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http://www.accordions.com/news.aspx?d=25-Aug-2017&lang=en&s=13431
http://www.accordions.com/news.aspx?d=25-Aug-2017&lang=en&s=13431
25-Aug-2017
Musical Tribute to Dick Contino at Las Vegas - USAby Kevin Friedrich |
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| Lady of Spain, written by the English bandleader and composer, Tolchard Evans was made extremely popular by the legendary American accordionist Dick Contino (January 17, 1930 - April 19, 2017). The handsome young heartthrob played it as a solo on the Horace Heidt Radio Show and kept winning week after week after week. Although he played many other pieces, Lady of Spain became his most recognizable and most popular one, even more so after his 1950 appearance on the Ed Sullivan TV Show. A regular performer at the Las Vegas Accordion Convention, Dick Contino's last appearance their was in 2014 when he stood up as usual and played a very long set of pieces with his back-up guys as well as singing. Dick brought the audience to tears with his inspirational and poignant commentary. It has been the tradition for the Las Vegas International Accordion Orchestra to close the Convention on Thursday Evening and many times Dick was in the audience with his family and his many friends. This year will be different. It will be the first Convention after Dick’s death. As a tribute to Dick, Joan Cochran Sommers has arranged Lady of Spain for the festival Orchestra to play as the closing piece on its program. She thought it would be inspiring and exciting to have Cory Pesaturo, Grayson Masefield and Stas Venglevski join the orchestra on a couple of choruses – ala The Three Tenors, following along the lines of how the Three Tenors performed all over the world with various symphony orchestras. Cory, Grayson and Stas will be the Star Performers at the 2017 Las Vegas Accordion Convention and when they join the festival orchestra, they will show the audience some of the bellows shakes that were made so popular by Dick Contino, better known in Las Vegas as Mr. Entertainment. For more information, please visit www.accordionstars.com. |
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