150th Anniversary Weekend Celebration
Saturday 8th, Sunday 9th September 2007

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Saturday 8th September
Heinz Michael Meier, Chairman of the Supervisory Board and Dr. Horst Bräuning, Chairman of the Management Board of Matth. Hohner AG. Managing Director of Hohner Musikinstrumente GmbH & Co. KG, Klaus Stetter and Akkordeon Product Manager Horst Fausel.
The music of Mickael Vigneau of France welcomed the guests as they moved into the Konzerthaus auditorium. The hall was decorated with advertising celebrating the 150th anniversary and the slogan "Enjoy Music - Play Hohner". From Switzerland was well known teacher Peter Frey greeting Hohner Akkordeon Product Manager Horst Fausel and Ulrich Schmuelling, owner of Intermusik Newspaper and Karthause-Schmuelling Publications.
Harley Jones of Accordions Worldwide and Horst Fausel inside the Trossingen Konzerthaus where a reception before the formal speeches and concert were provided. Harmonicamento, a harmonica quartet began the official concert and speech presentations. Left to right: Gerhard Mueller, Katrin Gass, Brigitte Burgbacher and Birgit Käfer. They played Commedians Gallop (Kabalevski), Vivace Capriccioso (Giessen) and Sabre Dance (Khatchaturian).
Heinz Michael Meier, made the opening speech, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Matth. Hohner AG. Speech text. A historical image was put on the stage while Heinz Michael Meier made his speech. Part of the tremendous attention to detail and professional Hohner advertising prevelant all over Trossingen during the weekend.
Heinz Michael Meier announced the appointment of two "Hohner Ambassadors" one being Yoichi Minagawa from Japan (also Chairman Moridaira - Japanese Hohner Representative), to whom he presented the letter of appointment. Chairman of the Management Board of Matth. Hohner AG, Dr. Horst Braeuning spoke next. Speech text.
The Art of Accordion quintet performed next. The have enjoyed successes at the recent Coupe Mondiale competitions in Washington and the Innsbruck World Music event. Left to right: Alexander Cargnelli, Sarah Staiger, Ralf Brendle, Michaela Hepp, Clemens Tschallener.
The Art of Accordion played Conrabaissimo and a really effective work of rhythmn sound effects with subtle music titled Hip-Hop-Turm (Billian). Ralf Brendle with his arms in the air.

Mayor of Trossingen Dr. Clemens Maier spoke in welcome. Speech text.

MdL Ernst Pfister, Economics Minister of Baden-Wuerttemberg and President of the DHV. Speech Text.
MdB Volker Kauder, Leader of the CDU/CSU CDU/CSU parliamentary group. Speech Text. Yoichi Minagawa from Japan (Chairman of the Federation Internationale de l 'Harmonica (FIH) Japan and also Chairman Moridaira - Japanese Hohner Representative)
Prof. Goennenwein, President des Landesmusikrats Guido Wolf, Landrat (like Mayor of the County).
Piaccordia from Berlin performed several works including Sertao (Galliano), Black Bird (Beatles) and Honeysuckley (Fats Waler). Accordionist Gerhard A. Schiewe of Piaccordia.
A strong audience attended this formal event. Ernst Burgbacher, MdB and President of BDO (Confederation of German Orchestra Associations) finished off his speech with a mouth organ solo to the delight of the audience. Speech text.
Popular Mickael_Vigneau took the stage with well known French music pieces. This was also the birthday of Mickael.

Managing Directors of Hohner Musikinstrumente GmbH & Co. KG Arthur Chuang and Klaus Stetter made their joint speech in English and German. Speech text.

That concluded the formal opening Jubilee speeches and concert at an event that was remarkable, for the very highest
level of political support for the Hohner Company in the very highest political circles of Germany. Very impressive.

