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Editors note: With the American Accordionists' Association holding its annual festival this week, followed by the Accordion Teachers Guild next week, there is certainly a wealth of accordion activity in the USA! Here in New Zealand, we are in the midst of school holidays, which means a break for most of the accordion teachers (and students!) also. I took the first of what will be many meetings for an Accordion Camp at the end of this year. It is only when you begin to involve yourself with these activities, that you realise how much work and effort they take, so spare a kind thought for all those teachers, association organisers, orchestra directors etc., who do so much, usually without pay, for the good of other accordionists. They deserve your appreciation and thanks.
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PETER SOAVE IN EUROPEAN CONCERTS Contributed by Marian Kelly of the Bay Area Accordion Club Chartres, France was the site of the 9th annual Rencontres Europeennes de l'Accordeon (European Accordion Meeting) last month, June 5th to 8th. A special highlight of those four days was a concert held in Chartres' magnificent 12th century Gothic Cathedral. The audience of about 200 people sat enthralled by both the setting and the sounds of fantastic accordion music being performed by some of the world's finest accordionists. The program included selections by Frederic Deschamps of Paris, Alexander Korbakov and Youri and Ludmila Federov of Russia, Matti Rantanen of Finland, Peter Soave of the USA, and the Orchestre du Conservatoire National de Region de Marseille, directed by Jean Marc Fabiano with soloist Peter Soave. It was a very unusual evening and a night to be remembered! The next week Peter Soave moved on to what is known as the home of the accordion - Castelfidardo, Italy. The reason for his visit was to give a concert in a church in Loreto (close to Castelfidardo), organised by Massimo Pigini, who manufactures and maintains his accordion. This too, was memorable, but for different reasons. It was attended by about 150 people, all of whom had obviously lived with and around accordions all their lives. They had come to hear one of the world's finest accordionists, and they were not disappointed. The selections which Peter played were from his recently released CD, "Pride and Passion", including two pieces by Piazolla: "Bordel 1900" and "Ave Maria". He continued with "Suite Gothique", "Cavatina" and two jazz pieces. As an encore, he played a rousing rendition of Brahms' Hungarian Dance No 5. The audience was very appreciative, applauding loud and long.
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UKRAINIAN ACCORDIONISTS IN FRANCE Contributed by Vladimir Besfamilnov From July 12th to 18th, an International Folk Festival will be held in Issoire, France. Among the performers from various countries, the Ukrainian accordionist brothers Ruslan and Bogdan Pirog, will participate. They will play duo in several of the concerts, including classical, contemporary and folk works.
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LONG AWAITED AAA FESTIVAL UNDERWAY - USA Contributed by Faithe Deffner, President of the American Accordionists' Association The American Accordionists' Association festival began on Wednesday July 9th, with a bevy of reporters and camera people from major networks and TV attending the Press and Squeeze Party at 7pm. They heard accordionists playing all over the hotel's lower lobby and were briefed on the great stride which the accordion is making as it achieves a new relevancy in world music. Radio stations throughout Maryland, Delaware, and DC have arranged interviews and playing sessions. Carmelo Pino did one last week and Lionel Reekie was on WHFS-FM Thursday morning. As well as a star-studded galaxy of talented American musicians, there will also be as huge international flavour, with artists and students from the Sichuan Conservatory of Music in China, the Institut Andre Thepaz of Chambery, France and New Zealand has sent the talented singer accordionist Lionel Reekie. The highlights of this event are the fabulous Tribute Concert and the Testimonial Banquet - both programmed to honour eight outstanding accordion personalities, each of whom boasts a lifetime of special achievements related to our instrument. Bus loads of accordionists are scheduled to play en masse on the steps of the Capitol on Friday. An invitation has been extended to President Bill Clinton to accompany the group on his saxophone. Festival participants will be seen on TV, heard on radio and written about in the newspapers. It promises to be a great Accordion Party!
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GARY BLAIR CEILIDH BAND PERFORMING AT POP FESTIVAL IN SCOTLAND Contributed by Gary Blair The Gary Blair Ceilidh Band consists of Gary Blair (1st accordion), Richard Wong (2nd accordion), and Steve Mills (drums). On July 12th and 13th, they will be performing at one of the UK's biggest Pop festivals, ("T In The Park") which will be held at Kinross, Fife in Scotland. It is expected that there will be approximately 65,000 people attending this festival over the two days. There will be two stages and three tents, all having performers constantly playing throughout the day. The Gary Blair band will be performing in the ceilidh tent, on Saturday 12th from 1 to 2pm and 3 to 4pm playing mainly Scottish dance music. Some of the other bands booked for the Festival are The Charlatans, Kula Shaker, Gun, Ocean colour scheme, Paul Weller, Texas, Bush, Bjorn Again, Neneh Cherry and a host of others!
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6th INTERNATIONAL ACCORDION SEMINAR WEEK - OTTWEILER, GERMANY Contributed by Harley Jones The 6th International Accordion Seminar Week will be held from July 24th to August 1st in Ottweiler in German, French and English. There will be open teaching, talks, discussions, concerts by teachers and participants, and a score and audio media exhibition. The seminar is for accordionists, full and part time teachers at music schools, conservatories and associations, registered and future music students, plus active participants (with individual tuition) or listeners. There will also be a concert on Saturday July 26th, featuring Matti Rantanen, Mie Miki and Stefan Hussong. A concert featuring the course participants will be held on Thursday July 31st. The course teachers are: Matti Rantanen, Stefan Hussong, Mie Miki, Eugen Tschanun and Uros Rojko.
