Miembros del Comité Ejecutivo de la Confederación Internacional de Acordeonistas (CIA), del Comité musical, Delegados e invitados se han reunido en la Isla nagigia, Fiji para llevar a cabo la 117 Asamblea General de Delegados.
Miembros de países como Nueva Zelanda, Reino Unido, Finlandia, Estados Unidos, Alemania, China y Francia asistieron a este primer Congreso de Invierno celebrado en el Hemisferio Sur.
El Manager Relaciones Públicas de la CIA, Harley Jones coordinó el evento que se realizó bajo la tutela de la Asociación de Acordeón de Nueva Zelanda (NZAA), que acogerá la Coupe Mondiale 2009 en Auckland, Nueva Zelanda.
Los invitados a este Congreso de Invierno tuvieron la oportunidad de experimentar la particular cultura de los pueblos vecinos incluyendo visitas a escuelas locales y a celebraciones tradicionales Meke.
También acudieron al evento como invitados varios participantes de la CIA como Benoit Chabod y Cyril Blanchard y dos Campeones Varieté CIA: Phil Bouvier (2004) y Julien Gonzales (2006) quienes ofrecieron varios conciertos en Fiji.
La Isla Nagigia es el cuartel general de Accordions Worldwide y de Music for Accordion, desde donde con ayuda de la tecnología unen los eventos de acordeón.
El acordeonista francés de 19 años Vincent Lhermet acaba de romper con 7 años de éxitos rusos ganando el Concurso Internacional de Arrasate en el País Vasco , en el norte de España. Estudiante de Jacques Mornet en la CNIMA, Vincent Lhermet, quien estudió antes en Clermont-Ferrand, interpretó obras de Bach, Angelis, Kusyakov, Scarlatti, Tuchowsky, De Pablo, Urbano y Weber en el concurso.
Los participantes, de gran nivel, llegaron de Rusia, Serbia, Finlandia, Austria, Ucrania, China y Francia. En 2º lugar quedó Rade Mijatovic (serbia) y en 3er lugar Maria Vlasova (Rusia). El jurado estuvo compuesto por Jose Antonio Hontoria (España), Stefan Hussong (Alemania), Jacques Mornet (Francia), Matti Rantanen (Finlandia) y Vojin Vasovic (Serbia).
El Concurso Internacional de Arrasate comenzó en 1993 y está organizado por Hauspoz, la Asociación Vasca de Acordeón.
Los dos nuevos Cds del conocido acordeonista español Angel Luis Castaño ya están disponibles. El CD “Encore!” presenta 22 obras originales para acordeón solo y algunas transcripciones que él ha interpretado en muchas ocasiones como “bises” de concierto. En este CD se incluyen obras de Rossini, Granados, Solotarew, Ligeti, Piazzolla, Semyonov, Lecuona, Tárrega, Schmith, Ibert, Albéniz, Busseuil, etc.
Y el último CD de Castaño titulado “Perspectivas” presenta siete obras para violonchelo y acordeón de Falla, Piazzolla, Fauré, Kaufmann, Pärt y Kuusisto, interpretadas junto a David Apellániz, violonchelo. Ambos son Catedráticos en el Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón en Zaragoza (España).
Angel Luis Castaño tiene ha grabado más de 10 CDs de acordeón y en este último año 2006 también presentó el CD “Spanish Music for solo accordion” donde todas las obras están dedicadas a él por compositores españoles. Varios de estos compositores han recibido el Premio Nacional de Música en España: Jesús Rueda (2004), David Del Puerto (2005) y César Camarero (2006).
New York-based accordionist, organist and media personality writes: “I went to see Richard Galliano at the IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators) event in New York on January 13th, when he ‘blew the roof off the house’ at the Hilton Hotel Grand Ballroom final concert. This was an incredible evening of French jazz with Richard Galliano honoring Michel Legrand.
We (Jennifer) and I went to the NAMM show (National Association of Music Merchants), which ran from January 18th to 21st in Ahaheim, California. I would say that this year accordion manufacturers attendance was down. Gabannelli Accordions, Bafetti and Roland were there, and Fuselli accordion straps and bags. We were expecting to meet other friends of ours from Italy who cancelled. I saw more Chinese accordions than Italians I would say. My guess is that most accordion companies have opted to do Musikmesse this year. The next NAMM show takes place from July 27th to 29th in Austin, Texas.
I'll be here in the Bay Area playing some hospital shows and working on my radio program for the next 2 weeks”.