Next we went walking to the Entertainment Tent and other venues.
At each concert venue and all around the city, there were banners on lamposts, drop down banners and signs at concerts, banners across the streets. Here is Horst Fausel showing an accordion poster. More banners that were on display. A tremendous amount of work had been done to arrange all this publicity and really make Trossingen City feel in a festival mode.
The recently built Hochschule for Musik building showing very strong support for music in the Trossingen area. Ulrich Schmuelling and Frank Heinrich, Distribution Manager Akkordeon from Musik Meyer
Orchester Hohnerklang being filmed by local television. There were several crews of TV filming during the weekend. Arnold Kutzli, Vice-President DHV and former Hohner Director with his wife.

Hohner Officials and guests, left to right: Klaus Stetter, Arthur H. Chuang, Kun S. Chen, Fu Hsieh, Dr. Bernd Rabald, Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter Marutschke, Dr. Horst Bräuning, Heinz Michael Meier, Horst Mucha, MdL Ernst Pfister, Stefan Althoff, Wu Hsieh, Beat Erni.
The large number of guests invited for lunch at the very large Hohner tent which was in the square. Each stage for the event was well set up with good lighting systems, professional sound systems with mixer in the audience as you can see from this photo and the next photo.
You can also see the Hohner stage decorations, the cumulative effect of all this attention to quality and detail, being a very well organised event. Even the kitchen staff had Hohner t-shirts on and you can see by the massive numbers of plates, just how many guests were attending the Saturday lunch.
Left to right: Elisabeth Meyer, Fu Hsieh, Wu Hsieh, Prof. Hans-Peter Marutschke, Matthias Meyer, Agnes Tsao. Left to right: Dr. Horst Bräuning, Doris Pfister, Yoichi Minagawa, Heinz Michael Meier, Ernst Pfister, MdL.
Henry Aitken and his wife travelled all the way from Scotland with his new Hohner Morino accordion, to enjoy the Hohner 150th festivities. In the spirit of having something for every age, there was a whole area set aside for the children to have fun.
Well known German accordion orchestra conductor Guenther Stoll was soon directing the children to jump up and down in time and make some musical sounds. So who were the children? - It seemed to me that the adults (including me) were having as much fun as the children! Next stop was the display of new Hohner accordions, demonstrating the very wide range of accordion models available today. A number of new and design upgraded models were on display for the crowds attending.
Very nice banner back drops, excellent lighting, highlighted the large display of new models. The Hohner Funflash series are in this picture including the striking new piano accordion model, top row right with the black and wild colored treble keys and accordion body.
Standard bass and free bass models. High up on the display was the Genius bayan model.
Werne Grassinger and Gabi Hand were part of the Hohner staff in the new 150 year t-shirts, looking after harmonica enquiries from the large crowds. Quite a crowd was outside the museum listening to the special accordion machine.
Pneuphoniker developer Jochen Buschmann and Horst Fausel. Conductor Guenther Stoll and Manfred Leuchter.
Secretary to Dr. Horst Bräuning Tatjana Dujmic and Harley Jones sharing a joke. Even the farm community got behind the event with a display of old tractors. Great depth of community support for the event.
Mickael Vigneau as guest with the band Soul Soup. Jens Beger (Piano), David Michel (Drums), Harika Klatt (Vocals), Achim
Korherr (Trumpet), Thomas Klatt (Bass), Bernhard Schiele (Sax)

Saturday Evening


Christoph Titz (Trumpet), Heribert Leuchter (not related - Saxophone),
Antoine Paetz (Bass) and Steffen Thormaehlen (Drums)
The evening concerts began with Manfred Leuchter and his band. Accordionist Gerhard A. Schiewe of Piaccordia.

Piacordia Group: Silva Finger (violin), Danuta Jacobasch (cello), Gerhard A. Schiewe
(accordion, guitar), Wolfgang Musick (double bass)
,
Hohner Accordion Orchestra 1927 Trossingen e.V. conducted by Johannes Baumann.
Today the players of the orchestra are employees of Hohner Company and students of the Hohner Conservatory and , more and more, players and Accordion teachers out of the whole region, in the age between 18 and 65.
Triple Sweet had a really nice combination of Michaela Hepp (accordion), Ana Patan (guitar, vocal), Beata Kossowska (harmonica, vocal) popular with the young audience.


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