Verberne continued, "In the frame of the voice, under the tongue, a little hole is made. The shape looks like a trumpetbeaker. The dimensions of this hole are very important because with this you can manipulate the production of sound energy as well as the upper/underharmonic tones. For each tone the dimensions of the trumpetbeaker differs."

Verberne claimed that visitors at the Coupe Mondial were impressed by the improvement in sound.

Helped by his former colleagues at the Philips physics laboratories, he studied the differences between Italian, German and Russian tongue-material with an electron microscope. He also made films of tongues moving, starting and stopping, with 30,000 frames per second.

During the past few years he concentrated exclusively on the piccolo voices, trying to achieve a better loudness balance between low and high sounding voices. His patented voice-construction can be applied to any type of voice but the results are the most impressive at the voices from a#3 up to d5.

For more information see www.accordeon.nl or write to acctech@IAEhv.nl

The 26 page virtuosic Concerto was commissioned by Canadian concert accordionist Joseph Macerollo (see The Free-Reed Review: Persuasion) with assistance from the Ontario Council for the Arts. The four parts are titled, Moderato, Andante: Variations, Cantalina, and Doppio Movimento: Scherzo. The work is contrapuntal, atonal and extremely difficult.

Directives, on the other hand, is a work more suitable for students of the free-bass accordion as the texture is decidedly less complicated, sometimes only using two voices. The movements are titled, Reassessment, Revaluation, Transformation, Initiation, Principles, and Mutation. The work seems based on a twelve-tone row, with the six movements exhibiting various permutations of the row.

We believe John Fodi's Concerto and Directives deserve inclusion in the libraries of classical accordionists. The scores can be ordered from the composer at 14 Times Road, Toronto Ontario M6E 3B9, Canada.

November 1998: It is with great sadness that we must announce the recent death of the respected and loved bandoneonist, Hugo Díaz. Señor Díaz was a native of Montevideo, Uruguay, where he began his studies of tango and the difficult, complex bandoneón at the age of nine. He solidified his technique there under the tutelage of Prof. Carlos Belozo and perfected his abilities while studying with the renowned bandoneonist and composer, René Marino Rivero.

Initially, Díaz played with several popular orchestras of the Rio de la Plata region and formed his own Trio Hugo Díaz. They played weekly on Uruguayan television for nearly six years, accompanying such well known tango singers as Roberto Goyeneche, Alberto Marino and Enrique Dumas. In 1976, Díaz began an acclaimed two year tour of Brazil and Paraguay with Maestro César Zanoli. Beginning in 1988, he took his Trio to Europe and his tours there helped ignite the current interest in Tango Argentino on the Continent.

In addition to the plaudits he received as an interpreter of tango, he was one of the very few artists who believed and demonstrated the bandoneón to be viable vehicle for interpreting concert music. He performed as soloist with several chamber orchestras over the years, specializing in the music of J. S. Bach.

Señor Díaz will be missed by his many fans and by tango aficionados throughout the world. His six recordings for the ARC Music label helped to establish his reputation as a world-class artist. They are available through the ARC Music catalogue.

October 1998: Concert accordionist Henry Doktorski (founder of The Classical Free-Reed, Inc.) and American Airlines flight attendant Mary Kay Welter (the Accordionist of the Sky) announced their engagement after Henry proposed during a recent Bahama Islands vacation birthday present for Mary Kay.

Henry first heard about Mary Kay while reading an article titled "Accordionist in the Sky" which appeared in the Summer 1997 issue of "The Closet Accordion Players of America" newsletter (CAPA Times). He said, "My first impression after seeing her photo was that she might be a little on the spontaneous and free-spirited side. . . . just my type of girl! When I finally met her in person, I was not disappointed."

The couple coincidentally met one month later at a classical accordion festival in New York City, the "Bach! Vegas! Dog!" masterclass and concert series organized by Dr. William Schimmel and sponsored by the American Accordionists' Association.

Mary Kay said, "It was love at first sight!"

She wishes to thank her mentor and former teacher, Minnesota accordion professor Dr. Helmi Harrington as well as AAA president Faithe Deffner, who both strongly encouraged her to attend the event. Mary Kay continued, "I had no idea that my attendance at this festival would result in a lifetime of squeezing!"

