(additional news -- in English, German, French, Italian, Russian, Chinese
and Japanese -- may be found at:
Accordions Worldwide Weekly News
December: Guoping Zhang, concert accordionist in the China Broadcasting Art Troupe in Beijing, has released a 56 minute cassette tape of twelve keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757). Zhang placed sixth at the 1987 Klingenthal Competition and was the first Chinese accordionist to play in this important international event. For more information, contact him directly at gpzhang@public3.bta.net.cn.
December: The Center for the Study of Free-Reed Instruments, a member of the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation of The Graduate Center of The City University of New York has published the first volume of The Free-Reed Journal.
The 116 page soft cover book, conceived and edited by Allan W. Atlas, contains five articles and five reviews, as well as a bibliography and a music supplement. The journal adheres to the highest standards of scholarship and covers a broad range of topics, such as acoustics, organology, history, sociology, iconography, repertory, performance traditions, etc. The inaugural issue examines five different instruments: accordion, concertina, harmonica, harmonium and khaen. Following are the authors and titles of the five articles:
Stephen Chambers: Louis Lachenal: "Engineer and Concertina Manufacturer"Contact Pendragon Press for ordering information.Robert Young McMahan: Classical Music for Accordion by African-American Composers
Terry E. Miller: The Khaen, Northeast Thailand's Free-Reed Mouth Organ in the Age of Modernization
Peter Manuel: The Harmonium in Indian and Indo-Caribbean Music: From Colonial Tool to Nationalist Icon
Jared Snyder: Rusted Reeds: A Short Survey of Historic and Field Recordings of Free-Reeds from Africa
December 1999: Victoria Accordions (Germany) has just released an impressive catalog of sheet music for accordion as well as an equally impressive catalog of compact discs. The CD catalog lists nearly two hundred compact discs, and the vast majority of them are classical recordings by great virtuoso performers such as Mogens Ellegaard (1 CD), Teodoro Anzellotti (4 CDs), Hugo Noth (7 CDs), Friedrich Lips (10 CDs), Stefan Hussong (11 CDs), Astor Piazzolla (11 CDs), as well as hundreds of other performers. There are also jazz CDs (10 by Richard Galliano) and even some harmonica CDs.
The sheet music catalog is even more impressive. More than THREE THOUSAND compositions are included; 62 pages of classical accordion music by great composers like the French composer Alain Abbott (42 compositions), the Finnish composer Kalevi Aho (Sonata Nos. 1 and 2 for accordion), the French composer Patrick Busseuil (34 compositions), the American composer Paul Creston (Invention Nos. 1 and 2 for accordion), the Czechoslovakian composer Jindrich Feld (8 pieces), the Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina (De Profundis and Et Exspecto), the Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa (Melodia and Sen V), to name just a few beginning with the letters A through H.
Page five lists 26 free-bass accordion methods. Pages six through 24 lists free-bass accordion solos. Pages 25 through 35 lists chamber music and pages 36 to 37 list over 100 compositions for accordion and orchestra. Pages 38 - 39 lists standard bass accordion methods. Pages 40 - 49 lists standard bass accordion solos and pages 50 - 62 lists musette, tango and jazz pieces.
