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Whew! What a great weekend of competitions,
with over 400 entries at the New
Zealand Championships. It's great to see how this competition has
developed over the past few years, and what a well organised committee
can do. When everyone pulls together, it's amazing how great the accordion
world can be! I'm currently on tour with a quintet I'm in, along with
Maurice Jones, Bernadette
Conlon (1998 South Pacific champion) and Paula Harris (1998 New
Zealand champion).
Wayne Knights
Contributed by Christine Adams
The New Zealand South Pacific
Accordion Championships and festival was held in Auckland from May
29th to 31st. The successful event included contestants from China and
Australia, who were welcomed at a social gathering. In addition to the
competition categories, guest accordionists performed festival items
including Tracey Collins, Maurice
Jones, Grant "Yogi" Martin, North Shore Accordiana
Orchestra and the quintet "SCWALT". Campbell Bettridge and Charlotte
Rutherford performed 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody as a memorial to the late
Samantha Rutherford, an outstanding young accordionist who passed away
shortly after last year's festival.
Results of the South Pacific Accordion Solo classes were as follows:
The senior orchestra class was a close battle between last year's champions, the West Auckland Accordion Orchestra (conducted by Erica Knights) and the North Shore Musicale (conducted by Lionel Reekie), with the Musicale orchestra winning by half a mark! SCOTTISH ACCORDIONISTS TO PERFORM IN THE MIDDLE EAST Contributed by Gary Blair Accordionist Gary Blair and his Ceilidh Band (Scotland) have been invited to perform for the Dubai Caledonian Society's ''Chieftains Ball'' at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Dubai in the Middle East on June 18th. They will play Scottish dance music to over 300 guests. A few hours after they return from the 5-day trip, they will be playing at a Ceilidh in Drymen, Scotland 10TH ANNUAL ACCORDION CONCERT - JAPAN Contributed by Tsutomu Inouye The Hirayama Accordion Society held their 10th Annual Accordion Concert on May 30th at the Kawasaki Industrial Hall, Kawasaki. Twenty six accordionists performed over two hours of solos, duets and ensemble music including Annen Polka (Strauss), La Campanella (Paganini), Czardas (Monti), Jolly Caballero (Frossini), Esprit (Remar), Olive Blossoms (Frossini) and Andalusia (Requona) to an enthusiastic audience of 200 people. LIPS PERFORMS IN SLOVAKIA Contributed by Dr Herbert Scheibenreif Accordionist Friedrich Lips was invited to the International Festival for Chamber Music held in Zvolen, Slovakia, where he had the pleasure of performing at the closing concert. His program, which included works by Derbenko, Berinskij, Gubaidulina, Mozart, Albeniz, Schubert, Rossini and Piazzolla was well acclaimed by the public. Over the next three months, Lips will be holding seminars in Kragujevac (Yugoslavia), Alcobaça (Portugal) and Portogruaro (Italy). JAZZ ACCORDION CLASS IN CHONGQING - CHINA Contributed by Wu Jie Accordionist Mr Yue Wei (President and teacher at Chongqing Art College) plans to hold a Jazz Accordion Class at the college during the summer vacation. The class will enable over 30 students to study how to play and write jazz accordion music. Yue Wei has studied jazz accordion in Japan and is eager to teach this style of music in China. IVANO BATTISTON IN CONCERT AT VILLA CARUSO - ITALY Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl On May 31st Ivano Battiston held a concert at the Villa Caruso (Lastra a Signa) with a program that was chosen with the Caruso Hall specifically in mind. In addition to works by Piazzolla, Deiro and his own composition "Alter Ego", Battiston performed the premiere of a suite of popular Russian themes by Daniele Zanettovich (dedicated to Igor Stravinskij) and transcriptions of famous opera pieces for classical accordion such as the Pilgrims' Choir from the "Tannhauser" (Wagner) and Cavatina from "The Barber of Seville" (Gioachino Rossini). Battiston is currently teaching at the "Cherubini" Conservatory in Florence. BATTLE OF THE BANDS IN NEW ORLEANS - USA Contributed by