Although Mary Kay had doubts if Henry would prove to be a satisfactory accordion teacher (due to the close nature of their relationship), she has been extremely pleased with the past year of his professional tutelage and now is proud to graduate from Palmer-Hughes book two. Henry said, "She is an enthusiast student. Despite her busy flying schedule, she manages to practice in airport terminals, crew busses and hotel rooms. Once we had a lesson while waiting for a plane at the Albuquerque airport, to the delight of onlookers."

Although Henry lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Mary Kay lives in Sante Fe, New Mexico -- a one-way distance of 1725 miles (2761 km) -- they have managed to see each other approximately twice a month. Now that they are engaged, Mary Kay is in the process of leasing her Santa Fe house and moving to Pittsburgh, so the couple can "get to know each other" better.

They intend to marry sometime during the next millennium. "There's no rush!" they insist, "We're just getting to know each other."

October 1998: The Classical Free-Reed, Inc. founder, Henry Doktorski, will perform Libertango by the Argentinean composer/bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla in four concerts with the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops Orchestra directed by Marvin Hamlisch. The performances will take place on November 5, 6, 7 & 8 at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, PA. For tickets, call the Heinz Hall box office at 412-392-4800

October 1998: A search engine has been installed on The Classical Free-Reed, Inc. site which enables visitors to search for a particular word or phrase. Thus, a visitor who is searching only for information about Charles Wheatstone or Friedrich Lips (for example) can simply type their names into the search engine and receive a print-out listing (and linking to) those documents on The Classical Free-Reed, Inc. site where they can be found.

The link to the search engine has been placed on the home page directly under the link titled "What's New."

08/09/98 Radio Television Hong Kong recording and interview
09/09/98 8.00 pm Concert at the Hong Kong University
10 /09/98 3.00 pm Concert at the Fringe Club Theater
10 /09/98 8.00 pm Concert at the Fringe Club Theater
14/10/98 1.00 pm Recital at Academy of Performing Arts

For more information, contact h194766503@abonados.cplus.es.

Webpages have been created for the legendary classical accordionist Anthony Galla-Rini on the Petosa Accordion site. The following brief biography is taken from the soon-to-be published book The Classical Squeezebox by Henry Doktorski.

In the United States there were three accordionist-composers who more than any other dominated the first half of the twentieth century; they were Pietro Frosini, Pietro Deiro and Anthony Galla-Rini. The first American classical accordion pieces were not written by professional composers, but by accordion vaudeville performers who wanted something more substantial to play. . . .

Anthony Galla-Rini (b. 1904) was one of the world's first "legitimate" accordionists. Although he began performing popular music professionally (sometimes in clown costume and makeup) with his father's touring vaudeville act (known first as the Galla-Rini Four and later as Les Buffons Musicale -- The Musical Clowns) at the age of seven years (and therefore could not complete his formal education), his heart was immersed in the classics. Ove Hahn wrote in Anthony Galla-Rini -- On His Life and the Accordion: "He [Galla-Rini] started listening to recordings of great artists such as Rachmaninoff, Heifetz, Paderewski and conductors such as Toscanini, Stokowski Koussevitsky. Those musical personalities thus became his 'teachers!' . . . Whenever [his father] John gave Anthony some spending money, he did not buy candies or ice cream, but music!"

Galla-Rini began composing in 1931 and premiered his Accordion Concerto in G Minor with the Oklahoma City University Symphony Orchestra on November 15, 1941. Since then there have been more than thirty-nine performances of this concerto in the United States as well as additional performances in England, Finland, Norway and Canada.

Galla-Rini's second work for accordion and orchestra, Concerto in E minor, was completed in 1976, and his Sonata in D Minor appeared in 1984. Galla-Rini received an entire half-page entry in The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, a standard reference work for libraries in English-speaking countries.

For more information, see the article Gershwin And The Accordion by Henry Doktorski and Bill Lawrence.

As of August 1998, the Concertina Connection (est. in 1993) has extended it's activities with the re-publication of the original 19th century repertoire for the English Concertina. The repertoire, which in most cases has been out of print for almost a century, shows the true musical capabilities of the instrument which many people wrongly associate only with folk music.

The goal of this project is to make the instrument's rich musical heritage available to every concertina player. In addition to the Victorian repertoire, also contemporary compositions and educational material are being published.

For more information, contact:

The Concertina Connection
Jan de Withof 15
5709 AM Helmond, Netherlands
tel./fax: (+31)492-513611
e-mail: wwakker@tref.nl

The Postmodern Accordion is alive-and-well in the capable (6) hands of these wild, wacky, and wonderfully inventive composer/accordionists in an evening of solos, duos, and, who knows, perhaps even a trio or three.

