The town of Samara, Russia was the venue for this the 57th consecutive annual festival organised by the Confédération Mondiale de l’Accordéon. The festival held from 4th-8th November proved to be very successful in spite of Visa problems lowering numbers, with an excellent standard of performances heard in all four categories.
The diverse countries of the winners who came from France, Serbia and Portugal give a flavour of this truly International festival.
Lidar Salhov - Russia (Senior Classical) - a student of Friedrich Lips, Félicien Brut - France (Senior Variety) – a student of Jacques Mornet,
Marko Stoyanovitc – Serbia (Junior Classical) – a student of Miljan Bjeletic, Joao Barados - Portugal (Junior variety) – a student of Anibal Freire.
The organiser Sergeï Voitenko provided excellent venues for the competition, great opening and closing gala concerts as well as a lot of publicity for the accordion with many radio and TV interviews and TV recordings to be broadcast on international European channels.
For full results and reports click the reports banner
Plans for the 2008 event are already well established in Bosnia Herzegovinia, organised by CMA delegate Zoran Rakic.
A full report including results of the Roland V-Accordion Festival on Friday 9th and Saturday 10th November in Pesaro will be online. Already online is the Press Conference last week, the V-Accordion history, competition rules, jury information, contestants lists and the event timetable. Much of the information is in Italian and English.
On November 4th Russian bayanist Aidar Gainullin, formed the duo ‘Bayan Euphoria’ together with his wife Elena Lutz, to perform for the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, at the Kremlin.
The following day, Gainullin performed a concert with a symphony orchestra in the Berlin Philharmonic Society, organized by Deutschland Radio Kultur.
Recently Aidar was touring Finland, Sweden, Rhodes (Greece) and Russia.
Mika Väyrynen to Perform at the World Famous Musikverein, Vienna - Austria
On November 20th, Finnish accordionist Mika Väyrynen will perform ‘Chamber Music V - Barabbas Variations', by Aulis Sallinen, with the Ostrobotnian Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Juha Kangas at the world famous home of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Musikverein. In advance of this historical
accordion performance at one of the most famous concert halls in the world, the work will also be performed on November 14th in Kokkola, Finland.
After the concert at the Vienna Musikverein, Mika will tour Austria giving concerts and master classes in several different conservatories.
Mika recently performed the new concerto for accordion and symphony orchestra 'Prophecy' by Erkki-Sven Tüür with the Estonian State Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Olari Elts in Tallinn, Estonia. The concert was a great success and broadcast live by Estonian Radio, followed by television interviews with both Mika and the composer. The concert received accolades from renowned composer Arvo Pärt and other Estonian celebrities in the cultural field, who were in attendance.
Pictured from left to right are composer Erkki-Sven Tüür, conductor Olari Elts and soloist Mika Väyrynen.
Contributed by Harley Jones, MusicForAccordion.com
Up until Christmas, every accordionist may click here to view all the original compositions by Yehuda Oppenheimer (grade 2 to grade 6) that are on the MusicForAccordion.com site.
As part of the Xmas spirit, each accordionist may email MusicForAccordion@yahoo.com the piece name and catalog number to receive ONE eSheet Yehuda Oppenheimer composition free of charge by email. If you appreciate this kind offer and like more than one Yehuda Oppenheimer composition, then place an order too. Do not forget to listen to the CD track samples of the CD titled The Magic Accordion of Yehuda Oppenheimer. It’s a really lovely CD for a Xmas gift at a very good price.
The annual festival ‘Accordions International 2007’ at Haven Holiday Park, Caister, Norfolk, took place from November 1st to 5th. This year’s event, organised by Heather Smith, lived up to the late Malcolm Gee’s now legendary slogan that Caister is “…a total indulgence in accordions”.
There was wall-to-wall accordion music in the shape of concerts, workshops, informal sessions (at all hours of the day and night), demonstrations (of Fisart & Vignoni Accordions and of the Roland V Accordion), plus lots of playing in the trade show area.
This year’s guest artistes included the trio ‘Accodemia’ - Vladimir Ushakov (Russia), Svetlana Stavitskaya (Latvia) and Sergei Likhachov (Russia), Valentin Osipov (Russia - picture right with Heather Smith), Giancarlo Caporilli (Italy), plus British accordionists Amaryllis, Gary Blair , Norvic Concordia, Bert Santilly, and Romano Viazzani.
The concerts were all excellent, though special mention should be made of Valentin Osipov, whose performances of such pieces as ‘Carmen’, ‘Sabre Dance’, ‘William Tell Overture’ and Monti’s ‘Czardas’ were both startling and highly impressive. Sadly, Bernadette Conlon (Australia) was unable to appear due to visa problems.
The various weekend workshop orchestras, always a key feature of the festival, included Elementary, Intermediate, Vintage, Jazz, Buskers and Scottish. The final concert on Sunday evening featured impressive performances by each of these, followed by a final set by maestro Giancarlo Caporilli (left). Bert Santilly and Romano Viazzani also contributed short sets, after which Heather Smith invited all the guest performers on stage to jam ‘Bel Viso’ to bring the festival to a resounding conclusion.