The catalogs may be ordered by contacting Victoria Accordions at the following address:
Tel. 0049 - (0)5136-896669
Fax. 0049 - (0)5136-896665
Email: victorianoten@aol.com
Bernd Eichler (Mittenwalde): Zur Postion der sogenannen durchschlagenden Zunge im natulichen System der Musikinstrumente,Concerts were performed by:Christian Ahrens (Bochum): Zur Fruhgeschichte von Instrumenten mit durchschlagenden Zungen in Europa,
Maria Dunkel (Berlin): Tasten uber Tasten -- Zur ordnung der Tone,
Gunter Ziegenhais (Klingenthal): Der Einfluss der Schwingung von Stimmstocken und Fullung auf die Klang-und Spielqualitat des Akkordeons,
James Cottingham (Cedar Rapids, Iowa): Free-reed acoustics: Experimental and theoretical studies of the American reed organ,
Jogst P. Fricke (Koln): Pitch bending und das Harmonium als Reininstrument,
Rudolf Hopfner (Wien): Carl Andreas Stein und die Physharmonika,
Josiane Bran-Ricci (Paris): Invention and elegance in the 19th century: the French Melophone,
Michel Dieterien (Paris): Annotations to the history of French harmoniums,
Phil und Pam Fluke (Shipley, Great Britain): The Reed Organ Museum in Saltaire -- It's inception and development,
Jonas Braasch und Gregor Klinke (Bochum): that bane of Indian music -- Das Harmonium in India,
Jurgen Suttner (Siegen): Die verschidedenen Instrumententypen und die besonderen Merkmale der englischen Concertina-Bautradtion,
Sabine Klaus (Basel): Patentschriften und Musterinstrument. Fruhe Handhamonikas im Technischen Museum Wien,
Dieter Krickeberg (Berlin): Handharmonikas des Germanischen Nationalmuseums Nurnberg,
Josef Focht (Munchen): Handharmonikabau in Bayern,
Bo Nyuberg (Falun, Sweden): Carl Fridberg und Carl Johan Malmling -- Swedish accordion builders of the 19th century,
Christoph Wagner (Hebden Bridge, Great Britain): Zur Rezeption und weltweiten Verbreitung der Handharmonikainstrumente,
Harry Scurfield (Otley, Great Britain): The Squashbox, some history and some music,
Ann Savoy (Eunice, USA): The Evolution of Cajun and Creole Music in Southwest Louisiana,
Marc Savoy (Eunice, USA): The Hand Construction of the Diatonic Accordion,
Klaus Gutjahr (Berlin): Zum Nachbau historischer Bandonions.
Ryoko Morooka (Hannover): harmonium,
Joris Verdin (Nethen, Netherlands): harmonium,
Wim Wakker (Helmond, Netherlands): concertina,
Daniel Denecheau, Danel Colin (Paris): accordion,
The Savoy Cajun Band (USA): traditional Cajun-Musik,
Teodore Anzelotti (Norsingen): accordion.
The quintet will perform 2 concerts: the first on 18 February 2000 in City Hall Concert Hall, and the second on 25 February 2000 in Government House, with a slightly different programme, in a smaller venue. For more details, please refer to King's Harmonica Quintet website: http://home.netvigator.com/~cblau/khq
For more information, contact King's Harmonica Quintet.
The acoustics of the bawuAuthors and Titles of Invited Papers:
Laser vibrometer measurements on accordion reeds
The history of free-reed organ pipes
James P. Cottingham: 150 years of free reed research: The acoustics of the reed organ and harmonium from Helmholtz to the present.Rene' Causse', Nicolas Misdariis, and Denis Ricot: Studies of accordion reed vibrations - Applications in sound synthesis.
Henry T. Bahnson, James F. Antaki, and Quinter C. Beery: Physics, phoenetics and physiology of the diatonic harmonica.
Jonas Braasch and Christian Ahrens: Perception of free reed organ stops
Allan W. Atlas: Concertinas: nuts, bolts, and music.
Terry E. Miller: The construction and operation of the khaen.
For more information contact:
James P. Cottingham
Dept. of Physics
Coe College
Cedar Rapids, IA 52402
USA
(phone) 319-399-8597;
(Fax) 319-399-8748;
jcotting@coe.edu
For more information, contact
Monika Lustig
Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein
PF 24
38 881 Blankenburg
Germany.
Email: Kloster.Michaelstein@t-online.de
by Allan Kozinn
from The New York Times
Mr. Deiro, who was known as Lee, played the accordion and, though he did not give concerts, had an important influence on the accordion world. His publishing house, Pietro Deiro Publications, had a catalog of nearly 10,000 works, ranging from educational material and music in different national styles to serious concert works by American composers, among them Henry Cowell, Paul Creston, Alan Hovhaness and Virgil Thomson.
By establishing a literature of serious works composed specifically for the instrument, Mr. Deiro helped give the accordion a reputation for versatility when it had been used mainly for folk music.