Guy Klucevsek has been described as "a musical Orient Express whose themes pass from Hungarian gypsy to Slovenian waltz to Middle Eastern wail without stopping at the borders." He has been heard with the likes of John Zorn, Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, Laurie Anderson and the Kronos Quartet.

Miss Murgatroid is an avant accordionist of an otherworldly ilk -- combining dense reed explorations and effected tonal strains to make songs that echo soundtracks of the past and soundscapes of the future. She has recorded and performed with Negativland, Ben Lee, Petra Haden, William Hooker, John Fahey as well as composing for film, dance and theater.

Best known for his work with Anthony Braxton, Ted Reichman's accordion playing combines elements of new music, jazz, folk, and rock. His recent projects include work with Eugene Chadbourne, Anthony Coleman, David Krakauer, and singer-songwriter Ezster Balint.

Contrary to popular opinion, the University of Houston under the leadership of Dr. Willard Palmer was not the first American university to offer the accordion as a major, as commonly believed. While searching through early Accordion World magazines at the library and research center of The American Accordion Musicological Society (founded by Stanley Darrow) in Westmont, New Jersey, The Classical Free-Reed, Inc. founder Henry Doktorski discovered the following article by Louis Ronchetto in the May/June 1937 issue:

The day is not far off, I believe, when all Universities will give the accordion the place it deserves in their curriculum. Oklahoma City University is merely the first to do this. Here the accordion is placed on equal footing with the other instruments and regular college credit is granted to students properly enrolled in the University. Credit earned for work done on the accordion counts towards a degree either in the College of Fine Arts of in the College of Liberal Arts.

Besides the regular college work, we offer instruction to preparatory pupils -- that is, pupils of high school and grade school age -- who will eventually enroll in the University and receive regular college credit for their work. Some of my most promising pupils are grade school children.

University Teaching

My teaching work at the University is really not much different from that of the private teacher, as most of my pupils take private lessons and these are handled in much the same way that a private teacher would do. We have two groups who work together in ensemble work, and each group meets once a week for rehearsals. About the only thing that is necessary to conduct an ensemble group successfully is a lot of patience; and if one does not have plenty of that, he has no business to be teaching at all. Ensemble groups should not play in unison, as so many such groups do. The parts should be graduated in difficulty so that the advanced pupils will not be held back by the beginners. The ideal arrangement of course, would be to have groups of equal ability. That, however, is rarely possible.

Our greatest difficulty right now is [finding] suitable music for group work. If one is able to arrange music he should do so as much as possible, as he knows better than any one else what his pupils can do. Much of our music I arrange myself, but nothing pleases me better than to find a number suitably arranged and ready to pass out. . . .

Should any one care to have further information, I will be glad to tell all they wish to know if they will drop me a line.

This also explains the mystery of why the first performance of Anthony Galla-Rini's Concerto for Accordion in G Minor received its premiere performance with the Oklahoma City University Symphony Orchestra on November 15, 1941. The university already had a four-year-old program for the accordion, and it would be natural (and prestigious) for the accordion instructor (presumably Ronchetto) to invite a virtuoso accordionist/composer (Galla-Rini) to premiere his first concerto with the university orchestra.

However, Oklahoma City University was not the first American college to offer studies in accordion! Accordion World magazine claimed, in an article titled The Accordion In College (June 1948): "This list [of accredited schools allowing accordion as a major instrument] hasn't grown much since Oklahoma City University recognized the accordion, through Ronchetto, back in 1936. The previous year [1935], Capitol University of Columbus, Ohio, had been the first college to recognize the accordion."

Today, of course, we know that the editor of Accordion World magazine should have written "the first American college to recognize the accordion" as the University of Kiev began offering accordion classes eight years earlier in 1927. (See The Classical Free-Reed, Inc. Quiz Answers.

Avant garde accordionist/composer Guy Klucevsek received mention in the Spring 1998 issue of "New Music Connoisseur," a magazine devoted to the contemporary music scene. In a review of a concert on February 5th featuring Margaret Leng Tan at the Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, NMC writer Gene Pritsker wrote, "Sweet Chinoiserie by Guy Klucevsek is for toy piano and toy instruments. Miss Tan sat on her knees at a toy piano, with a toy accordion strapped to her, surrounded by a huge array of toy instruments. The music is rhythmical and a bit slapstick funny."

