Christmas and New Year draw ever closer, and next week's news will
go out on December 22nd - a day earlier than normal. It would therefore
help enormously if contributors can send their news by December 20th
at the latest. The next Accordions Worldwide Weekly News will be on
Friday January 13th. The team at Accordions Worldwide wish all our
readers, clients and contributors a peaceful and restful time over
the Season of Goodwill.
Margie Fremar Passes Away, Kansas - USA
Contributed by Kevin
Friedrich
Well-known
accordion teacher Margie Fremar, of Fort Scott, Kansas, passed away
on December 5th . Born in Canon City, Colorado, Margie's family moved
to Fort Scott in 1920. Margie studied accordion with Alfred Vacca
in Kansas City and with Joan
Cochran Sommers at the Conservatory of Music at the University
of Missouri - Kansas City.
Margie and her late husband Fred Fremar operated the Fremar Music
Studio in Fort Scott for many years, providing musical guidance for
hundreds of accordion and piano students. As the studio grew, they
established the popular 'Teen Tones', an entertaining accordion sextet,
which went on to perform on the Ted Mack TV Show in New York City.
Margie
received numerous honors for her outstanding teaching, among which
was an honor given to her at the dedication of the University of Missouri,
Kansas City's Center for the Performing Arts in 1980 by the UMKC
Accordion Orchestra, honoring her as one of the "Midwest's
most outstanding teachers."
Margie's daughter, Karen Fremar, was a United States National Accordion
Champion and winner of the CIACoupe Mondiale
Entertainment Competition in Stockholm as well as a recognized
composer and performer. Karen performed three works at her mother's
funeral.
In addition to her daughter, Margie is survived by her two sisters.
Alexander Tchuev's Successful Year, Grevena - Greece
Contributed by Harley
Jones
Ukranian-born
Alexander Tchuev has been busy promoting the accordion in and around
the Greek city of Grevena, where he now lives. Alexander has performed
concerts and adjudicated at competitions, and two of his students
- Vasiliki Noutsou and Dimitrios Bisiris - have been successful at
the Premio di Montero competition in Italy. A few weeks ago, Alexander
formed an accordion orchestra in the city of Kozani. In 2006, he intends
to promote the orchestra in a series of concerts in Greece.
Free
Promoting of Your Accordion Service Free on the Internet Contributed by Harley
Jones
The
Internet is changing the way your customers are searching for services.
The days of lugging out a 12 lb. telephone book to find very limited
and outdated business information are coming to an end. People are
still letting their fingers do the walking, but they're doing it
over a computer keyboard. Below are some revealing facts from the
Kelsey Group.
- 74% of U.S. households use the Internet as an information
source when shopping. - Approximately 45% of searches had a buying intent. - The percentage of respondents who used yellow page directories
decreased from 75% to 62%. If you have a yellow page ad, it is time
to consider buying a smaller ad and shifting your marketing dollars
to the Internet.
The
Accordion
Yellow Pages offers free of charge listing for all accordion
businesses, teachers and for every type of service for accordionists.
On the Accordion Yellow Pages site, you do not need to have a website
for accordionists find you and contact you.
The
search-accordion.com
site is also free of charge, being a listing service for every type
of accordion service but you must have a website. Viewers of search-accordion.com
can click to your website.
Very
popular is the AccordionLinks.com
site where those accordion service providers with a website, can
attract accordionists free of charge to their website.
All it takes is a little effort, to make sure your information on
these three popular and very effective accordion sites is up to
date. Your future success may well be determined by your ability
to effectively adapt to the Internet. Should it be your New Year's
resolution for 2006?
Jim
Johnstone Inducted into Scots Trad Music Hall of Fame, Scotland -
UK
Contributed by Rob
Howard
'Hands
Up for Trad', a folk music organisation based in Scotland, has instituted
the 'Scots Trad Music Hall of Fame', to celebrate the performers of
Scottish Traditional Music. The Hall of Fame was launched at the 2005
Scots Trad Music Awards on 3rd December, where the inductees were
presented with their award from Patricia Ferguson, Member of the Scottish
Parliament and Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport.
One of
the inductees was accordionist Jim Johnstone, one of the great names
of Scottish dance music. Born in 1937, Jim Johnstone played in the
bands led by Jimmy
Shand, Andrew Rankine and Jimmy Blue in addition to leading his
own dance band. Jim Johnstone made many radio and television appearances,
recordings and tours during a highly successful career, and the induction
is a fitting award for this dedicated accordionist.
'All
Things Accordion' Success Story, San Francisco - USA
The
San Francisco Chronicle recently included a series on small businesses
in the Bay Area, including the company, 'All Things Accordion', owned
and run by Tom Torriglia. 'All Things Accordion' was one of only 12
out of nearly 200,000 small businesses selected for a feature article,
presented in a special supplement.
Also, on November 26th and 28th, accordionist Tom Torriglia appeared
on the Food Network's episode of Easy Entertaining, a US television
program, with Michael Chiarello's show featuring Venetian tapas. Tom
played appropriate background music to accompany the Italian food.
The
Borsini
Accordion company, based in Castelfidardo, wish to strongly deny
a rumor circulating that they have gone out of business. Rolston
Accordions, a Borsini dealer based in Scotland, point out, that
whilst Borsini have discontinued certain instruments for more efficient
production, all other models are in full production.
