Editors Note

Now is the time for many accordionists to finalize their applications for entry to many accordion competitions held in Europe in the near future. The Accordions Worldwide Yellow Pages lists these upcoming events in our Future Events section and also in the Accordion Events Held on a Regular Basis section. If you would like to include an event in either of these sections, or update a current listing please email: news@accordions.com

Wayne Knights Webmaster

Contributed by Anatolij Semeshko

The 5th International Accordion Championship " Coupe of Krivbass" will take place in the town of Krivij Rog (about 500km from the capital Kiev), from September 27th to 30th. The competition will be held in five categories: 12 & under, 15 & under, 18 & under, 30 & under and an entertainment class without age restriction.

The jury will include Alexander Skljarov, Vladimir Zubitsky, V. Vlasov, P. Fenjuk, V. Besfamilnov, V. Runchak, Tania Lukic-Marx, V. Kusjakov, A. Podgornij and others.

The event includes four concerts by famous Ukrainian and Russian accordionists and ensembles such as Alexander Skljarov, Bayan Quartet of the Kiev Philharmony, Bayan Trio "Lipic" and Accordion Ensemble "Melodya". For more information contact: semeshko@ukr.net

The Jyderup Festival will be held in Jyderup (120km south of Copenhagen) from August 15th to 17th. This year, the Paris Moscou Duo will perform at the festival for the third time. The event is held under two big tops and will include concerts with accordionists from various countries. Camping facilities are available so attendees can enjoy playing or listening from morning till night.

Performances will be given in a variety of musical styles such as traditional dance music from Scandinavian countries, jazz band music, classical etc. The Paris Moscou Duo will entertain daily with French and Russian compositions as well as presenting pieces from their new CD "Paris-Moscow", which includes the piece "Paris-Moscow" by French composer Franck Angelis. Domi Emorine will also play French musette pieces with musicians from France on drums, guitar and bass guitar. For further festival details email: roman.jbanov@libertysurf.fr

The 7th annual Rocky Mountain Accordion Celebration, held in Philipsburg, Montana from July 31st to August 3rd was once again a fun filled, successful event. Over 1,000 people enjoyed dancing their cares away to some great accordion entertainment. Organizers roped off the street and set up a tented dance floor and stage. Jamming, stage playing, listening, dancing went on all over downtown for the whole weekend. Performers included the Christian Family Accordions who played in the 1892 Opera House Theatre, The Montana Alphorns, John and Carol Free, Radoslav Lorkovic, Al Aman, Sammy Thomas, and The Continental Divide Tuba Society.

Over 450 participants enjoyed steak dinners with all the trimmings, barbequed right on Broadway, and several hundred pancake breakfasts on Sunday morning. The 2004 event is eagerly awaited by attendees!

Valentino Lorenzetti

Contributed by Holda Paoletti-Kampl

The 3rd "Golden Accordion" National Competition was held on August 1st and 2nd in Benevento, organized by Excelsior Accordions, the Province of Benevento and Luigi Febbraro. The event was created by Peppino Principe and Excelsior Accordions approximately twenty years ago, and after a hiatus it was revived in 2001.

Mr Nardone, Nello Gabrielloni, Saria Convertino

This competition was the final of a number of selection events held in various provinces such as Guardia Sanframondi, Limatola, Apice, Circello, Buonalbergo and Santa Croce del Sannio. The competition winner was Maximum Castiello, a student of Nazzareno Fiorillo's. The first day of the event also included a concert by Peppino Principe, accompanied by Ninni Maina's Big Band.

August 2nd was devoted to the auditions for the Golden Accordion competition, won by Saria Convertino from Mottola (province of Taranto), a student of Gianluca Pica's. This young accordionist was awarded an Excelsior Mod. 911 Millennium accordion limited edition. The instrument was presented to her by the Right Honourable Carmine Nardone, President of the Province of Benevento, and by Nello Gabrielloni, General executive manager of Cemex Srl.