James Cottingham of the Coe College Physics Department will be presenting two papers on free reed instruments at acoustical conferences in June.

"Theoretical and experimental investigation of the air-driven free reed," will be presented at the joint meeting of the International Congress on Acoustics and the Acoustical Society of America in Seattle on June 23. It will be included in a special session on Physics and Materials of Musical Instruments. As the title indicates, this paper focuses on the physics of the free reed, rather than a specific instrument, although most of the laboratory measurements were made on reed from reed organs and the khaen.

"The acoustics of the khaen," will be presented the International Symposium on Musical Acoustics (ISMA98) on June 28. This symposium will be held at the Sleeping Lady Conference Center near Leavenworth, WA, in the Cascades. This paper, co-authored by Coe College student Casey Fetzer, will cover much of the same ground as a preliminary report available on the Classical Free Reed website, but include some new laboratory results as well.

For more information contact James Cottingham at JCOTTING@coe.edu

In its fourth year of presentation, the American Accordionists' Association will present a series of Master Classes and Concerts, and this time it will take on a circus format. Dr. William Schimmel, accordion philosopher and artist-in-residence of the A.A.A. will preside as moderator (ringmaster).

The afternoon master classes will be in the form of "Dark Side Shows": Clowning with your Accordion; Taking Apart Your Accordion; Camegie Hell (Accordio-Paranoia); Getting Psyched for Performance; Fellini, Tati and the Accordion; Post-Media Consciousness, and a seminar on various types of polkas. A steel plate will be shoved into Dr. Schimmel's head. Watch and listen to the musical ideas and blood gush out!

There will be a seminar on media (the media circus); discussions such as, Will Chamame replace the Tango? or Can a Bandoneon artist on Astor Place make a "third coming" as a piano accordion Chamame artist? His spirit will be evoked! Participants will include: performance artist, Ray Rue; media consultant, Dr. Ron Sarno and accordionist/composer/theorist, Dr. Robert Young McMahan, who will "milk" the tone row. Jazz artist William Komaiko will play his own New Carnival of Animals (with accordion) composed for the occasion.

Eminent choreographer, Micki Goodman (also a fitness expert) will teach us to breathe with and without our accordions -- as well as how to get physical with our instruments. The evening concerts will include a new work for accordion and tape by Dr. Robert Young McMahan, and a performance of In the Zoo. Lee McClure will join Dr. Schimmel in the Lee and Bill Digital Circus. Dr. Mark Birnbaum, Mr. Ragtime, will "tear it up" along with his Rhinoceros. There will be Mini Concertos based on the accordion concertos of Paul Creston, Nikolai Tchaiken and the music of Sondheim - Carnival Styie!

Dr. Schimmel will premiere a new solo accordion work by Japanese composer, Akemi Naito. He will also lead a discussion on the Mögens Eilegaard article, The Accordion Circus Competes Again, it's title being the inspiration for this weekend.

Paul Stein will offer a Yiddish Festival of Song, Dr. Schimmel and Micki Goodman will present The Rite of Fall/KW3P - a surreal circus combining Stravinsky's masterpiece with Kurt Weill's Three Penny. There will be Mardi Gras Music, Chamame, a piece based on Gounod's Hail Mary, Rodeo Music, Gospel and Ska. Other participants will include: actress Kathleen Goodman; grunge composer Godfrey Nelson; songwriter Lorraine Nelson-Wolf, jazz-chamame artist Will Holshouser; classical artist Patricia Tregellas, Pietro Deiro, Jr., Dr. Thomas Massucci, Dragica Banic, Elsie M. Bennett and stand-up accordio-comic llona Vellio.

The grand finale will be a performance of the famed Tango Project (Scent of a Woman, True Lies, Sesame Street), Michael Sahl, piano; Mary Rowell, violin and Dr. Schimmel. There will be a work by Sahl and a special performance by Mary.

All events will take place at:

Tenri Cultural Institute
575 Broadway (Soho)
(Guggenheim Museum Building)
New York City
July 31, August 1 and 2, 1998
Master Classes - 3:00 p.m. Concerts - 7:00 p.m.