Mr. Deiro came by his passion for the accordion naturally. His father, for whom he was named, is considered by many historians of the accordion to be the father of the instrument as it is known today.
The elder Pietro Deiro also made recordings, started the publishing company that bears his name, and founded the Pietro Deiro Accordion School in Greenwich Village, with which his son was also associated. He died in 1954, and was the subject of an opera, "Opera Fisarmonica," by William Schimmel, in 1992.
The younger Mr. Deiro was born in New York on Sept. 30, 1913, and went into the publishing business when he was a teen-ager. He also followed in his father's footsteps as a member of the board of the American Accordionists' Association.
American concert accordionist/bandoneonist Peter Soave has been appointed Instructor of Bandoneon and Concert Accordion at Wayne State University in Detroit. In addition, he will be performing accordion with the Three Tenors on July 17 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Tickets are sold out. The stadium seating capacity is 50,000. This will be their only North American appearance for 1999.
Submitted by jthanson@aa.net (Toby Hanson)
June 1, 1999: I just returned from a screening of the documentary film "Rabbit in the Moon" by Emiko Omori at the Seattle Int'l Film Festival. It's a documentary about Japanese internment in the US during WWII. The reason I went to see the film is because I was the accordionist hired to play on the soundtrack. It's an excellent film with a very beautiful score by Seattle composer (and one of my teachers at Cornish) Janice Giteck. The accordion isn't prominently featured in the score as most of the time it was scored to play with the left hand alone in unison with the low strings. The sonic effect is quite striking, sounding like a larger, living, breathing string section. The only time it's really heard as a distinctive solo voice is a scene when old photos of Japanese businesses are shown and the accordion plays a single note line on the musette reeds (the part was scored for musette-tuned accordion). It's a wonderful film and does a very profound job of telling a story that is often shied away from. Fortunately, PBS will be broadcasting the film in their POV series on July 6, 1999.
Recording the soundtrack was quite a challenge. I got the call last October two weeks before the recording session. Most of the performers along with the production crew was flown up to Seattle from San Francisco. I was one of about six local musicians who were used for the session, recorded at Jack Straw studios. The arranger, a friend of mine, took great care to see that the accordion part was prepared properly so that no re-scoring was required on my part as we were on a very tight production schedule. We had only three days to record the entire soundtrack! I played in one of the Sunday morning sessions in the big room at Jack Straw. It was quite an honor to be in the room with some of Seattle's best musicians. The parts arrived on our stands promptly at 10am and we set to recording straight away. Fortunately, thanks to David's careful preparation of the parts, the reading was easy and we nailed everything in no more than three takes at the most. The biggest challenge was lack of a producer for the recording session. All musical decisions were made between the composer and director and quite often resulted in labored discussions between the two as the musicians sat in the studio with the clock running. That's a stressful situation for any player, let alone me, who had never recorded a film score before in his entire life! We did manage to complete the session in time and the crew and other musicians returned to California very happy with our work.
And don't worry...there's no chance of me putting Frank Marocco out of work any time soon!
Tuesday June 1, 1999, 8 pm: HARD COAL: SONGS & INSTRUMENTALS WITH THE ORIGINAL CAST OF THE BLOOMSBURG THEATRE ENSEMBLE PRODUCTION
Peter Brown, Tom Byrn, Elizabeth Dowd, Samantha Phillips and Seth Reichgott, Voices; Dillon Wright-FitzGerald, Violin; Guy Klucevsek, Compositions/Arrangements/Accordion "Hard Coal: Life in the Region" celebrates the lives of the miners and families who have lived and worked in the anthracite fields of eastern Pennsylvania for generations, told through the words of the people who have lived these stories. Created by ensemble co-directors James Goode and Laurie McCants, "Hard Coal" will have just completed a 5-week run at the Alvina Krause Theatre in Bloomsburg, Pa., prior to this concert version at Tonic.
The lyrics for Klucevsek's songs consist entirely of found materials taken from journals, letters, speeches, poems, oral histories, newspaper accounts, historical records, regional cookbooks and traditional songs. Guy Klucevsek would like to dedicate this concert to the memory of his uncle, Raymond Dereani, whose family raised him, and who worked in the coal fields of Slovenia and western Pennsylvania for over 50 years.