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ROCKY MOUNTAIN ACCORDION CONTEST - COLORADO, USA Contributed by Tom Collins The Rocky Mountain Accordion Society will present their 48th annual accordion contest from July 18th to 20th at Doubletree Hotel (formerly the Red Lion), 3203 Quebec St, Denver, Colorado, USA. For information phone Millie Jurneke on +1 303 2809347.
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ACCO LAND CONCERT IN LUGANO, SWITZERLAND Contributed by Claudio Jacomucci The accordion duo Acco Land, formed by Claudio Jacomucci and Anne Landa have presented a recital in Lugano, Switzerland in the concert season "Ceresio Estate 97", premiering some new works. These included "Apparizione di Franz Schubert fra le onde" for 2 accordions, shells, and tape by the Swiss composer Mario Pagliarani and "Huella" by Fernando Mecherini, an Italian composer who died only weeks ago. The duo also played an arrangement for two accordions of "Passacaglia BWV 582" by J.S.Bach and "Et Expecto" by Sofia Gubaidulina. Public and critics opinion were both very good and the concert will be broadcast soon by the Swiss Italian Radio station (RSI).
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ACCORDION ACADEMIC REPORT IN SUMMER VACATION - CHINA Contributed by Wu Jie An accordion academic report will be held by the Chinese Accordion Society in Beijing during the Chinese summer vacation, on July 8th to 9th. It is estimated that about 300 accordionists and teachers will attend the academic report which will be held in an auditorium at the Beijing Normal College. The report includes four lectures:
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ACCORDION WORKSHOP - LAMOURA, FRANCE Contributed by Claude Cavagnolo of Europe Musique Instruments From Friday July 4th to Monday July 14th, at the Marly le Roi Municipal Roger Bourdin Musical Conservatory, musical workshops will be held under the responsibility of Guillaume Damerval. This is in the heart of the Natural Park of Haut Jura in Lamoura. The workshops are being held for amateurs who want to perfect their skills in both solo and group performance. Lessons are available all day long, with the accordion workshop held by Frederic Guerouet, who is the 1977 Coupe Mondiale winner, and a professor at the Marly le Roi Conservatory. For further information, contact the Conservatoire Municipal de Musique, Stage de Musique de Lamoura, 32, avenue de Saint-Germain, 78160 Marly le Roi, France. Phone Francine Devillers +33 1 39588904
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USA ACCORDIONIST TO TOUR CZECH REPUBLIC Contributed by Tom Collins Texan accordionist, Dr Jim Bezdek will be leaving soon to take a 15 day tour of the Czech Republic. He will be performing at the International Folklore Festival in the Czech Republic and at other festivals, restaurants, beer gardens and on numerous radio stations. He is a retired faculty member of the University of North Texas, and is an active member of the Czech Heritage of Texas.
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ACCORDION ASSOCIATION HOLDS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - NEW ZEALAND Contributed by Wayne Knights The Annual General Meeting of the New Zealand Accordion Association was held on Sunday June 29th in Auckland. The President, Mr John Statham thanked all the accordionists who had done a wonderful job promoting the instrument over the past year, in particular he noted Grant "Yogi" Martin who toured three times to China and Rebekah Greig of Wellington who performed with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in the "Last Night of the Proms" near the end of last year.
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AN INVITATION FROM VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA Contributed by Wu Jie On July 3rd, the Chinese Accordion Society received invitations for both the first International G. Shenderyov folk Instruments Players' Contest and the first International V. Zolotaryov accordionists' contest from Russia. The contest will be held from December 14th to 21st, 1997 in Vladivostok, Russia. The contests are held for accordion, accordion ensembles and mixed instrument ensembles. It is reported that about 10 accordionists will be despatched by the Chinese Accordion Society to Russia to participate. The exact list of names will be released soon.
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NEW MUSIC BOOK "BAYAN-VIRTUOUS" Contributed by Vladimir Besfamilnov A new music book "Bayan-Virtuous" has been recently released by one of Russia's more famous composers, Ivan Shesterikov. The name of Shesterikov has come into the list of repertoire composers who write music for the bayan. His works, (especially arrangements of folk melodies) were included as were his most popular pieces. The book consists of two sections, including about 7 concert pieces of various levels of difficulty and different accordion techniques. All of them are works for the convertor bayan. This gives a performer the opportunity to increase their virtuoso abilities.
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EMAILS (ACCORDION TO THE EDITOR)
Subject: Frank Yankovic
Dear Wayne,
My dad is especially interested in Frank Yankovic music and information of any kind. He lives in Montana and would be interested in locating accordion players in his State.
Thank you so much for your reply
Cathy Prichard
Frank Yankovich is one of the best know accordionists in the USA, and has been called the "Polka King". To find out more information, I suggest that you contact other accordionists, or you can contact Frank directly. His address is listed in the Yellow Pages Database page:
http://www.accordions.com/index/acc/accordionists_usa_w-z_1.shtml
There are many accordion players that are in Montana. One of the best known is Tom Collins, who is a good friend of mine and a very knowledgeable man on the accordion. You can have a look at his web site at:
http://www.accordions.com/tomcollins
You can send him an email also, it is on the bottom of his page.
Thanks for your email! If you have any further requests, or I can be of further help,
please don't hesitate to ask.
Yours musically,
Wayne Knights
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