Kevin Friedrich The American Accordionists' Association will hold a "Battle of the Bands" competition on July 9th in New Orleans. This competition is open to bands which feature the accordion, bandoneon, button box, concertina, melodeon or any other bellows-driven instrument. Music styles may include cajun, zydeco, blues, jazz, gospel, tex-mex, rock, alternative music or any other entertaining style. The time limit for each performance is minimum of 15 minutes, maximum of 20 minutes. The bands will be judged by Art Van Damme, talent scouts and record company personnel. First prize will be $1,000.00. For further information phone: + 1 516 746-3100 FIRST INTERNATIONAL ACCORDION MEETING - AUSTRIA Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl
Contributed by David Batty
On May 13th Deirdre Adamson was guest artist at the Leyland Accordion
Club meeting. She played a variety of popular pieces including Edinburgh
Castle, Clarinet Polka, Black and White Rag, Highland Cathedral, Scottish
Waltzes and Reels, Pipe Marches and Canadian Jigs. Following this, six
accordionists joined Deirdre playing old time sing-a-long tunes.
Deirdre has just released a new 18 track CD called "The Perfect Blend",
that also features Ian Muir (accordion), Richard Currie (piano), Billy
Craib (bass guitar) and Malcolm Ross (drums). The CD includes marches,
jigs, reels medleys and polkas.
Contributed by Igor Gordienko
On May 27th an accordion concert was held at the Ukraine National
Music Academy by Slobodan Sharshevic and Nenad Bogdanovic (4th year
students of Pavel Fenjuk). This concert was one of the first teaching
presentations by Pavel Fenjuk, who is a laureate of five International
Accordion Competitions, renowned artist of Ukraine and associate Professor
of the Ukraine National Music Academy. His students have gained prizes
in several competitions, including Ivan Letie who won 1st place at the
1st International Accordion Competition, Ukraine in 1995.
Contributed by John Dickson
Plans for a new accordion club in Perth, Western Australia began last
week with a meeting to set up an organising committee and the first
club night planned for August. The success of the Leyland Accordion
Club (England) has inspired Perth accordionists to start their own club.
Early in July, there will be accordion performances by Italian accordionist
Marcosignori and the Salzburger Accordion Orchestra in Perth.
For further information email: jdickson@global.net.au
Contributed by Winfried Haushalter
On May 23rd the 1st Cologne Accordion
Orchestra performed a four-hour concert at the Altstadt in Innsbruck,
Tyrol. The concert was part of the 6th International Accordion Festival
celebrations. The audience were so enthusiastic that the orchestra had
to play "Guildo loves you all" (arranged by new conductor Matthias Hennecke)
four times. The orchestra's previous conductor (Heinz Gengler) also
conducted some popular pieces.
The 1st Cologne Accordion Orchestra was founded in 1935 and currently
has 42 members. They have performed in Scandinavia, Europe, USA, South
Africa and Brazil.
Contributed by Herve Latapie
On June 11th the French Accordion Orchestra (Paris) will perform a
concert at Le Tango, 13 rue Au Maire, Paris at 9pm. The group consists
of sixteen accordionists who play a classical and variety repertoire.
For further information phone: +33 1-40409656
Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl
A new book by Renzo Ruggieri on MIDI accordion
and keyboards called "Emozioni Elettroniche 2" ("Electric Emotions II")
was recently released by the "Edizioni Berben" publishing company in
Ancona. The book contains five pieces of varying difficulty intended
for musical essays, small concerts and competitions. The style of the
pieces is contemporary (rock, pop and jazz) and there is great emphasis
on the importance of MIDI sounds during the creative process of composition.
One of the pieces imitates the sounds produced by farm animals, two
pieces are accompanied by short stories and the remaining two focus
on technique and improvisation. All of these compositions were tested
on students with excellent results. The musical tracks are available
for free (in MIDI File format) by contacting the author: ruggieri@net-uno.it.
