Siegmund
Well-known member
Yes, I suppose I really should have posted this a couple weeks, or months, ago, asking if any others on the forum planned to go...
I spent this past weekend at the above-named event. It was smallish (seating for ~250 at the concerts, and 100 to 150 actually were present) but the organizers were happy with attendance in the post-covid world.
Very much a something-for-everyone type of festival. Live music (15-minute sets by dozens of volunteers) in two venues, one indoor and one outdoor. Several workshops to attend, an opportunity for professional coaching sessions, an opportunity to play competitively. Displays of accordions for sale by Tempo Trend and Petosa.
The competition did not really get off the ground this year, with many categories attracting 0 or 1 contestant and none more than 4 - so in effect, the competition and the coaching sessions were pretty much the same thing in two different rooms.
The big highlight for me was getting to watch Sergei and Maria Teleshev playing an assortment of classical pieces from about 8 feet away, in one of the workshops. They started with Bach, talking about and demonstrating differences in how they present organ, string, and piano music. Then moved on to more modern music: a new piece to me, Armas Järnefelt's Berceuse for Violin and Orchestra (in effect, Maria playing violin and Sergei being the orchestra), 3 surprisingly listenable miniatures by Vitold Lutoslawski (originally clarinet+piano), and a new arrangement of the theme from Schindler's list.
The accordions for sale tended to the lower-end and were 90% PA, with a few C-systems and diatonics mixed in -- so it wasn't really the place to go if you wanted to be comparing Pigini and Bugari side by side, but I did get a nice sense of cassotto vs non-cassotto on otherwise almost identical instruments. (It confirmed what I already thought, that I need to have it on my next instrument.) Hearing several Rolands cemented my unprintable opinion of electronic accordion.
I may have decided I have to try steirische Harmonica in addition to CBA now... just what I need, one more expensive hobby. (But the gf says, great, buy all the accordions you want, if it keeps you from being able to afford to buy a plane... she shares my love of music but not my love of flying.)
I came home full of ideas for music I want to learn, for pieces I want to arrange, for classes I hope I see offered next year, for trying to have a 15-minute set and/or a competition set ready for next year. I am fired up, in a way that I never was after any of the classical-music events I went to and played in in 3 decades of playing violin.
I spent this past weekend at the above-named event. It was smallish (seating for ~250 at the concerts, and 100 to 150 actually were present) but the organizers were happy with attendance in the post-covid world.
Very much a something-for-everyone type of festival. Live music (15-minute sets by dozens of volunteers) in two venues, one indoor and one outdoor. Several workshops to attend, an opportunity for professional coaching sessions, an opportunity to play competitively. Displays of accordions for sale by Tempo Trend and Petosa.
The competition did not really get off the ground this year, with many categories attracting 0 or 1 contestant and none more than 4 - so in effect, the competition and the coaching sessions were pretty much the same thing in two different rooms.
The big highlight for me was getting to watch Sergei and Maria Teleshev playing an assortment of classical pieces from about 8 feet away, in one of the workshops. They started with Bach, talking about and demonstrating differences in how they present organ, string, and piano music. Then moved on to more modern music: a new piece to me, Armas Järnefelt's Berceuse for Violin and Orchestra (in effect, Maria playing violin and Sergei being the orchestra), 3 surprisingly listenable miniatures by Vitold Lutoslawski (originally clarinet+piano), and a new arrangement of the theme from Schindler's list.
The accordions for sale tended to the lower-end and were 90% PA, with a few C-systems and diatonics mixed in -- so it wasn't really the place to go if you wanted to be comparing Pigini and Bugari side by side, but I did get a nice sense of cassotto vs non-cassotto on otherwise almost identical instruments. (It confirmed what I already thought, that I need to have it on my next instrument.) Hearing several Rolands cemented my unprintable opinion of electronic accordion.
I may have decided I have to try steirische Harmonica in addition to CBA now... just what I need, one more expensive hobby. (But the gf says, great, buy all the accordions you want, if it keeps you from being able to afford to buy a plane... she shares my love of music but not my love of flying.)
I came home full of ideas for music I want to learn, for pieces I want to arrange, for classes I hope I see offered next year, for trying to have a 15-minute set and/or a competition set ready for next year. I am fired up, in a way that I never was after any of the classical-music events I went to and played in in 3 decades of playing violin.