Information and Reservations: 212/876-0827

Guy Klucevsek announces the release of two new recordings in Europe: Accordion Tribe features Guy Klucevsek (USA), Maria Kalaniemi (Finland), Lars Hollmer (Sweden), Otto Lechner (Austria) and Bratko Bibic (Slovenia) on Intuition Music CD INT 3220 2

In May, 1996, these five innovative accordionists convened in Europe for a three week tour, performing their own music in solo, duo and group combinations. The concerts were a powerful and thrilling experience - in several critics' polls of European Jazz magazines, the project was chosen as "live performance of the year."

The recording, produced by Lars Hollmer, is compiled from live recordings made during the tour and has climbed to No. 6 on the World Music Charts in Europe. For European Distribution, contact via e-mail: Intuition@compuserve.com or fax: 49.221.95.1414.9

Altered Landscapes: American Music, Bacharach to Cage features Guy Klucevsek, solo accordion. Compositions by Klucevsek, Henry Cowell, Alan Hovahness, Alvin Lucier plus Klucevsek's arrangements of music by John Cage, Burt Bacharach, Charlie Haden and Amy Denio.

Available on Evva 33011, distributed by Ninety-Nine Records, Berlin, Germany.
Phone: 49.30.347.900.0, Fax: 49.30.347.900.80

Both recordings are exoected to be released in the USA by July 1998. Accordion Tribe will be distributed by Allegro, thus assuring it availability.

The American Accordionists Association has commissioned American composer Robert Baksa to compose a sonata for accordion. The new piece, cast in three movements and lasting about 13 minutes, is written in the composer's neo- classic and melodic tonal style. Though specifically designed for the stradella system instrument, the new sonata can be performed on other instruments as well. Award winning Bayan player, Peter Soave, will premiere the work in Europe this summer.

The music is available through the Theodore Presser Co at Presser Place, Byrn Mawr, PA 19010 telephone: (610) 525-3636. Email is: Presser@presser.com. For more about Baksa's music see the new NEWPORT CLASSIC CD of his chamber music featuring Grammy Winner Paquito D'Rivera performing his Alto Sax Sonata.

The City Music Center (community music school) at Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA) announced the addition of the accordion to their courses of study.

Sally Stone, director of the City Music Center, wrote, "An instrument close to the folkroots of Western Pennsylvania, it is most fitting for the community music school of Duquesne University (home of the award-winning Eastern-European Folk Ensemble -- the Tamburitzans) to offer accordion as a solo instrument.

"In addition to its widespread use as a folk and tango instrument, the accordion has a rich (although relatively unknown) tradition of original classical music written for it, beginning with "Theme and Variations" (1836) by the French composer Louise Reisner, and continuing through the nineteenth century with Bernhard Molique, George MacFarren, Tchaikovsky, and into the twentieth century with Charles Ives, Alban Berg, Paul Hindemith, Virgil Thompson, Paul Creston, David Del Tredici, Luciano Berio and literally hundreds of other composers.

"The City Music Center is proud to offer the accordion as a solo instrument, as it is taught at many major European universities and conservatories such as the Akademia Muzyczna im. Fryderyka Chopina in Warsaw, the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and the Gnessin Institute in Moscow."

The instrument will be taught by new faculty member, Henry Doktorski.

For more information contact stone@duq2.cc.duq.

8 of May

Concert "Dzo Contraste" (Avelina Vidal- guitar, Esteban Algora- accodion)
Place: Valladolid University (Spain)
Time: 20:15 h.
Organizer: Valladolid Accordion Association

13 of June

Concert "Dzo Contraste"
Place: Contemporary Art Center of Sevilla (Spain)
Program: first performing of "Tempre op. 99" for accordion and guitar by Czech composer Jan Truhlar (dedicated to Dzo Contraste).

July

Concert "Dzo Contraste"
Place: Koldo Mitxelena Kulturenea (San Sebastian)
Organizer: Accoland Association
Program: first performing of "Cenit 1342" for accordion and guitar by spanish composer Miguel Ruiz.

8 August

Concert "Dzo Contraste"
Place: Palacio de la Audiencia (Soria-Spain)
Program: Tupinamba, Gubitsch, Baggio, Santos, Piazzolla, etc.

For six weeks computer users from around the globe will celebrate the music of the world as it is played on the accordion, the squeezebox, the concertina, the khaen, the reed organ, the harmonica and the melodeon.

Articles, interviews and record reviews will be featured throughout the festival. RootsWorld also has the participation from radio stations around the country, on the air and on the web.