Tonic is located at 107 Norfolk Street (between Delancey and Rivington), New York City; information: (212) 358-7501; or on the web at http://www.tonic107.com/. Admission is $10.
April 20-25, 1999: Det Danske Harmonika Akademi sponsored a six-day accordion festival in Birkerød, Denmark called Euromonika 2000. . Featured performers were The Gordon Pipes and Drums, Charlotte Britt Hansen & Bælgungerne, Børnesoli, Majken Bell & Center Seniorerne and the Birkerød Harmonika Orkester.
Tour with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta May 1999 - ASTOR PIAZZOLLA's Bandoneon Concerto
May 12th - Poole
May 13th - Torquay
May 14th - Basingstoke
May 20th - Weymouth
May 22nd - Bradford upon Avon
May 27th - Truro
June 4th - Salisbury Festival - solo recital
June 11th + 1th - Aldeburgh Festival. THOMAS ADES chamber opera 'Powder
her Face'
June 12th - Aldeburgh Festival. Duo concert with Geir Draugsvoll
June 30th + - Almeda Festval. ADES - 'Powder her Face'
July 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 10th
August 1st - 6th - Dartington International Summer school -
Masterclasses & solo recital on 5th Aug.
Five articles from The Classical Free-Reed, Inc. website have been selected to appear in the second annual RootsWorld Free-Reed Festival. They are:
The Asian Free Reed by Robert Garfias
An Introduction to the Khaen of Laos by Joseph Lilly
The Beatles and the Free-Reed Instruments by Henry Doktorski
Mouth Organs East and West (concert review) by Henry Doktorski
Pope Approves Accordion from Accordion World (1946)
The Classical Free-Reed, Inc. Online Gift Store has expanded to include 19 CDs currently for sale, including recordings by Friedrich Lips, Guy Klucevsek, Peter Soave, Joseph Petric and others.
April 21, 1999: The Classical Free-Reed, Inc. staff is pleased to announce the addition of frames to our website. This allows the menu to be accessible at all times on the left side of your monitor, although it does slightly constrict the right side content section of the page. Visitors who prefer reading the un-framed version can still access it at http://trfn.clpgh.org/free-reed/main.shtml.
Unfortunately, we had to install a new visitor counter starting at zero. For the record, we had 16,020 visitors between August 21, 1997 and April 21, 1999 (an average rate of 801 visitors per month).
April 15, 1999: Concert accordionist Henry Doktorski will perform with members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in a concert to be held at the Frick Art Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA) on May 16, 1999. The concert will include Milonga del Angel by the Argentinean composer/bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) and Waltzes from "Rosen aus dem Süden" by the celebrated Viennese composer/conductor Johann Strauss (1825-1899).
Strauss, known during his time as "The Waltz King," is best known for his opera Die Fledermaus, and his polkas, marches and waltzes, such as Tritsch-Tratsch Polka, Radetzky March, Frühlingsstimmen, and An der schönen blauen Danube.
Waltzes from "Rosen aus dem Süden" was originally written for string quintet, piano and harmonium. Doktorski will play the harmonium part on the accordion. Milonga del Angel will be performed in a version for accordion and string quartet arranged by Cesar Olguin. For more information, write to free-reed@trfn.clpgh.org.
April 9, 1999 was the USA premiere of Waltz for Accordion and Strings by New Zealand composer Gary Daverne. Rita Weinbuch Davidson performed as soloist with the New Jersey Intergenerational Orchestra -- an award winning orchestra comprised of musicians ages 7 to 87 -- at the outdoor plaza series of Lincoln Center in New York City.
Rita Davidson is a virtusoso accordionist having won the New Jersey State Championship and many other national awards. She has been teaching vocal music in the West Orange Public School System for many years and uses the accordion on a daily basis in the teaching of her classes. She is also on the board of Directors of the Accordion Teachers Association of New Jersey and is also a violist with the New Jersey Intergenerational Orchestra.
