NEWSLETTER Volume 22 Issue 9

Transcription

1 SEPTEMBER 2015 Harold & Helen Estok Founders of A.L.S.I. President Gordon Kohl Presidents Emeriti: (Founder) Harold Estok Ron Griffin Kjell Holmes Gloria Ensign Vice President: Mary Lou Erwin Meeting Coordinator: Bill Barr NEWSLETTER Volume 22 Issue 9 September 2015 Summer Time is here in San Diego View from my house (Ted). Corresponding Secretary: Marian Sowell Treasurer & Ensemble Director: Vicki Eriqat Recording Secretary: Sharon Marotte Newsletter/Webmaster: Bob Page Ted Hill Al Piselli This is a great time of the year when there are plenty of opportunities to play accordion at our upcoming club events. With Octoberfest and Heritage Day just around the corner you should be getting your pieces in good shape to participate in these fun gatherings. Also at our September meeting you may play anything you want with open stage. Good time to bring new players to ALSI so they can play for fun and find out about us. Encouragement Inspiration Enthusiasm President s Message from Gordon Kohl Hello friends of ALSI. Once again ALSI is planning a great day of Oktoberfest music in beautiful Balboa Park San Diego, California. We have many musicians and accordionists from many cities across America with roots in central Europe. They are practicing some great songs to get everyone in San Diego in a party and Oktoberfest mood.

2 Page 2 GENERAL INFORMATION MEMBERSHIPS: New membership and renewal for year 2015 are; the fee is $100 Gold, $25 U.S.A., $26 Canada, $27 for International delivery. For new members; partial year memberships can be purchased and which expire at year-end. Make check or money order payable to ALSI and send to: Helen Estok Schoell, at P.O. Box San Diego, CA The REED BLOCK is published once each month. Your input to the REED BLOCK is invited and should be submitted to Helen Estok Schoell or to Bob Page at webmaster@accordion-club-sandiego.org or to Mary Lou Erwin at: marylouerwin@att.net. DISCLAIMER: Unless otherwise indicated, all articles were written by the Editor. Unless so stated, no article is to be construed as an endorsement and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or ALSI. CUT-OFF DATE: All contributors to The REED BLOCK please note: For next month all material is due two weeks before the next meeting, accordingly the due date for the October 2015 issue is: September 28th. This includes all items such as articles, upcoming events, playing around, accordion workshops, advertisements and ensemble schedules. Please submit your input to Helen Estok Schoell (at above ALSI address) or to Bob Page at webmaster@accordion-club-sandiego.org or Mary Lou Erwin at marylouerwin@att.net. Thank you for your cooperation. ADVERTISEMENTS: Members may place one small ad per year at no charge, business cards are $6/per issue or $60/per year, quarter-page is $15/per issue, half -page is $25/per issue, full -page is $50/per issue, one -page event flyer is $25/per issue. Cost is doubled for non -members. (All ads must be accordion related). MEETINGS: The club normally meets at 1:00-4:00 P.M. on the second Sunday of each month at the Mt Miguel Covenant Village, 325 Kempton Ave, Spring Valley, CA. Our next Meeting will be held on Sunday, September 13th, 2015 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm at Mt. Miguel Covenant Village in Bailey Hall. STEERING COMMITTEE; August committee meeting will be on Wednesday September 16th at 10:30 to noon. Meeting location is at the Dennys in Mission Valley at Auto Center Dr. and Camino Rio South. ALSI MEMBERSHIP OR RENEWAL APPLICATION FORM Date New Renewal Address Change Gold Name Address Telephone ( ) - address View membership information above and call our vice president for middle of year discount. C U S T O M C R A F T E D 313 NE 45th Street Seattle, WA (206) phone (206) fax

3 Volume 22 Issue 9 Page 3.. President s Message continued from page 1 The music has exciting rhythms and is great for dancing and tapping your feet and yes singing too. The costumes are colorful and various dance music are so fun to play on the accordion. Many people who live in San Diego have never experienced this music genre. I have grown up with polkas, waltzes, marches, fox-trots, schottisches, and even those Rheinlanders. What about all those gypsy and Hungarian dances? These songs are fun to practice playing on a very wet tuned accordion with lots of tremolo. The polish Obereks and swedish and norwegian Hambos are vivid and tantlelizing music to the listeners ear. Come join us in Balboa Park for a great time. The date is Sunday, October 11 th, at 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. It s time to grab our accordions and get ready for this years Oktoberfest events. Let s all join in the party and enjoy the cheer and dancing with fantastic accordion music. Here are some hints for accordionists preparing songs for a performance. Always choose your very best solos that are easy to play musically correct. Your nerves will not get the best of you in front of an audience. Secondly, watch the tempo, and bellowing. A comfortable tempo with even planned synchronized bellowing will enhance the musicality of a solo. A clean touch, with attention noted to key fingering places in a melody, can help insure one s confidence and relaxed manner toward a solo performance. Accordionists have a lot to think of while playing a melodic instrument that also has a bellows for dynamic expression, accents, bellow directional changes and the emotion of a song. Between thinking of touch on a keyboard and bass buttons and playing those fill-in notes, ornaments, and a variety of chord harmony, the challenges for all of us accordionists are many. However, with patience, practice and continued experience in playing for friends and ALSI events we improve our musicianship. It is important to have a f u n and rewarding time learning and playing our musical instrument, the accordion. Thanks for being part of something fun here at ALSI. Gordon Kohl