There will be songs to hear, articles to read from around the world, reviews of new recordings and old. It's a chance to draw together the world's music in a unique co-operative effort, the first of what RootsWorld hopes will be a long series of such grassroots musical collaborations.

The Classical Free-Reed, Inc. staff are honored to be chosen to participate in this internet event.

Henry Doktorski, founder
Greg Vozar, webmaster
Joseph Natoli, Steve Navoyoski, Robert Karl Berta, editorial board

Free Reed Music (run by Neil Wayne) plans to produce a scholarly, well-researched, superbly documented and exhaustive survey of the music of the concertina ranging from music for concertina forerunners such as the Oriental sheng and sho through modern classical works by contemporary composers. The CD set will be accompanied by an extensive book on concertina history, musical examples, photographs and biographies of all artists, and a state-of-the-art 'FAQ' on all aspects of the concertina.

The four-CD set will be released in 1999, with a further major promotional push to coincide with both the Horniman Museum's major exhibit of the Wayne Concertina Collection, and with the bi-centenary of Wheatstone's birth in 2001/2.

For more information see Four-CD 'Musical History of the Concertina' http://www.freedmus.demon.co.uk/Conccd.htm

Schickele Mix, the weekly program on PRI hosted by Peter Schickele (of P.D.Q. Bach fame) featured an episode on the classical accordion with commentary.

Some of the solo works were:

* Helmut Jacobs playing Max Reger's Romance for harmonium
* Geir Draugsvoll playing Leif Keyser's Confetti
* Guy Klucevsek playing Aaron Jay Kernis' Phantom Polka
* Pauline Oliveros Playing Crone Music
* Stefan Hussong playing Stravinsky's Tango

Chamber Works:

* Relache (with Guy Klucevsek I assume) playing Mary Ellen Childs' Parterre
* Robert Davine playing Ted Zarlengo's Suite for accordion, cello & piano
* Geir Draugsvoll playing Andy Pape's setting of children's poems from Nazi Germany for soprano, violin and accordion
* Douglas Rogers playing Giulio Regondi's Leisure Moments for concertina & piano

* Plus an encore piece of Joanne Castle (of Lawrence Welk Show fame) playing Flight of the Bumblebee Boogie.

Concert Accordionist Henry Doktorski has begun recording an all-Gershwin CD with members of the Duquesne University Chamber Ensemble. The CD will feature concert works by George Gershwin including Rhapsody in Blue and ten Broadway showtunes including I Got Rhythm, Funny Face, Summertime and Bidin' My Time. The CD will commemorate the 100th anniversary of Gershwin's birth which occurs on September 26, 1998.

George Gershwin (1898-1937) is perhaps America's most popular composer; his songs and concert works are performed around the world. His most ambitious work, Porgy and Bess achieved the status of 'serious' art.

When The Rhapsody was first premiered at Aeolian Hall in New York City on Lincoln's birthday, February 12, 1924, the composer himself played the piano with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra in a concert which was to make history. It proved conclusively that genius and artistry existed and flourished in Tin Pan Alley. The Rhapsody proved to be the cornerstone of what has now become a type of music thoroughly divorced from European influence and formalism, and magnificently American.

Gershwin originally composed The Rhapsody for piano and jazz band. Ferde Grofe, the brilliant innovator in orchestration for the Whiteman Band, scored The Rhapsody for the following instrumentation: 8 violins, 2 string basses, banjo, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, 2 pianos, drum, 3 saxophones and 2 horns.

Doktorski spoke about the use of the accordion instead of the piano in Rhapsody in Blue:

There are historic precedents for using accordion instead of piano for the Rhapsody: George Gershwin allowed his Rhapsody in Blue to be played in its entirety by an accordionist (Cornell Smelser with the Ohman-Arden Orchestra) on the radio. This was on the evening of April 20, 1931. The only other musicians allowed to broadcast this work at that time were Paul Whiteman (with his orchestra) and Jesse Crawford, organist.(Anthony Galla-Rini personally told me that Smelser "was unusually accomplished, but for some reason never became famous.")

On May 7, 1939 at Kimball Hall in Chicago, concert accordionist Arthur Metzler played Gershwin's Rhapsody with a symphonic orchestra (some were members of the Chicago Symphony and others were members of downtown Chicago theater pit orchestras) under the direction of Metzler's teacher, Andy Rizzo. They performed the complete Ferde Grofe symphonic arrangement without cuts. Metzler personally sent me a copy of the program (tickets were 75 cents each -- including tax!)