She was a student of the late Eugene Ettore, noted accordionist, teacher, and composer and recorded a cassette of his virtuoso accordion conmpositions which includes Agitato, Lullaby and Awakening, Concert Etude, Contrast, Rhapsodie Espagnol among others.
Davidson said, "Waltz for Accordion and Strings is an appealing blend of accordion and string orchestra. It is not intended to be an accordion solo accompanied by the strings but is a unique and wonderful combination of the accordion with the string orchestra. In fact, it elevates the status of the accordion to that of the symphonic instruments."
Gary Daverne is an award winning composer and conductor of the Auckland Symphony Orchestra. He is well-known in television, radio and the recording industry as a composer, arranger and musical director. As a record producer he has produced over forty albums with one Platinum and three Gold records to his credit. He is highly regarded in the advertising and film industry for his writing and producing of over 600 advertising jingles and film sound tracks. His arrangements for accordion orchestra are used extensively by the Air New Zealand Accordion Orchestra who have received dozens of standing ovations around the world for their excellence.
(submitted by Rita Davidson)
April 6, 1999: The Titano Trio, featuring Nancy Anderson, Lillian Dows and Judith Linder, have re-released their 1967 recording on cassette. The trio formed more than thirty years ago when the members were students at the University of Houston under the tutulage of the late Willard A. Palmer. The program contains: Mozart's Rondo from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre, Leroy Anderson's Serenata, Vivaldi's Allegro from Concerto Grosso (Op. 3 No. 8), Lerner-Lowe's Selections from "My Fair Lady" and Shostakovich's Polka from "The Golden Age."
Order from: Nancy Anderson/Brandon at 815-964-9716 or 815-398-5655.
April 6, 1999: Russian bayanist and composer Vladimir Zubitsky has released a cassette of original works, some in popular style, some in concert style. The program contains: Partita Concertante No. 2, Poema di Valzer, Scherzo Jazz, Leggenda, Festa Nelle Montagne, Da Fancelli a Galliano and Rossiniana. Order from Vladimir Zubitsky, Via Confalonieri, 17, 6100 PESARO, Italy. Telephone and fax: 0721/41.60.14. Email: psfb9qgo@tellnet.pesaro.ps.it
March 22, 1999: Four Time World Champion Bayanist, Peter Soave, recently added the bandoneon to his list of instruments and has achieved phenomenal success playing the music of Astor Piazzolla. On November 5th and 6th 1998 he performed Piazzolla's Concerto for Bandoneon (Aconcagua) with the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Symphony. On December 31st, 1998, he performed Piazzolla's Three Tangos with the Detroit Symphony with conductor Neeme Jarvi. On January 8th and 9th, 1999, he performed Five Tango Sensations with the Phoenix Symphony. On January 22nd through 29th 1999, he performed and recorded Five Tango Sensations with the Zagreb Quartet in Zagreb Croatia, to be released in April on the Jazzette label.
Upcoming performances include:
March 18, 1999: Thesaurus of Scales for C-System Chromatic Accordion and C-System Bayan by Jim Wadowick
According to the author, "the book contains button charts with fingerings, and musical notation of all possible scale patterns for both right and left hands in all 12 major and minor keys. It should be of great help to PA players switching to CA, and also advanced played wishing to improve their general technique."
For more information, contact:
JaMar Music (Jim Wadowick)
215 Glenwood Ave.
Troy, AL 36081
phone: 334-566-1664
E-mail: wadowick@p-c-net.net
3/25, 7:30 St. Paul's United Church of Christ, St. Paul, MN
3/27, 7:00 First Unitarian Universalist Society, Madison WI
3/28, 2:00 St. Peter's church, New York, NY
3/29, 12:00 Noon St. Paul's Chapel, New York, NY
3/31, 7:30 Wichita State University, Wichita, KS
The featured accordionist will be Heike Sturm of Germany.
March 15, 1999: PRIMO TEMA music publishers intends to promote knowledge of Italian music and in particular classical and popular accordion music (and piano music) - and invites readers to join their new "Free Music" mailing list, which will enable readers to receive a free fortnightly piece of accordion music (or piano music) in .pdf Acrobat format.