This book is a sequel to two previous volumes by Renzo Ruggieri ("Tournèe"
and "Emozioni Elettroniche 1").
Contributed by Dick Hulan
On May 30th the Washington Balalaika Society performed a Russian festival
concert at the Lisner Auditorium, Washington DC. Two accordionists,
Tamara Volskaya and her husband Anatoly Trofimov performed with the
string orchestra.
Contributed by Horst Hirschmüller
The "Guinness Book of Records" (1998 edition) lists the largest accordion
orchestra as having 761 players. On May 1st, a new world record was
set with nearly double this number of players at the "Congress Centre
Leipzig", Saxony. 1480 students and teachers of the "Musikschule Fröhlich"
played "Sachsenlied", "Ode an die Freude" and "Happy Birthday" which
was a special tribute to the mass orchestra conductor Dieter Fröhlich
(founder and owner of the "Musikschule Fröhlich"), which has 461 locations,
more than 600 teachers and over 54,700 students. More than 150 orchestras
have successfully performed in Germany and abroad.
On May 28th Richard Galliano (accordion) and Michel Portal (clarinet)
performed a concert at the Volkshaus, Zurich where they played their
own compositions and pieces by Hermeto Pascoal and Astor Piazzolla.
Dino Saluzzi also performed with his trio.
The following day a "Swing Accordion" concert was held at the Basel
Hotel, Bajazzo, Basel which featured a Jazz quartet with Ruedi Dahinden
jun. that performed to a very enthusiastic audience.
Contributed by Lionel Reekie
New Zealand accordion quintet "SCWALT" performed live on the top rating
TVNZ breakfast Show "Good Morning" on May 29th. This group, made up
of past NZ champion accordionists Sarah Langley and Campbell Bettridge
along with Wayne Knights, Lionel
Reekie and Tatiana Lanchtchikova, were interviewed
about the accordion's increasing popularity and versatility, before
playing to a nationwide audience. Show host, Mike Hosking was amazed
at the ability of the accordion to play such a wide variety of music
from rock and roll to classical and country to baroque.
Contributed by Andrea Rautenberg
The "Gare da la Lune" is a well-known location for tango fans in Dresden
and the home stage for the "Tango Andorinha Sextett". This group which
comprises of two bandoneons, two violins, double bass and piano, is
one of three worldwide with classical tango instrumentation.
In May, they represented Germany at the 4th Tango Festival in Portugal
which is one of the biggest tango festivals in the world. For the "2nd
Dresdner Tangofest" in June, colleagues from Argentina have been invited
to perform.
Contributed by Toby Hanson
The 8th annual "Day of the Accordion" will be held on June 21st at
the Seattle Center House from 9am to 6pm. The Northwest Accordion Teachers'
Association competition will take place from 9am to noon. A concert
will be held in the afternoon with guests including Bonnie Birch, Frank
Hopfinger with The Joe Spano Combo, Ken Olendorf, Schaefer Brothers,
The Smilin' Scandinavians and John Vukonich.
For further information email: jthanson@aa.net
Subject: New email address
Hi!
I love your accordion site, keep up the good work on behalf of the
accordion!! Please change my e-mail address, my new e-mail address is:
patacchia@hotmail.com
Thank you very much
Bill Patacchia
Hello Bill,
Thanks for the kind words about Accordions Worldwide. Your email address
has been updated in our database and will appear online next week.
Yours musically,
Wayne Knights | ||
The First International Accordion Meeting took place in Wolfsberg from
May 22nd to 24th, organised 
by
the town of Wolfsberg and "Harmonika Müller". The successful weekend included
accordionists from Austria and abroad who competed for the "Prize of Wolfsberg"
and musicians entertained in the streets of Wolfsberg. A "Mountain Mass"
concert was held at the top of the "Kor - und Saualpe" at a height of
1,800m and all players performed together in a final "mega concert".
