Accordion Podcast and Concert in Leeds International Organ Festival 2020

[saundersbp]

Dear Forum Members,

Please see a press release below about an online accordion event this Friday and the coming Monday. The materials are also available after the events. You can find a little taster video from Qianyu Zhang here 

Hope it might of interest to some people!

Many thanks.

ACCORDION CONCERT AND PODCAST TAKES CENTRE STAGE IN THE LEEDS INTERNATIONAL ORGAN FESTIVAL 2020

Leeds International Organ Festival welcomes the Classical Accordion to its 2020 Festival with a special podcast and concert. 

The Podcast with Professor Owen Murray of the Royal Academy of Music is available from 1pm onward on Friday 19 June at www.anchor.fm/leedsiof  and the concert by his student Qianyu Zhang is available from 1.15pm onward on Monday 22 June at www.lioflive.org.uk 

The Leeds International Organ Festival is part of Diocese of Leeds Music, the largest choral and keyboard teaching programme in England for children and young people. Its particular focus is on areas of social marginalisation and economic deprivation, striving to offer the best possible musical opportunities in communities which are least likely to encounter them, but where hearts and minds are at their most open. Each week 4,500 children from across the region meet together in around 100 choral groups, and since the pandemic, these groups continue to meet online. These include the six choirs of Leeds Cathedral and are amongst the most broadcast and recorded in the UK.

Diocese of Leeds Music began an organ teaching programme in 2016 under the direction of David Pipe, previously the organist of York Minster. This now has 60 children from deprived backgrounds, with a large number of boys and girls from a rich diversity of ethnic heritages learning the instrument. In the near future we plan to extend our teaching offer to include the Classical Accordion, with a three year target of 60 students from economically deprived backgrounds taking free lessons in schools to build our programme of excellence and social responsibility through music. 

 

[Deleted member 48]

Hi,

Thanks for sharing the information about this beautiful project.
I watched some YT videos of Qianyu Zhang with her CBA. I see she plays C-system accordion.

Having read she started with accordion at the age of 4, I wonder, in China, did she start with C-system from the start at the age of 4?
Or did she switch to C-system CBA at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Owen Murray?

Do you have some info from people like Owen Murray or from China, how many Chinese accordion students play B-system and how many play C-system?

Just curious...

 

[saundersbp]

Hi Stephen - I've no idea about China but I'll try and find out!

 

[saundersbp]

The Accordion podcast is now available!
https://anchor.fm/leedsiof/episodes/Owen-Murray-efi7mb

 

[saundersbp]

The Accordion Concert from Samantha Zhang is now available!

 

[Deleted member 48]

The Accordion Concert from Samantha Zhang is now available!

 

[dunlustin]

Congratulations to Diocese of Leeds Music. How forward-thinking to include the accordion in an Organ Festival!
Invented in 1829, it took the French Authorities until 1986 to recognise the accordion as a musical instrument suitable for serious study.
And what an adventurous programme! The Accordion World has little to fear for its future with (relative) youngsters like Qianyu Zhang showing the way.

 

[saundersbp]

Thanks very much for your really kind comments Richard. I only took up the classical accordion last summer but think it is the most amazing keyboard instrument and guess it isn't well known yet in the UK because it's so young in musical instrument terms. I thought it was important to include it in the festival to share it's diversity with what tends to be quite a conservative audience.  So far the reaction has been great, especially so from children, and we'll be including more concerts and workshops every year now to create an audience and hopefully enthusiastic young learners going forward.

 

[saundersbp]

Hi,

Thanks for sharing the information about this beautiful project.
I watched some YT videos of Qianyu Zhang with her CBA. I see she plays C-system accordion.

Having read she started with accordion at the age of 4, I wonder, in China, did she start with C-system from the start at the age of 4?
Or did she switch to C-system CBA at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Owen Murray?

Do you have some info from people like Owen Murray or from China, how many Chinese accordion students play B-system and how many play C-system?

Just curious...

Hi Stephen - here are the answers from Qianyu Zhang about the accordion in China. Sorry for the delay:

1) I started to learn accordion with traditional keyboard accordion at the age 4 – because at that time there was no teacher of the classical accordion in China. I only started to learn the C system classical accordion when I was 12 years old – because this was when my Chinese teacher started to teach the C system accordion in China.


(2) Currently in China, there are more students studying the C system than the B system. I am sorry that I do not have an exact number because no one yet has tabulated this figure. Most of the accordion teachers in China are teaching the C system classical accordion – they themselves usually learned the C system when they were studying in Europe.

Hope that's of interest. I also found out myself that the Chinese Conservatoires now only admit students for CBA accordion, no longer piano accordion. I guess that will have a some impact in the course of a generation - its a big country and there must be a lot of conservatoires!

Best wishes, Ben

 

[Deleted member 48]

Hi,

Thanks for sharing the information about this beautiful project.
I watched some YT videos of Qianyu Zhang with her CBA. I see she plays C-system accordion.

Having read she started with accordion at the age of 4, I wonder, in China, did she start with C-system from the start at the age of 4?
Or did she switch to C-system CBA at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Owen Murray?

Do you have some info from people like Owen Murray or from China, how many Chinese accordion students play B-system and how many play C-system?

Just curious...

Hi Stephen - here are the answers from Qianyu Zhang about the accordion in China. Sorry for the delay:

1) I started to learn accordion with traditional keyboard accordion at the age 4 – because at that time there was no teacher of the classical accordion in China. I only started to learn the C system classical accordion when I was 12 years old – because this was when my Chinese teacher started to teach the C system accordion in China.


(2) Currently in China, there are more students studying the C system than the B system. I am sorry that I do not have an exact number because no one yet has tabulated this figure. Most of the accordion teachers in China are teaching the C system classical accordion – they themselves usually learned the C system when they were studying in Europe.

Hope that's of interest. I also found out myself that the Chinese Conservatoires now only admit students for CBA accordion, no longer piano accordion. I guess that will have a some impact in the course of a generation - its a big country and there must be a lot of conservatoires!

Best wishes, Ben

Hello Ben, 

Thank you very much for this information coming from China. 
I hope in the future we will have some statistics.

Perhaps the Confederation Internationale des Accordeonistes could help to collect statistics.