Anyone at atg festival?

[breezybellows]

My daughters and I are here for the competitions and exams.

All out competitions were done yesterday and I'm glad that it all went by without any major mishaps. For my free bass solo category, I played Primavera by Ludovico Einaudi. I was Judged by Amy Jo Sawyer and Gordon Kohl. Amy Joe Sawyer has been an accomplished composer for free bass accordion and I picked up a lot of her published works from the shop.

I had to go to a different room for my digital accordion competition. The judges were Stas Venglevski and Grayson Maysefield. Getting judged by two of the best accordion players sitting 8 feet away from me was nerve wrecking. That made the long drive totally worth it.

Grayson was also kind enough to provide me some tips on how I can adjust some parameters in my digital accordion to make it respond better. I'll see if I can find the opportunity to meet Stas for feedback before I leave.

My daughters have been working really hard on their solo and duet selections for the competitions. They did really well and were happy that it came out good.

We have our exams today.

 

[Tom]

My daughters and I are here for the competitions and exams.

All out competitions were done yesterday and I'm glad that it all went by without any major mishaps. For my free bass solo category, I played Primavera by Ludovico Einaudi. I was Judged by Amy Jo Sawyer and Gordon Kohl. Amy Joe Sawyer has been an accomplished composer for free bass accordion and I picked up a lot of her published works from the shop.

I had to go to a different room for my digital accordion competition. The judges were Stas Venglevski and Grayson Maysefield. Getting judged by two of the best accordion players sitting 8 feet away from me was nerve wrecking. That made the long drive totally worth it.

Grayson was also kind enough to provide me some tips on how I can adjust some parameters in my digital accordion to make it respond better. I'll see if I can find the opportunity to meet Stas for feedback before I leave.

My daughters have been working really hard on their solo and duet selections for the competitions. They did really well and were happy that it came out good.

We have our exams today.

Good luck to you and your family Breezy!

 

[JeffJetton]

Congrats! And good luck with the exams.

I've been an ATG member for several years but always figured the convention was too hoity-toit for the likes of me.

 

[Alans]

Breezy,I hope to attend ATG next year. Could you please share your thoughts on the convention.

 

[breezybellows]

Breezy,I hope to attend ATG next year. Could you please share your thoughts on the convention.

It was a week long event. Competitions were spread out through multiple days.

There were workshops and concerts every day. We purchased the youth competitor package that would let us go to all concerts and workshops (except for the ones where food is served).

We didn't attend the concerts. My daughters were practicing daily for their competitions and exams. So I didn't want to overwhelm them with more accordion. So we mostly went out in the evening. We did attend the festival orchestra.

There were arrangements made by teachers that were available for sale. I found a lot of music for free bass accordion (Amy Jo Sawyer, Michael Bridge and Gregory Fainshtein). Given how hard it is to get material for free bass accordion, this was awesome.

In addition to the music and CDs that were sold at the registration area, there was also a dealer room. The dealer room had a Scandalli Booth with about 5-6 Scandalli accordions from Italy. There was another booth for Ernest Defner (Busso Music). They had the new Titano (made by Pigini), Pigini and New Pan accordions. In addition to that, they had an extensive collection of books.

I would've liked to attend the concerts (especially Stas Venglevski, Michael Bridge and Grayson Masefield). As a consolation, I got to see Stas try out an accordion at the Scandalli Booth. I also got to see Michael Bridge perform a couple of songs before the festival orchestra performance started.

The competitions had a lot of categories (entertainment, Vistoso, original, digital, free bass) with different age groups. As opposed to other competitions I've been to I really liked the fact that the judges provided detailed written feedback along with the scores.

Overall, I really enjoyed it.

 

[Alans]

Thank-you for your thorough summary. It does sound incredible. I hope I can make it next year. ATG just posted a new video from the festival of the orchestra concert and I looked for you but I couldn’t see you. Now I understand you were in the audience with your daughters. The orchestra with the choir is wonderful. I recognize-Stas, Nikolay Bine,Grayson and Michael Bridge in the orchestra. Sounds like a great time. I hope your daughters enjoyed themselves. I don’t see Joe your teacher in the orchestra and I know he’s on the board.

 

[Alans]

What grade did you take at the festival and were you pleased with their assessment?

 

[breezybellows]

What grade did you take at the festival and were you pleased with their assessment?

I took grade 3 for free bass. My examiner was Amy Jo Sawyer. Throughout the practical exam, she gave me tips that I found very useful. I have to start my preparation for grade 4. I have until next summer before I can take the exam. So I'll probably target grade 5 (or 6 if things go well).

 

[Giovanni]

It's a small world I once met Amy jo sawyer and her husband at the Las Vegas Accordion Convention .
Her husband had been a jet fighter pilot in the USAF based in the UK in East Anglia .
He used to visit Norwich my home town often He knew the city well ......we had a good conversation about the city ,etc
He laughed and said jokingly he was once a jet Jockey ........now he is always carrying Amy Jo's accordion around .
A Lovely couple ...... A Fond memory of a brief encounter !!

 

[breezybellows]

It's a small world I once met Amy jo sawyer and her husband at the Las Vegas Accordion Convention .
Her husband had been a jet fighter pilot in the USAF based in the UK in East Anglia .
He used to visit Norwich my home town often He knew the city well ......we had a good conversation about the city ,etc
He laughed and said jokingly he was once a jet Jockey ........now he is always carrying Amy Jo's accordion around .
A Lovely couple ...... A Fond memory of a brief encounter !!

I also met Keith. He was very nice and we did chat on a few occasions. Interestingly, he was stationed an hour away from where I live.