Larsson, Tor Bekkelund, Trond Lönstad, Reidar Opsal and Kjetil Skaslien and The Paris-Moscow Duo - Domi Emorine and Roman Jbanov (picture above).

Members of the accordion club from Örskog in Norway were also on board and, with Linda Nygaard as MD, performed a program that included Frosini, Andrew Walter, Egil Hauge, Ebbe Jularbo, Leroy Anderson, Skjalg Bjørstad, and Wetesse.

Also performing were ‘Sigmund’s Orchestra’ with Sigmund Saeter, Wenche Eikeland, Paal Steinar Flakne, Olav Hunnes, Kaj Endresen and Elin Saeter. Sigmund’s daughter Elin also joined in some of the tunes on diatonic accordion, to good effect.

The trip featured classical, French, Russian, and Scandinavian music that was greatly enjoyed by all on board. The next ‘rendezvous’ with some of these artistes will be in the Swedish festival of Ransäter, from July 6th to 9th.
 

Borut Zagoranski’s Performance, London - UK
Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

Borut Zagoranski, post-graduate student of Owen Murray at the Royal Academy of Music in London, gave an outstanding performance at the 'Friends of the Royal Academy of Music Wigmore Award 2006' in the famous Wigmore Hall on May 15th.

In attendance were many distinguished musicians who were unanimous in their praise for Borut's performance.

Borut also performed with the London Sinfonietta on May 21st in St. Luke's Church, London, and is to perform at the Aldeburgh Festival on June 21st.
 

Accordionists Wanted, Paris – France
Contributed by Rob Howard

Pascal Contet is the artistic director of a 2-day event in Le parc de la Villette, Paris on August 26th and 27th. For this event the organisation is looking for accordionists from all over the world, of any age, style or experience to participate on August 26th, from 3pm to 6 pm. All participants are offered food and beverage and entrance for the special cabaret evening in Sauvage on the August 26th.
 

Swing 41 Festival, Salbris - France
Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

The festival Swing 41, from June 2nd to 5th, is a festival of gypsy jazz music and one of the most important in France, involving a significant number of professional and amateur players, and enthusiasts for this style of music. Most of the ensembles performing this kind of music include an accordionist.  Gilles Briselance will exhibit Fisitalia Accordions during the festival.
 

Help Required

Accordionist Stefaan Walraet, from Belgium, would like to contact Russian bayan player Valery Petrov in connection with purchasing some bayan music. Stefaan is also interested in many other Russian sheet music books for solo accordion, with variations on Russian Folksongs for solo accordion. Email: stefaan.walraet@fe-bi.org