One of the most popular features of our annual festival is the ATG Festival Accordion Orchestra, a chance to join fellow musicians from around the world while perparing a Gala Concert performance. Tthis year the directors will be Joan Cochran Sommers (USA) and Pierre Varo (Reunion Islands).

2013 will feature not one, but two exciting festival orchestras. The ATG Board of Directors and Friends Orchestra, and the ATG Festival Orchestra. The two groups will perform the following pieces:

The ATG Board of Directors and Friends Orchestra

• La Fiesta by Amy Jo Sawyer
  a new Latin composition featuring a quote from Gershwin’s It Ain’t Necessarily So
• Awakening by Stas Venglevski
  a new orchestra composition by Stas Venglevski
• Selections from Les Misérables by Claude-Michel Schönberg & Herbert Kretzmer
  new symphonic arr. by Joan C. Sommers for the 2013 CIA World Acc. Orchestra VII

ATG Festival Orchestra

• The Triumphale March from the opera “Aida” by Giuseppe Verdi
  celebrating 200 years of the great Italian composer's birth conducted by Joan C. Sommers
• Dances with Wolves by John Barry
  music from the 1990 Academy Award & Golden Globe winning film condcuted by Pierre Varo
• Concert Fantasy on Russian Themes by Evgeny Derbenko
  Popular Russian composers work which will feature Stas Venglevski as Bayan Soloist

Joan Cochran Sommers has had many years of experience as a teacher and conductor of prize-winning accordion orchestras and ensembles of various sizes. The director and founder of World Accordion Orchestra, Joan's groups have toured worldwide.

Pierre Varo has led young musicians in their quest for musical excellence for many years and currently leads the orchestra 'Polyphonia', a group of 50 young musicians from the French island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean. We look forward to welcoming Pierre and his group to ATG!

You are invited to bring your accordion and play in the group, either for the first time or once again, and since there are parts suitable for everyone, we can accommodate a variety of playing abilities. Many players rarely have the opportunity to sit and play exciting music alongside others from all over the USA and abroad, so we encourage you to take part in this popular and musically rewarding experience.
  
If you wish to participate in the ATG Festival Accordion Orchestra, please contact Joan C. Sommers and she can provide all the information you need.
 
E-mail: Joan C Sommers  joansommers@kc.rr.com
 
We look forward to welcoming you to Chicago!