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‘14 Years Ago’: Coupe Mondiale, London, November 2001by Rob Howard |
The Accordions Worldwide news for the week ending November 2nd 2001 included a report of that year’s CIA Coupe Mondiale World Championships, held in London, UK. This was one of the earlier full event accordion internet reports at: http://www.accordions.com/cia/ukrules_snc.htm Successful 54th International Coupe Mondiale - England The 54th Coupe Mondiale International Competition for accordion soloists was held in London from October 24th to 28th 2001 hosted by the National Accordion Organisation of the United Kingdom (NAO). This year, the first piano accordion category was held. This new category enjoyed the highest entries and its musical success, lead the CIA Congress to make this a permanent category. First prize for next year remains a concert tour to Australia and New Zealand plus an additional first prize sponsored by the American Accordionists' Association (AAA) of a concert tour to the USA. The Coupe Mondiale finished with five finalists, who performed their own choice program to a large audience at St. Johns Church, Harrow on Saturday afternoon. The finalists were: Milos Milivojevic Yugoslavia), Aidar Gainullin (Russia), Vladimir Loukitchev (Russia), Mathilde Royet (France) and Accordions Worldwide East European News co-ordinator Sergej Tchirkov (Russia). The event finale was a "Prizegiving Concert", which included performances by the St. Johns Accordion Orchestra (Northern Ireland), who premiered a new work written for the CIA concert, and Oleg Sharov (Russia), who has performed over 2,000 concerts during his career. At this concert, each of the contestants was presented with a certificate of participation, and trophies and prize money were awarded to the first, second and third place getters in each category. To conclude the concert, each of the prize winners was invited to perform. In conjunction with the competition, the CIA congress was held in London. CIA President Ove Hahn officially finished his 20 year term at the Congress, and the international delegates unanimously elected Kevin Friedrich to the office of President. The CIA Vice President for eight years, Kevin is a citizen of New Zealand although he has resided in New York City, USA for many years. Since the forming of the CIA in 1935, this is the first time a person outside of Europe has held the office of President. Kevin's first official duty was to present four CIA Merit Awards recognizing outstanding contribution to the International Accordion Movement. Competition results: Coupe Mondiale: 1st Aidar Gainullin (Russia) US$1,000 2nd Sergej Tchirkov (Russia) US$500 3rd Milos Milivojevic (Yugoslavia) US$300 Piano Accordion Championships: 1st Branko Dzinkovic (Yugoslavia) concert tour to Australia & New Zealand 2nd Dmitri Reshetnikov (Russia) US$500 3rd Nadejda Bouseva US$300 Virtuoso Entertainment Category: 1st equal Gwenola Maheux (France) and Pierre Mussi (France) US $550 each 3rd Franck Fieutelot (France) US $200 Junior Coupe Mondiale: 1st Ivan Simic (Yugoslavia) Junior Virtuoso Entertainment Category: 1st Laurent Derache (France) In Copenhagen, Denmark, the CIA will incorporate a new Chamber Music Competition into the 2002 Festival. Initially this will be for accordion and one or two other instruments. |