They only ask performers to let them know of any public performances of their compositions - the composition title, the name of the performer, the premises where the performance was given, the date and the town or country where the concert was held By doing so you will be giving the composers and the editors of their music their due satisfaction.
For more information contact:
PRIMO TEMA Publishing Music House
Strada del Palazzo, 91
65125
PESCARA (PE) - ITALY
Tel. +39 085 4171061
E-mail: primotema@webzone.it
Website:
http://www.webzone.it/primotema
Guy Klucevsek's upcoming performances will be:
Saturday, March 20, BAMcafe (Brooklyn Academy of Music), with "Charms of the Night Sky," Dave Douglas, Mark Feldman, Greg Cohen, GK. 10 PM, Free.
Thursday, March 25, Wesleyan University, Student Center, Middletown, CT. Solo Concert. 8PM, Free.
Friday, March 26, BAMcafe, Solo Concert. 9PM, Free.
Monday, March 29, Experimental Intermedia Foundation; concert by composer Lois V. Vierk, including her accordion solo, Blue Jets Red Sprites. 224 Centre St., NYC. 9PM, $4.99 per person (Not-free, but hey, it's cheap!)
James P. Cottingham, Christopher H. Reed, and Michael Busha, Physics
Department, Coe College, Cedar Rapids, IA 52402
Variation of frequency with blowing pressure for an air-driven
free reed
Jonas Braasch and Christian Ahrens, Ruhr University, D-44780 Bochum,
Germany
Attack transients of free reed organ pipes
Friday, 2/26/99: All Accordions All the Time, with Ted Reichman and Anne De Marinis, including Dances for Wave Hill scores; David Krakauer, Clarinetheater, original compositions for acoustic clarinet and sampled sounds drawing from klezmer, jazz and experimental new music.
Saturday, 2/27/99: The Klucevsek/Bern Unit, with Alan Bern, acc/piano; David Krakauer, same as 2/26, joined by Uri Caine, piano.
The Kitchen is located at 512 W. 19th Street (between 10th & 11th Aves) in
Manhattan.
Telephone: (212) 255-5793
Website: http://www.thekitchen.org
The tango nuevo ensemble Norteño will be performing in concert in the Bel Canto Wind Quintet series on Sunday, February 21, 1999 at the First Unitarian Church, 30 Cleary Avenue (in the west end), Ottawa, Canada at 3:00 p.m.
Norteño consists of Pierre-Paul Provencher (bandoneon), Laurie Rosewarne (piano), Solange Tremblay (violin), Garry Elliott (guitar), and Nicolas Tremblay (double-bass). Tickets are available at the door, at $15 (adult) and $13 (seniors and students).
The program includes:
Please visit www.norteno.qc.ca for more information.
Special Session at the 138th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America on 1-5 November 1999 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Columbus, Ohio, USA
The Acoustics of Free Reed Musical Instruments
Speakers have been invited on the following topics:
Laboratory measurements on individual free reeds
Theoretical models for the air-driven free reed
Acoustics of the reed organ
Pitch bending in the harmonica
The Asian free reed mouth organs
Laboratory measurements on the accordion
Free-reed pipe organ pipes
It is anticipated that the session will conclude with an informal demonstration "concert" following presentation of the papers in which a number of free-reed instruments will be played. This session is sponsored by the ASA Technical Committee on Musical Acoustics (TCM). Expected deadline for receipt of Abstracts at ASA - Early June, 1999. General information about the meeting and instructions for contributors is at the ASA website: http://asa.aip.org/
For information about this special session only, contact
January 25, 1999: The Classical Free-Reed, Inc. founder Henry Doktorski spoke with Iranian/American composer Reza Vali at a concert of The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and asked him to write something for accordion. Mr. Vali exclaimed, "The accordion was actually the first instrument I played on as a child! My father had one in the house at the time. However, I didn't know how to hold the instrument, so I laid it on the floor, pushed the bellows with my feet and played with both hands upon the keyboard. My mother did not want me to study music, as she wanted me to become a doctor. However, when I got older I rebelled and became a composer."
