The festival aims to reach as many people as possible, and for that reason the key word is “meeting” – between the different brands of accordions, between international artists and teachers, between the city and the guests, according to Francesca Santini of Ideazione Eventi.
Contributed by Olivier Kerkhofs of Roland Central Europe
On the September 28th, the Dutch semi-finals took place at the headquarters of Roland Central Europe in Belgium for Dutch and Belgium's Flemish contestants.
The winner of the Dutch semi-finals is Pieter Bosma (30 years old
from Coevoorden, Holland) playing his own artistic version of ‘Kwartet Musette’, by Allan Mussini, on his own FR-7b.
On October 20th, these three finalists will be present, along
with the 3 French finalists, on the great Roland Central Europe final. From these six contestants, one person will be selected to go to the International Final in Italy!
The French Semi-Final took place at La Bourboule city in the Nice Casino. La Bourboule is 500 Km S-W from Paris, near Clermont Ferrand. 10 musicians were selected to participate, 5 coming from the famous international Accordion School CNIMA. This contest was also open to French speaking contestants from Belgium and Luxembourg.
The jury was composed of Ludovic Beier (accordionist, V-Accordion Demo Player), Daniel Deruytere (Roland Central Europe) and Philippe Krumm (Director of ‘Accordeons & Accordeonistes’ Magazine).
The winner, Felicien Brut, and the 3rd placed, Amelie Castel, came from CNIMA, whilst the 2nd placed competitor, Bereswind Olland, made several training courses at the CNIMA.
UNAC (Unión de Acordeonistas), San Sebastián – Spain
UNAC – the Union of Accordionists has now reached the first anniversary of its the founding. UNAC came into being with the aim of gathering under one umbrella association a wide spectrum of Spanish professionals of the accordion world – soloists, group performers, composers, teachers, etc, together with amateur players and accordion-lovers of all kinds, all with a collective passionate devotion to the accordion.
UNAC is currently supporting and promoting important events organised by different associations and groups:
– the 20th Anniversary of the Zero-Sette Orchestra, the 50th Edition of the Certámen Nacional de Acordeón, the 15th Cantabrian International Festival, the Zarautz International Jazz Seminar,
the Valladolid Accordion Week, etc, in addition to a full and varied list of Seminars and Master-classes given by Max Bonnay, Luciano Biondini, Frederic Deschamps, Ignacio Alfayé and Jean-Louis Noton.
UNAC would also like to draw attention to the growing number of important new commercial recordings by its members now being released. UNAC, is now a Corresponding Member of the CIA (Confederation Internationale des Accordionists), and is based in Donostia, San Sebastián.
‘Mull Reflections’ is the title of a new solo CD by accordionist Deirdre Adamson, playing the compositions of Calum MacLean, one of Scotland’s greatest players. The 20 tracks include such international pieces as ‘Echoes of Lucerne’ (valse), ‘San Antonio’ (paso doble), ‘Veronique’ (valse musette), ‘Springtime In Switzerland’ (valse), Memories of Bad-Godesberg’ (polka), plus numerous compositions in a Scottish style, such as ‘Sunset On Sunart’, ‘Fergie MacDonald's Jig’, ‘The Hills of Mull’, ‘The Man from North Connel’, and ‘Jim McAlister's Jig’.
Calum MacLean was European Accordion Champion in 1970, and since then has become well known for his ability to compose music for the accordion in a variety of genres. Most of Calum MacLean’s compositions have been published.
The NE Accordion Festival, presented in association with the Walker Art Center and sponsored by KFAI FM Radio, takes place the Cedar Cultural Center from November 9th to 11th.
Performers include Dan Turpening, Finn Hall, Joanna Darrow, Dan Newton, Larry Malmberg & Mike Alongi, Mark Stillman, Datta, Dee Langley, Orkestar Bez Ime, Jerry Minar, Hank Thunander, Frode Haltli (Norway), and John Scaffeo, Canada. The festival includes concerts, workshops, ‘Jazz Symposium’, Massed Accordion Band rehearsal and performance (MD Wendy Tangen-Foster).
This festival began ten years ago and has three times upgraded to larger venues to accommodate increasing visitor numbers. The accordion is alive and well (and blossoming) in Minneapolis/ St Paul!
The opening evening concert, on Friday September 28th, featured a full performance by the Elsene Accordion Orchestra, from the Netherlands.
The 2007 Lasarte-Oria Accordion Festival main evening concert took place on Saturday September 29th at the Casa de Cultura, Lasarte-Oria, in the Basque region of Northern Spain. A sell out audience enjoyed performances by Enrike Zelaia (Spain - right), Nathalie Boucheix (France - left), the Elsene Accordion Orchestra, and the Zero Sette Akordeoi Orkestra (Spain). Amaia González and José Mari Orbegozo, Tango Europe Champions 2007, gave a spectacular performance of tangos, to the accompaniment of the Zero Sette Akordeoi Orkestra.
Next year’s Lasarte-Oria Accordion Festival takes place from September 26th to 28th 2008, and invitations are extended to accordion orchestras from any part of the world to visit and participate.
Roland
Europe S.p.A (Acquaviva Picena, Italy), a manufacturing subsidiary
of the international electronic musical instrument producer Roland
Corporation (Japan), organized an international meeting in Castelfidardo,
Italy on October 2nd and 3rd. The two-day meeting was dedicated to
Roland's
V-Accordion and V Accordion Specialists.
V-Accordion sales staff were invited from Roland's sales subsidiaries
and joint-venture companies all over the world including; USA, Canada,
Brazil, UK, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, France, Portugal,
Hungary, Poland, and Italy. This international meeting was organized
with the support of Castelfidardo City Hall, and the meeting itself
took place at the Conference Room in the Castelfidardo City Hall.