4 Page 4 Review of Jenny Amaya Showcase - August 12th By Bob Warner Jenny Amaya, a superb talent, provided us with an exciting program using her fine sounding Sonola, acoustic accordion. This young lady comes highly recommended; she has devoted her life to music and to the study of music in all of its complexities. Her capabilities on our instrument were immediately apparent. Her keyboard technique, use of the bellows and the bass side were excellent. All we had to do is sit back and be entertained. She began with an arrangement of CEILITO LINDO, a Spanish waltz which she played at an AFNA festival when she was 10 years old. This was the beginning of her accordion life. NICOLODEON RAG was a ragtime cadenced piece with a nice swing to it. She learned this early in her career. She took CLARINET POLKA at a slower, danceable pace. You could hear every note. Going on to more difficult material she played CRAZY FIN- GERS at an allegro tempo. There was a lot of great keyboard work in this number. It was very enjoyable. Her i n t e r p r e t a t i o n o f M o z a r t s ALLELIUJA was superb, classically correct in all respects. Her performance of an excerpt from Dvorak s New World Symphony called LARGO was moving. This slow, melodic piece required precise bellows control. I hope the audience noticed what Jenny did with the bellows. Her classical interests were aptly demonstrated with her performance of MALEGUENA, arranged by Charles Magnante. This used to be one of my signature pieces (arranged by Galla Rini) so I know the challenges in this music. It is loaded with three octave cadenzas, shifting tempos and rhythms and wide ranging dynamics. I would say this was the show piece of the afternoon. A really different tune, LITTLE MERMAID, came next, played at a slow tempo with sort of a meandering melody line. The use of bass chords complemented the right hand. She had i n t e re s t i n g a rrangemen t s o f CARNIVAL OF VENICE and the ever melodic O SOLO MIO designed to make an accordion sound like an accordion. This finished her program for this afternoon. Her studies with Nick Ariondo, Lou Fanucchi and largely on her own have taken her a long way. We would be very pleased for Jenny to play for us again.

5 Page 5 HAPPINESS AT ALSI HAPPINESS at ALSI By Erika Baier August 9th was the monthly ALSI accordion meeting at Mt Miguel, Bailey Hall. It was a perfect day weather-wise and a full program was enjoyed by our audience. Our first player was Margarita Romero. Her selections on the accotrdion was a history of love which included Addio a Napoli, Vienna (City of my Dreams), Gold and Silver, Style Musette and Somewhere (Westside Story). Margarita continued on the piano playing Sheep may Safely Graze, Give me Your Hand, and Toreador Song. Thank you Margarita, you are getting better all the time and we enjoy your playing. Next came a solo by Howard Kantorowski. He played a delightful Italian piece Indifference Waltz. Howard is renewing his accordion music with ALSI and is the director of the Viking ensemble which plays Scandinavian music. Linda Hibbert entertained us with her electronic Concerto accordion and played two pieces Song Song Blue and Stormy Weather. Her choice of instrument selections really made her songs sing. It was a pleasure to hear Bob Page play two jazzy numbers. It felt like being in a night club since he was using his Roland electronic accordion to give it that feeling. His two pieces were Sin ti (Without You) and Contigo a la Distancia (Together at a Distance). For Al Jacobs it was a special day. We celebrated his 91st. birthday and his family of four generations were all there to help celebrate. There was birthday cake and ice cream for everyone. Al played happy birthday to himself and we all sang along. Then he started to share with us with some of his history in playing the accordion in England.