Also on the program were overtures by Offenbach, Rossini, Von Suppe and Herold and a movement from Shubert's Unfinished Symphony.

Since that time, The Rhapsody has become a staple of the accordion repertoire, and it has inspired other composers to write works for accordion and orchestra.

From aatlas@email.gc.cuny.edu Tue Mar 31 10:41:51 1998
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 08:39:20 -0500 (EST)
From: Allan Atlas -- aatlas@email.gc.cuny.edu
To: free-reed@trfn.clpgh.org

dear henry: have had an article, THE RESPECTABLE CONCERTINA, accepted (provisionally, until i make the few revisions they'd like to have made) by the british musicological journal MUSIC & LETTERS. . .will appear in the May '99 issue. . .just about a year from now. . .covers things like new music for the english concertina. . .notable recordings and performances. . .new research. . .entry into dutch (and british???) music-education curricula. . .new home for wayne's collection at horniman museum. . .and up-coming wheatstone bicentennial in 2002. . .

best, allan

26 of March 1998

Spring Festival 20º Century Music in Salamanca (Spain)

Place: Teatro Caja Duero-Plaza Santa Teresa
Time:20:30
Organizer: Salamanca University

Music: Paisaje Nocturno for Solo-Accordion and Chamber Ensemble (piano, celesta, oboe, clarinete, violin, viola and Cello) by Spanish composer Josep Soler.

Other Music in the concert: Francesconi, Bohi, Gª Laborda, Arias, Turina...

31 of March 1998

Same Program as Salamanca but in Madrid (Spain)

Place: Circulo de Bellas Artes -C/ Alcalá 42-Madri
Time: 19:00 h.
(Record for Radio Nacional de España)
Organizer: Circulo de Bellas Artes

3 of April
V 20 Century Music Days in Segovia

Place: Church San Juan de los Caballeros de Segovia
Time: 20.30 h.
Organizer: Foundation Juan de Borbon.

Program: Adagio bu S. Barber
5 Mouv. for String Orchestra by A. Webern
Seven Words for Bayan, Cello and String Orchestra by S. Gubaidulina

Angel Luis Castaño, accordion
David Apellaniz, cello
Fabian Panisello, conducteur
STRING ORCHESTRA Andres Segovia of Madrid
(Record for Radio Nacional de España)

Other Artists in this series: Jean Pierre Dupuy , piano. Ensemble Ciudad de Segovia, Proyecto Gerhard, J.R. Encinar, conducteur......

26 of April

Ciclo de Conciertos de Tres Cantos (Madrid)
Place: Salón de Cultura de Tres Cantos (Madrid)
Time: 12 h
Program: Bach, Albeniz, Moussorgsky, Stravinsky, Piazzolla, Torres, etc...

Solo Accordion and Bandoneon: Angel Luis Castaño In Duo also with: Raquel Ruiz 2º accordion

July:

-In Segovia (Spain), first performing of Feliniana for accordion and chamber by argentinian composer Jorge de Ortuzar.

-In Segovia (Spain), monographic Astor Piazzolla. Ensemble Ciudad de Segovia and Angel Luis Castaño ,accordion and Bandoneon. (Record for Radio Nacional de España)

August:

-In Mondariz (Pontevedra-Spain), stage for many instruments, also accordion, Professor Angel Luis Castaño.

September:

-In Alicante (Spain), in the most important Festival of contemporary music in Spain. First Performing of music by composers as Camarero, Prieto, Olavide by Accordionists Solo Angel Luis Castaño.
(Record for Radio Nacional de España)

-In Sevilla (Spain), first performing of music by Cesar Camarero for Accordion and Saxo.

The Polish American Journal featured an interview with The Classical Free-Reed, Inc. founder, Henry Doktorski, in an article titled No Accordion Jokes, Please which appeared in their March 1998 issue. Following are excepts from the article:

Classical Accordionist Henry Doktorski has just completed a book on the history of the accordion in classical music which is scheduled to be published this Spring by the European publisher Samfundet. The book, which has a significant section on accordion music by Polish composers, has been hailed as "enlightening and refreshing" and "a significant literary contribution to the music world" (quote by Maestro Anthony Galla-Rini from San Marcos California).