The rumors about Borsini bring to mind the 19th Century American
novelist Mark Twain. On learning that his obituary had been erroneously
printed in a newspaper, Mark Twain (who, by coincidence, played
the accordion) famously replied: "The rumours of my death are
greatly exaggerated"!
International
Accordion Competition 2005, Poprad - Slovakia Contributed
by Holda
Paoletti-Kampl
In
November, the fourth International Accordion Competition took place
in the Slovak town of Poprad. This major contest involved almost 100
competitors from seven European countries as well as other participants,
guests, celebrities accordionists and observers.
The competitors met in four classical solo categories, classified
according to age, in chamber music, entertainment, and virtuosic music.
In the solo categories, the winners were Milos Avramovic, Serbia (Under
12), Nikola Pekovic, Serbia (Under 15), Tibor Iván, Slovakia
(Under 18) and Eneasz Kubit, Poland (Over 18). The winner of the chamber
music category was a sympathetic Polish duo Anna Piniuta - violin
- and Rafal Chmiel - accordion. Michal Cervienka, Slovakia, won the
solo entertainment category as well as the EMCY Award.
The competitors' performances were judged by the international jury
including the following members: Alma Flammersberger (Germany), Renzo
Ruggieri (Italy) (picture left), Bogdan Dowlasz (Poland), Alexander
Poeluev (Russia), Ladislav Horák (the Czech Republic),
Damir Bužleta (Croatia), and Slovak accordionists Boris Lenko,
Rajmund Kákoni, Juraj Libera and Marián Šabla.
During the festival, besides the competition, there were also some
accompanying events, seminars, concerts and it was possible to learn
about the production of several music publishing companies and meet
the authors of the compulsory music pieces.
A great atmosphere during the whole festival was enhanced by two outstanding
concerts, which resulted in two of the most memorable performances
of the entire event. During the first, the audience admired a young
Russian accordionist, a jury member, Alexander
Poeluev, and at the other, jazz accordionist Renzo
Ruggieri, also a jury member, impressed with a band, Nothing But
Swing Trio. The organizers are already looking forward to the next
contest in Poprad, which will take place in November 2007
Jon
Hammond Broadcasts and Shows, California - USA Contributed
by Rob
Howard
Accordionist,
organist and broadcaster Jon Hammond writes: "I just got back
from recording my new album, an official production of NDR Radio in
Studio 1 Hamburg, Germany, where everybody from Hendrix to Hitler
has recorded and broadcasted (no kidding!) My HammondCast show is
going out over Infinity Broadcasting KYOU 1550 AM, a 10,000watt AM
station in San Francisco California.
Next week I'll be playing my annual prison Christmas show with my
band at San Francisco County Jail. My boys will be: Marc Baum - tenor
sax and Jon Otis - drums (son of the famous Rock 'n' Roll artiste
Johnny Otis) We will be in Las Vegas December 20th to 23rd and kicking
off New Year' Eve with a private party gig in Marin County, California.
I'll be back here in New York City for the IAJE Jazz Educators' Convention,
January 11th to 13th. Tthe event is a monster, especially when it
takes place in NYC!"
Zero
Sette Akordeoi Orkestra Concerts, León - Spain
The
Zero Sette Akordeoi Orkestra perform two concerts in December in the
town of León. On the 17th, at 8pm, they perform at La Venatoria;
the following day, at 12.30pm, they are in concert at the Culture
House, San Andres del Rabanedo.
A new site selling
a CD titled 'The
Mosaic' with sound samples. Music performed by Alexander
Dmitriev. Purchase online.
A new site selling
a DVD titled '50th
Years Anniversary - Concert At Coupe Mondiale - London 26-10-2001'
with sound samples. Music performed by Alexander
Dmitriev. Purchase online.
Well-known
accordion teacher Margie Fremar, of Fort Scott, Kansas, passed away
on December 5th . Born in Canon City, Colorado, Margie's family moved
to Fort Scott in 1920. Margie studied accordion with Alfred Vacca
in Kansas City and with 
'Hands
Up for Trad', a folk music organisation based in Scotland, has instituted
the 'Scots Trad Music Hall of Fame', to celebrate the performers of
Scottish Traditional Music. The Hall of Fame was launched at the 2005
Scots Trad Music Awards on 3rd December, where the inductees were
presented with their award from Patricia Ferguson, Member of the Scottish
Parliament and Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport.
The
San Francisco Chronicle recently included a series on small businesses
in the Bay Area, including the company, 'All Things Accordion', owned
and run by Tom Torriglia. 'All Things Accordion' was one of only 12
out of nearly 200,000 small businesses selected for a feature article,
presented in a special supplement.
In
November, the fourth International Accordion Competition took place
in the Slovak town of Poprad. This major contest involved almost 100
competitors from seven European countries as well as other participants,
guests, celebrities accordionists and observers.
Accordionist,
organist and broadcaster Jon Hammond writes: "I just got back
from recording my new album, an official production of NDR Radio in
Studio 1 Hamburg, Germany, where everybody from Hendrix to Hitler
has recorded and broadcasted (no kidding!) My HammondCast show is
going out over Infinity Broadcasting KYOU 1550 AM, a 10,000watt AM
station in San Francisco California.
Zero
Sette Akordeoi Orkestra Concerts, León - Spain