Photographs
This meeting was titled ‘V-Accordion Camp’, and various topics such as the introduction of the brand-new V-Accordion models FR-2 / FR-2b (the first shipment was just made in September), V-Accordion R&D history and technology, V-Accordion Promotional Strategy, V-Accordion Festival up-to-date... were all discussed.
Furthermore, in order to develop their knowledge of accordion development
and history in general, they visited the Castelfidardo
Accordion Museum. There, they received a warm welcome by Mr. Beniamino
Bugiolacchi, the director of Museum. Many of the participants
saw for the first time, not only the historical accordions but also
the fact that the Roland's first V-Accordion model FR-7 is exhibited
at the Museum. Photographs
Balkan Dance Party, Minneapolis – USA
Contributed by Colleen Bertsch
The Orkestar Bez Ime, featuring accordionist Dee Langley, play for the Balkan Dance Party at at the Cedar Cultural Center, 416 Cedar Ave South, Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 13th, at 8pm. The event also marks the release of OBI’s new CD ‘Nice Driveway, Volume Three: Rogarian Baba-que’.
Shetland's 20th Accordion & Fiddle Festival takes place from October 11th to 15th. The guest artistes include button accordionist Bill Black (now back playing after losing the index finger of his right hand in a freak accident last year) with pianist Mabel Gray, the trio Cuckoo’s Nest (Ireland), David Vernon, Deoch n’ Dorus, Gordon Shand Scottish Dance Band, James Corbett, Jim Gold Trio, Liz Doherty and Jim Woods, Martin Tourish (Ireland), Ottar Johansen (Norway), Pentlands Ceilidh Band, Quarter Deck, Roy Hendrie, Sandy Legget, Sandy Nixon, Sean Og Graham and Aidan O’Donnell (Ireland), and the Susan MacFadyen Scottish Dance Band.
October 20th - Escola Infantil Ntra Sra del Pilar, c/Pere d'Om, Sabadell, Barcelona
November 18th, 6.30pm – St Mart’s Church, Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona
December 20th, 7pm - Auditorio Ocab, Entença, 218, ent, 1a Barcelona
Ferran’s program includes
‘Luz Azu’ - C. Camarero
‘Preludio i Fuga g#m Clave’ - J.S.Bach
‘Capriccio’ - W. Zolotarew
‘Fantasia 84’ - J. Ganzer
‘Autumn Scenes’ - A. Kusyakov
‘Recuerdos de la Alhambra’ – F. Tárrega
‘Capricho Español’ - M. Moskovski
Jazz accordionist Victor Prieto has many concerts in his diary in the next few weeks, including:
13th, 11am – with the Pasblo Asian Group, New Jersey
13th, 3pm – with the Pasblo Asian Group, Battery Park, New York
13th, 9pm – with Emilio Solla, NY Tango Project, Night and Day, Brooklyn
15th, 8.30pm - with Emilio Solla, NY Tango Project, Fat Cat, New York
19th, 9pm – with Emilio Solla, NY Tango Project, Fat Cat, New York
20th, 9pm – with Emilio Solla, NY Tango Project, Fat Cat, New York
27th, 6pm – with the Pasblo Asian Group, Tango fiaca, Harvard, Boston
November 16th, 6pm – with Emilio Solla, NY Tango Project at BBC, New York
December 1st, 8pm - with the Pasblo Asian Group, Bucknell University
On October 21st, 4pm, Jim Vandelly and Joan Grauman will present a workshop on diatonic accordions at the Washington Metropolitan Accordion Society, held at Sleepy Hollow United Methodist Church, 3435 Sleepy Hollow Road, Falls Church, Virginia.
In honor of the season, Joan will also play some Oktoberfest tunes. In addition, Jim will show some videos of Russian musicians. Afterwards, rehearsals will take place for the December 16th holiday concert.
Veteran accordionist Andre Verchuren is in concert at the Salle de Marinieres, Porcieu Amblagnieu on October 21st, at 11.30am. Born in 1920, Verchuren’s career spans the generations from the 1930s, through the post-war years right up to the present time.
Regular performances at the Thirteen Coins Sea-Tac, October 23rd to 27th, and November 13th to 17th.
October 21st, 5pm to 7pm - solo concert at Sherman Clay, 1000 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue.
December 8th, 10am - noon - solo concert at Imagine Children's Museum, 1502 Wall St, Everett.
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On the September 28th, the Dutch semi-finals took place at the headquarters of 
On October 20th, these three finalists will be present, along
with the 3 French finalists, on the great Roland Central Europe final. From these six contestants, one person will be selected to go to the International Final in Italy!
UNAC – the Union of Accordionists has now reached the first anniversary of its the founding. UNAC came into being with the aim of gathering under one umbrella association a wide spectrum of Spanish professionals of the accordion world – soloists, group performers, composers, teachers, etc, together with amateur players and accordion-lovers of all kinds, all with a collective passionate devotion to the accordion.
The NE Accordion Festival, presented in association with the Walker Art Center and sponsored by KFAI FM Radio, takes place the Cedar Cultural Center from November 9th to 11th.
The 2007 Lasarte-Oria Accordion Festival main evening concert took place on Saturday September 29th at the Casa de Cultura, Lasarte-Oria, in the Basque region of Northern Spain. A sell out audience enjoyed performances by Enrike Zelaia (Spain - right), 
Balkan Dance Party, Minneapolis – USA
Bayan player Ferran Martinez performs as follows:
Jazz accordionist Victor Prieto has many concerts in his diary in the next few weeks, including:
Andre Verchuren Concert, Porcieu Amblagnieu- France
Murl Allen Sanders Concerts, Washington State– USA