Doktorski, a third generation Polish American, spoke about the importance of Polish composers in the history of the classical accordion, "The accordion is very prominent in the folk music of Poland and therefore is very much loved by the people. Yet Polish classical composers also respect the instrument and compose sonatas and concertos for the accordion, in stark contrast with the general lack of respect accorded the instrument by American composers and classical music lovers in general.

"During the years from 1955 to 1996, eighty-eight Polish composers wrote a total of 431 pieces for the accordion, including 206 works for solo accordion, 179 chamber music pieces, 22 concerti and 24 orchestral pieces. The accordion is taught at the conservatory level in many Polish universities, such as the Akademia Muzyczna im. Fryderyka Chopina in Warsaw."

He has also recorded a compact disc of Christmas music for accordion and chamber orchestra, which includes Doktorski's own composition, Suite on Four Polish Carols, which is broadcast often by classical radio stations throughout the United States, not only during the Christmas season, but also at other times of the year.

Charles Smoke, program director for WHIL-FM in Mobile Alabama, wrote, "Your CD . . . increased our appreciation of the accordion as a 'serious' instrument. I thank you particularly for the Suite on Four Polish Carols, which includes the only recording I've encountered of one of my favorites: Lulajze Jesuniu."

Doktorski is presently looking for funding for a future CD: a 60 minute compilation of Polish koledy for accordion and string quintet.

Concertinist Allan Atlas, author of The Wheatstone Concertina in Victorian England, will perform two Astor Piazzolla pieces at a memorial concert in tribute to the late Barry S. Brook on Thursday, March 12th, 1998, 7:30 p.m. at the Graduate Center of The City University of New York located at 33 West 42nd Street, 3rd-floor studio, New York City.

Brook was a musicologist and specialist in 18th-century music (Pergolesi, Haydn, Mozart, et al.) and was the founder of RILM ABSTRACTS, which indexes and abstracts all musicological literature each year. The concert program includes keyboard music by Rameau, Schubert, Faure, some 16th-century French chansons, a setting of the Salve Regina by Pergolesi and two tangos by Piazzolla.

For more information, contact Allan Atlas at aatlas@email.gc.cuny.edu.

Accordionist Peter Di Bono performed with the San Jose Symphony (California) under the direction of conductor Theo Alcantara on February 6th and 7th in Dances from "The Dream of Valentino" by Dominick Argento. The work is about the life of the movie matinee idol, Rudolph Valentino. Argento has written several operas, and received the 1975 Pulitzer Prize in Music.

This piece featured the accordion because the composer felt that the sound called up a rich nostalgia for the bygone era of Valentino. Di Bono was seated just to the left of the conductor, in front of the first violins. Most of his playing was solo, with the orchestra accompanying him.

It is with great sadness we must report the death of concert accordionist Sergei Matusewitch who passed away Friday, 23 January 1998 of a massive heart attack. He was the brother of Boris Matusewitch and the son of Gregory Matusewitch, both noted concertinists. An essay on this musical family (by nephew Eric Matusewitch) may be found on this web-site under the Articles & Essays section. Eric's e-mail address follows the article for those who wish to send personal condolences to the family.

Sergei's widow supports people living with HIV and has asked that those wishing to express their sadness in a material fashion do so by making a donation to the following organization in Sergei's name.

After a successful European tour in May, 1996 and the recent release of the CD, Accordion Tribe, Guy Klucevsek will again head a quartet of accordionists/composers on a tour of nine European cities during April, 1998. Besides his own compositional and musical talents, the group will include those of Pauline Oliveros, Amy Denio and Alan Bern, each recognized not only as a skilled musician, but a barrier-breaking composer within his or her particular musical circle. To quote the press release: "The program will feature solos and combinations, compositions and collaborations from individuals and collective group members [this] will no doubt be a major event in the accordion renaissance." Interested parties may obtain information through the following:

As noted in The Irish Times on Tuesday, 13 January 1998, a work by composer Sofia Guaidulina (b. 1931) was performed during a lunch-time concert in the John Field Room of the National Concert Hall on 9 January in Dublin. Performers included Alan Smale, violin; David James, 'cello and virtuoso accordionist Dermot Dunne.

The five movement work was lauded by Times reviewer Martin Adams who described its elusive qualities of "sounds emerging from stillness" and "subtle shifts of colour and volume." He praised the performance, finding it "absorbing" and stating that "the music has character!"

Dermot Dunne, the concert accordionist of the performance was awarded the Young Musician of the Year prize two years ago and subsequently went to Russia to further his studies.