The Winner - Saria Convertino

In the final event concert, held in the Roman Theatre, Valentino Lorenzetti delighted the audience playing his own arrangements of well-known pieces on the MIDI accordion. Lorenzetti also received the Sannio prize for the most prominent personality of 2003.

Renzo Ruggieri then entertained with a variety of compositions and arrangements accompanied by the Ars Music symphony orchestra, directed by Antonio Cericola. The evening was capped off by Peppino Principe, first with the symphony orchestra and then in a jam session with Ruggieri.

Festival Latinidade - Brazil

Contributed by Amelia Lafferriere

Chamame accordionist Chango Spasiuk will entertain with his quintet at the Festival Latinidade in Sao Paulo from August 21st to 23rd. Their program will include "Chamame Crudo", "Pynandi" and "Posadas". The event will also include a performance by guest accordionist Renato Borghetti. For details email: mely@ciudad.com.ar

Contributed by Edmund Schwarz

During September and October the duo Popolzin will tour Germany entertaining many accordion enthusiasts. Concerts will be held in the Rhine/Main and Mosel regions. The duo will perform compositions by Vladimir Popolzin and various well-known pieces. Under the slogan "From Fantasy to Reality", Vladimir and his wife Irina Popolzina, an accordion soloist, will turn their own creative ideas into music.

Vladimir's latest work is titled "Russian Overture". Vladimir finds inspiration for his music by studying music history, on his concert tours to Europe, with discussions with music friends in Barnaul (Siberia) and suggestions from his family. For further concert tour information email:
Duo-Popolzin@edi-schwarz.de

Prominent Utah accordionist, Janet Todd performed at Salt Lake City's summer evening "Concerts in the Park" at Brigham Young Historic Park recently. Janet was accompanied in three pieces by the 25-member Salt Lake Accordion Club Band of the newly formed Salt Lake Area Accordion Club. Janet, who has traveled 250,000 miles performing in 22 countries and 26 states, is returning to public performances after years of hiatus. Today she plays at many diversified venues, truly enjoying her return to performing.

Accordionist Stanislav Angelov (member of the Cape Town Tango Ensemble) performed at a private function at "The Twelve Apostils Hotel" in Cape Town on August 1st, accompanying a group of three opera singers, calling themselves "The Cape Town Three Tenors". Their program included some well known Neapolitan songs and songs from Musicals.

Edmonton Folk Festival - Canada

"Dervish" (Ireland) will entertain on the main stage at the Edmonton Folk Festival in Edmonton, AB on August 9th and 10th. The group includes Shane Mitchell (accordion), Brian McDonagh (mandola), Liam Kelly (flute & whistles), Tom Morrow (violin), Cathy Jordan (vocals, bodhrán and bones), Seamus O'Dowd (guitar, violin & harmonica) and Michael Holmes (bouzouki). The festival began on August 7th and will run until the 10th.

Competitions will begin next week at the 10th Beijing International Accordion Competition and Festival held in Beijing from August 10th to 14th. The event, which is sponsored by the China International Cultural Association will include a variety of age group categories for soloists, duos, trios and quartets. For details phone: +86 10-6708 3015

Accordionist Presents Lecture/Recital at University - USA

American concert accordionist Henry Doktorski served as a guest lecturer/performer at an Adult Education Music Appreciation class at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 4th. He presented a lecture/concert entitled "The Accordion" to about fifty students. Doktorski spoke about the history and development of the instrument, including:

1. Its invention in 1829 as a diatonic folk instrument by Cyrill Demian (1772-1847) in Vienna, and its phenomenal expansion throughout the world (1830-1850) with the hot dance craze: the polka.
2. Its development around 1900 into a sophisticated instrument capable of playing in all keys,
3. The "golden age" of the accordion from 1910-1960 and some vaudeville and radio stars such as Guido and Pietro Deiro, Pietro Frosini, Charles Magnante, Anthony Galla-Rini, Myron Floren and Dick Contino,
4. The decline in the popularity of the accordion in much of the world (1960-1990) due to the advent of rock 'n roll, and
5. The resurgence of popularity of accordion due to interest in world music and the Argentinean composer/bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla.