On January 10th Stockport Accordion Club presented Julie Best, lead accordionist with the Ronmar Accordion Orchestra, as guest artiste, and her very polished performance and extensive repertoire certainly kept everybody entertained throughout her two lengthy spots. Julie played ‘Zingarella’, ‘Under Paris Skies’, ‘Maigret’, ‘Come Back to Sorrento’ (the Charles Magnante arrangement), ‘Cubanola’, ‘Sway’, ‘Triste Sourire’, ‘Gay Gordons Medley’, ‘Is this the Way to Amarillo?’, ‘The Cuckoo Waltz’, ‘Simonetta’, ‘Highland Cathedral’, ‘Gin & It’, and several other pieces.
Julie’s second half spot included some accordion duets with Jean Corrighan, her chauffeur for the long trip from Carlisle, which included a sparkling performance of the ‘Jacqueline Waltz’. Towards the end, Julie also did a duet with concertina player John Nixon, and they romped through a set of Al Jolson numbers in fine style.
The NAO Regional Festival season continued again last Sunday 21st January 2007 with the NAO Midlands Area Festival held in Leicester and organised by NAO Secretariat Pauline Noon. An excellent number of entries were received and adjudicator for the day Graham Laurie, NAO Deputy Chairperson was impressed with overall standard of the contestants.
He awarded the trophy for the most promising performance of the day to 8 year old Alexander Bodell for his performances in two categories.
The season of festivals continues in the forthcoming weeks with festivals to be held in Northern Ireland (27th January), South Scotland (4th February), North Yorkshire (24th February) and London (4th March) and culminating in the UK Championships to be held on the weekend of 4th – 6th May 2007.
The 2007 Celtic Connections Festival takes place from January 17th to February 4th, and is one of the world’s largest winter music festivals. The venues of the festival include Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, The National Piping Centre, The Tron Theatre and St Andrews in the Square. Bands featuring accordion include the Scott Harvey Ceilidh Band, Session 9 (Scotland), Four Men and a Dog (Ireland), Dervish (Ireland), Na h-Oganaich (Scotland), Lau (Scotland), Eddie Reader and band (featuring accordionist Alan Kelly), Moishe’s Bagel; concertina player Simon Thoumire, and accordionists Sandy Brechin, Alan Kelly, David Munnelly, and Angus Lyon. Accordionist Donald Shaw is the festival’s Artistic Director.
On January 27th, at 7pm, BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Take the Floor’ visits the festival for a live broadcast with presenter Robbie Shepherd, the Ian Muir Scottish Dance Band and special guests.
The festival incorporates the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year Final, which takes oplace on January 28th, at 5pm, at the City Halls Grand Hall. The finalists include accordionist Martin Hunter.
This festival includes a wide variety of events. On February 3rd, in the Clyde Foyer at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, there will be a workshop titled 'Come and Try: Accordion', at 11am, and 'Accordion Techniques', Sandy Brechin at 2pm.
After a successful Italian Evening on December 2nd 2006 at Athenaeum in Cape Town, the Bulgarian - born accordionist Stanislav Angelov is returning with the same team: Violina Anguelov – mezzo soprano and Nicolas Cenchele – tenor, to present a Viennese Evening on January 27th. The program will include music by J. Strauss, F. Lehar, E. Kalman, J. Schrammel and others – some instrumental and some arias and duets from operettas.
London-based Milos Milivojevic performs two concerts in January. These are:
January 27th, at 8pm - St Mary's Church, Horsefair Street, Charlton Kings, Cheltenham. The program includes music by Berio, Skempton and Lindberg, and the UK premieres of ‘Partita Piccola’, by Zoran Bozanic, and ‘Toccata’, by Matti Murto.
January 31st,1.10pm - St James Church, 197 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LL. The Program includes Bach, Mendelssohn, Scarlatti, Tchaikovsky, Skempton and Lindberg.
The annual Fundacion Festival, also known as ExpoFestival 2007, takes place in Vallenata from April April 26th to 30th. The Fundacion Festival is a large-scale music, song and dance festival that incorporates an accordion festival. The competition includes categories for amateur and professional players of various ages and styles, and attracts mainly diatonic accordionists.
In Columbia, diatonic button instruments are the norm with accordionists, especially the 3-row, and are used extensively within the country's traditional music, song and dance. The diatonic button accordion has been popular in Columbia since the late 19th Century.
“A friend of mine has had her accordion stolen from her digs just yesterday. Could be anywhere in the country by now. The police have been notified but should you be offered a black Excelsior 41 key/120bass Piano accordion with Russian B system convertor (series B41), it is stolen.
The man who stole it was caught on camera. He is a tall, athletically built Caucasian. He has dark/black hair wears a dark coat and was wearing white trousers/jeans. This instrument is quite a rarity so if someone approaches you offering you this instrument please call the police. Feel free to contact me if you manage to keep hold of it. It belongs to Ksenija Sidorova and she is a promising student at the Royal Academy of Music. She has quite a few concerts booked and needs it”.