6 Page 6 Happiness at ALSI (continued from page 5) Al then played a selection of pieces. He started with a 100 year old Russian piece (just about as old as himself!). It was followed by Love you too Much. His grand daughter joined him and sang Ber mir fist du Shane. It was full of expression and we all enjoyed the combo. That was followed by Love you too Much. Next was a piece Al played when he was 16 (75 years ago for 5,000 people in England) which was Dark Eyes. Seems like the first pieces one learns stay with us. It was well played with emotion. Al finished his presentation with a medley of pieces from Fiddler on the Roof. This is one of his favorites to play. His granddaughter joined in singing Sunrise Sunset. There was a precious moment when his 2 year old great granddaughter, Emily, tried to go up on the stage to be with Grandpa Al. Thank you for sharing your family with us on this day. The 12 members of the accordion band under the direction of Vicki Eriqat played 8 songs before the refreshment break. Some of the selections were That s Amore (with a Bob Page introduction), Henrietta Polka, Lilli Marlene, Sailor. Adious AuRevoir Auf Wiedershen closed the show in Lawrence Welk fashion with a chromatic scale ending played by Ken Powers. For the break, Jane Ford set up the tables and put out the coffee and drinks. Diane Polinski and Al s Vicki were so helpful in serving the goodies. Yum Yum! Thanks all for the goodies and serving, it makes for a great day. The day was concluded by a performance of the Viking ensemble. We were all treated to lively Scandinavian polkas and waltzes. See review this issue. September Birthdays Aniverseries Neil Morefield 9/10 Neil and Kathryn Morefield 8/21 Charlotte Thompson 9/05

7 Volume 22 Issue 9 Page 7 Yes! It is that time again. Please prepare 3 songs or 10 minutes of music to present. We will have the tent/stage set up in Balboa Park in the usually place by the science center and fountain. The date is: October 11th. Please call our stage manager Bill Barr to tell him you are coming and what time you would like to play (Octoberfest music please) between 11:30 and 4:00PM ALSI is happy to have Tom Eskola as a featured player. The ALSI Band with its 12 members will also perform music in Octoberfestive European favor. If you can dress in a folk outfit, that is always nice. Please let your friends know about this event and they will come to hear you play. This is a free event. Please bring your own refreshments. Two tents will be set up for audience shade. Heritage Day Accordion Festival - November 8th This is our fun ethnic day where players may play music from countries of their choice. The event will be held in Bailey Hall at Mt. Miguel Covenant our usual meeting place. There will be a special meal served for those who book in advance. Heritage Day Festival Advance Registration Form $13 per person, $15 at the door. Number of meal tickets desired: Names: Amount Enclosed: $ Please send this form and payment to: ALSI c/o Helen Schoell at P.O. Box San Diego, CA Call or Mary Lou at (619)

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9 Volume 22 Issue 9 Page 9 VIKING REVIEW Kjell Holmes performing ensemble under direction of Howard Kantorowski delighted us with Scandinavian music selections. They played 3 waltzes, 1 polka and 1 Hambo (Kjells favorite). Waltz titles were Lordags Valsen (Saturday Waltz) from Sweden, Rembrosa Waltz from Norway, and Havsornsvals (Sea Eagle Waltz). They played Hugo s Hambo and the Danish Wiggen Polka. Bob Page was playing bass with his Roland. Accordion players in the group are Kjell Holmes, Gordon Kohl, Howard Kantorowski, Bob Warner and Bob Page. Ron Griffen and Jerry Odling were away. ALSI ACCORDION CALENDAR September 13th Variety program for all members to play their songs. Pre Octoberfest and Heritage Day warmup. ALSI Band will play and refreshments as always. October 11th ALSI Octoberfest held in Balboa Park (near the science center and fountain) from 11:30 to 4:00. Tom Eskola will be a featured player. Stage is open to all players. See information in this issue. November 8 Heritage Day at Bailey Hall, Mt. Miguel Covenant Village. Time to play your favorite folk music. This will be a catered event, so come for the food, music and enjoy the festivities of the day. See information in this issue. Gordon Kohl Plays Casuals, Weddings Dances and Special Events. Gordon s Combo is noted for their repertoire of ethnic music such as Italian, French, German and Latin, Their specialty is Private Parties & Dancing Music. (For more information and future availability. please call Gordon at: )

10 ALSI Statement Of Purpose: ALSI is San Diego s forum for appreciating and performing accordion music, including the MIDI electronic accordion We welcome members who enjoy listening to or playing accordion music. We have an accordion ensemble group, monthly meetings, local concerts featuring local and internationally famous performers, an annual picnic and a monthly newsletter. Monthly Newsletter Meeting From 1:00 to 4 :00 pm. On September 13th Join us at the ALSI gathering as we enjoy our monthly meeting. This will be an open day play for all our members. Please bring your accordion and share some music. The ALSI Band will also play for us.. At Mt. Miguel Covenant Village in Spring Valley The REED BLOCK c/o Helen Estok Schoell P.O. Box San Diego, CA SEPTEMBER 2015 EDITION Happy Summer