Doktorski also played five musical examples, including pieces by Brahms (Hungarian Dance No. 5), Dvorak/Paul (Clarinet Polka), Handel (Suite for a Musical Clock), Guido Deiro (Tango Tosino) and Astor Piazzolla (Oblivion).

Class instructor, Dr. Owen Cantor, said, "I was thrilled with Henry's lecture/performance and so were the students. We all learned a lot about the accordion and discovered a side of it which is unfortunately unknown by most people. In the hands of an artist, it can make some really beautiful and moving music. After class, I overheard many students speaking about his presentation in excited and glowing words."

The University of Stirling Summer School will hold accordion courses at Airthrey Castle, University of Stirling in Stirling, from August 11th to 15th. The "Scottish Style" accordion course will be tutored by Ian Muir, who has his own band that has featured in many radio and television broadcasts over the years, and Ivor Britton, who plays lead accordion in the Bobby Harvey Ceilidh Band, is an adjudicator and former national champion. This course will cater for the piano and button keyed accordions and will major on the traditional style of Scottish music, together with modern Scottish compositions.

Ian Lowthian who has completed a Free Bass accordion course at the Royal Academy of Music with Owen Murray and now concentrates on folk playing, teaching and composing, will tutor the "Accordion Playing" course which will cover ornamentation, analysis of tunes, composition, different kinds of harmony, left hand technique, special effects (such as bellows shake & vibrato), technical aspects such as articulation, fingering, phrasing and bellows control.

For further course information email: m.f.stirling@stir.ac.uk

This successful accordion masterclass was held last week in Bourboule (France) tutored by Roman Jbanov & Domi Emorine, teachers from the pedagogic team at the Center International of Accordion (C.N.I.M.A) in France. This event was organized by the "Rencontres Musicales du Mont Dore" Association. During the summer the two villages La Bourboule & Mont Dore organize a master classes for different musicals instruments. This is the second year that the accordion has been included.

During the event, Roman & Domi (Paris-Moscow Duo) gave a concert in the large Hall Casino.
Each day students had 3 individuals lessons and 1 joint lesson which included natural sitting positions, articulation, bellows use, rhythmical organization, principals of bellows shake etc.

On the final day, course participants from France, Switzerland and China took part in a concert in the Town Hall Theatre, where they played pieces they had been working on during the master class. Their program included light dance music (Paso-doble, valse, polka, tango, bourre) by French composers such as Larcange, Kotala and Astier. A noted performance was given by Sylvain Tissot (Switzerland) who played works by Fancelli, Angelis and Scarlatti. The concert finished with entertainment by the "Paris-Moscow" Duo.

For information on the next master class email: roman.jbanov@libertysurf.fr

New "K" Trio CD "Classically" - USA

The "K" Trio have just released their new CD entitled "Classically", which includes Overture to the Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), Clair de Lune (Debussy), Espana (Waldteufel), Kosovo: Land of Broken Dreams (Schimmel), and many others. For further CD information email: mary.tokarski@snet.net

It is a pleasure to welcome the following website holders to Accordions Worldwide. We invite you to visit their websites to familiarize yourself with their sites and services they have to offer.

www.accordions.com/maricarmen Information on popular entertainer Maricarmen Vazquez, the "Latin Diva of the Accordion" who performs regularly in the USA. Site also includes information on her two CD recordings.

www.accordions.com/accordeon-melancolique Updated information on Accordéon Mélancolique from The Netherlands, which includes Cherie de Boer (accordion and vocals) and Jean-Pierre Guiran (accordion and vocals).

Accordion Information Required

Daniela Lipka would like the music for the Russian song "Tatiana". If you can help email: dani@rockhard.de

Evelyn Davison would like information on the 120 bass Fratelli Gentili Macerata piano accordion (pictured) made in Italy and believed to be about 40 years old. Email: chillibear@shaw.ca

Sam Blackeby would like information on the 32 bass Sibylla Brand "Sylvia" piano accordion (pictured). The instrument has a badge with German words on it, the main word being DIX.
Email: see_sam_play@yahoo.com.au