On this Friday November 2nd the Art Accordion Alliance (President Viatcheslav Semionov) presented the concert: ‘The Teacher and the Students’. Famous Russian composer Professor Viatcheslav Semionov and his students played in the beautiful Hall of The Central House of Scientists, which is situated near the Kremlin.
A lot of laureates of International Competitions took part in this concert: Olga Ivashina, Evgeny Listunov, Ivan Talanin, Danil Stadnyuk, Eduard Ahanov, Maksim Fedorov and his ensemble ‘Fandango’, Alexander Poeluev, and Sergey Osokin (student of Professor Friedrich Lips).
The duo ‘Una Sinistra’ (Yulia Amerikova and Alexander Selivanov) performed the world premiere of ‘Balkan Rhapsody’, by Viatcheslav Semionov.
The concert was indeed a great success. The audience was very enthusiastic and gave a storm of applause to all the talented performers.
Accordionist Giorgio Dellarole, a highly accomplished concert performer, plays on the Italian station RADIO 3, 10.30pm, on Friday November 9th. This will be a live concert with an interview. The music includes a solo performance of some of Scarlatti's Sonatas (speaking about Dellarole’s CD with this repertoire) and also as a duo with Alessandro Tampieri (baroque violin) some baroque pieces.
Accordionist Milos Milivojevic will be playing at Leeds College of Music in the Leeds International Concert series on Wednesday November 14th, at 1pm - entry is free.
Leeds College of Music is situated at 3 Quarry Hill, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS2 7PD.
Milos will be playing with the Kosmos trio and a bassist called Jonny Gee. Repertoire includes Klezmer, music from Greece and Turkey, and popular classics such as Brahms’ ‘Hungarian Dances’ and Monti’s ‘Czardas'.
Veronika Todorova Band Radio Broadcast, Franfurt – Germany
Contributed by Detlef Gòrke
The Veronika Todorova Band performs live on the Frankfurt-based radio station Hr3-Rebell on November 11th, at 9pm. Soon afterwards, Veronika Todorova takes her band on a tour.
Romano Viazzani, from London, is the guest at Stockport Accordion Club on Wednesday November 14th, from 8pm. Stockport AC is based at Woodley Methodist Church, Chapel Street/A560 Hyde Road, Woodley, Stockport, Cheshire SK6 1BL.
Romano Viazzani has recently released no less than three new CDs: ‘Romano Viazzani – Encore’, ‘Piazzolla -Angel Suite/Bobic-Liturgical Suite’, and ‘Viazzani Takes Stok’. These will be available at the concert.
From December 7th to 9th, there are workshops in Burg Furstenecker for chromatic accordions and diatonic accordions, led by Johannes Mayr and Jan Budweis respectively.
Burg Furstenecker in Eiterfeld, Germany, is the venue for many folk music workshops organised throughout the year. On January 2nd to 6th 2008, a workshop is scheduled with with Yann Dour for diatonic accordion.
The Florida Accordion Association Smash takes place at the Holiday Inn Resort International, 6515 International Drive. Orlando, Florida, from 4.30p on Friday November 9th until 5pm on Sunday November 11th.
Performers include: Lidia Kaminska, Sammy Thomas, Tony Lovello – ‘Liberace of the Accordion’, Mercedes Mendive, Mary Tokarski, Vince Aleandri, Al Ulle, John Kolbrich, Dick Albreski, Carmen Vitanza, Walt ‘K’, Jerry Tramontozzi, Maricarmen Vazquez, Nick Ballarini, and more!
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On November 20th, Finnish accordionist 
Free Christmas Gift Original Music by 
The annual festival ‘Accordions International 2007’ at Haven Holiday Park, Caister, Norfolk, took place from November 1st to 5th. This year’s event, organised by Heather Smith, lived up to the late Malcolm Gee’s now legendary slogan that Caister is “…a total indulgence in accordions”.
This year’s guest artistes included the trio ‘Accodemia’ - Vladimir Ushakov (Russia), Svetlana Stavitskaya (Latvia) and Sergei Likhachov (Russia), Valentin Osipov (Russia - picture right with Heather Smith), Giancarlo Caporilli (Italy), plus British accordionists Amaryllis, Gary Blair , Norvic Concordia, Bert Santilly, and Romano Viazzani.
The various weekend workshop orchestras, always a key feature of the festival, included Elementary, Intermediate, Vintage, Jazz, Buskers and Scottish. The final concert on Sunday evening featured impressive performances by each of these, followed by a final set by maestro Giancarlo Caporilli (left). Bert Santilly and Romano Viazzani also contributed short sets, after which Heather Smith invited all the guest performers on stage to jam ‘Bel Viso’ to bring the festival to a resounding conclusion.
On this Friday November 2nd the Art Accordion Alliance (President 
Giorgio Dellarole
The accordion duo 
Accordionist Milos Milivojevic will be playing at Leeds College of Music in the Leeds International Concert series on Wednesday November 14th, at 1pm - entry is free.
Veronika Todorova Band Radio Broadcast, Franfurt – Germany
Romano Viazzani, from London, is the guest at Stockport Accordion Club on Wednesday November 14th, from 8pm. Stockport AC is based at Woodley Methodist Church, Chapel Street/A560 Hyde Road, Woodley, Stockport, Cheshire SK6 1BL.
The 