Reza Vali studied at the Conservatory of Music in Teheran, the Acadmey of Music in Vienna and the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently a faculty member of the Department of Music at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. His compositions, for large orchestra, string quartet, piano and voice have been performed in the United States, Europe, South America and Australia. His first string quartet, composed for and premiered by the Kronos Quartet, was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "urgent, cogent and tautly dramatic."
January 1999: The weekly National Public Radio program The Record Shelf recently featured an interview with David Harrington, first violinist and founding member of the Kronos Quartet. Mr. Harrington spoke about their 1991 collaboration with Argentinean composer/bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla, which he claimed was one of the high points of his career with Kronos. Host Jim Svejda played the recording of the first movement of Piazzolla's Five Tango Sensations -- featuring the composer on bandoneon. Harrington said that they only performed the piece twice, and recorded it after the first performance. The CD is available from Elektra Nonesuch.
January 1999: The Bar Theater Co. will present the latest spin on early music in a concert series titled, "New Realities, Early Music," which features composer/ accordionist William Schimmel in concert on January 26, 1999.
In this unique series, Early Music works as a springboard for four different musical groups, eliciting a new dialogue on early music. Schimmel's segment closes the series with "Strange Narcissism, New Realities on Early Music." The performance will include a medieval rendition of The Valley of the Dolls, directed and choreographed by Micki Goodman, featuring singer Kathleen Goodman.
The concerts take place at the Flea located at 41 White St. in Tribeca, New York City. For reservations and information call 212/226-0051. This news provided by Faithe Deffner, president of the American Accordionists' Association.
January 1999: With great sadness I must announce the passing of a truly fine American bayanist, Robert Sattler, on December 19, 1998. Robert switched from piano-accordion to bayan because he so loved the Russian literature. He recorded one excellent CD, Robert Sattler Plays the Bayan which included two live performances with The Osipov Orchestra of Russian Folk Instruments of Moscow, directed by conductor Nikolai Kalinin. Robert had as his mentor one of the two greatest accordionists in the world, Professor Vyacheslav Semyonov of the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow, Russia. Robert was instrumental in arranging for two tours to the United States of both the Professor and his wife Natalia, who is also a professor of folk string instruments.
The members of the Bay Area Accordion Club can well remember the two concerts as being the most amazing displays of technical and musical virtuosity we ever witnessed. Only Prof. Frederich Lips was able to impress us in another concert in such a dramatic way. Robert joined in duets with the Semyonovs and certainly did an outstanding job of performing.
During the visits I was President of the club and had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with the Semyonovs and Robert. Robert was quite an accomplished classic music performer on the bayan in his own right. Several members did note that at his last concert he did seem a little out of it....we attributed that to exhaustion from his hectic tour schedule. Sadly we may have seen the early symptoms of that fatal brain tumor. It is sad when we loose ANY accordionist but when it is such a young, talented and committed person we feel a special loss.
On behalf of The Classical Free-Reed, Inc. and all lovers of the classical accordion throughout the world, I offer my condolences to Robert's family and friends.
Bob Berta
and The Classical Free-Reed, Inc. staff
January 1999: Guy Klucevsek will play solo at Tonic on Thursday evening, 7 January, 1999; his sets start at 9:00 & 10:30 PM. Opening each set will be will be a duo of Ted Reichman, accordion, and Eyvind Kang, violin, playing compositions inspired by North African, Indian and Eastern European music.
Klucevsek's repertoire will likely include John Zorn's "Road Runner," Jerome Kitzke's "Breath and Bone," his own compositions, "Scenes From a Mirage," "Perusal," "Dining in the Rough in the Buff," "Old Woman Who Dances With the Sea;" and, perhaps, a polka from the fringe or two.
Tonic is at 107 Norfolk Street, between Delancey and Rivington in New York City. Please call (212) 358-7503 for further information. This is also a great neighborhood for good, inexpensive eats. Rattner's Deli is just around the corner, as are excellent Chinese, Cuban and vegetarian restaurants.
For news prior to 1999, please see News Bulletins: 1998 and 1997.
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