The 2019 American Accordionists’ Association 81st Annual Festival squeezes into Valley Forge Casino Resort.
Anyone who knows me even a little knows that I spent my formative years pumping keys and squeezing bellows of an accordion. Though I would never have ever considered myself on a championship level, I did manage, since age 5, to stand on stage playing medleys of Disney hits. Once, even while wearing a huge papier-mache pig’s head with baggy flannel white gloves.
Do that, motherfuckers.
The accordion is no simple matter, not an easy instrument to play. It’s strapped to your back and weighty in the front. It’s highly physical. Its sound is created by pushing two different feeling and looking sets of keys – nor one that is a convenient one to discuss. Few and far between are the lengthy conversations that start with “Yeah, I play the accordion. What’s your axe?”
And yet, once you find someone willing and able to have that conversation, the rewards are great, without always sounding like a polka.
One place where you can talk all things ‘squeeze box’, is the annual celebration of the American Accordionists’ Association at the Valley Forge Casino Resort (1160 First Avenue, King of Prussia, PA) starting July 18, and running through the 21st. Now in its 81st year, and again held in the “Accordion Capital of the World,” this iteration features everything from commissioned chamber work compositions for two accordions, cello, and percussion, folk accordionist Sam Reider from the band Human Hands, to the internationally renowned and “Wizard of the Accordion” Michael Bridge. “Our event attracts accordionists and accordion music lovers from across the country and overseas because the instrument is significant to so many cultures and music styles,” wrote AAA President, Dr. Joseph A. Ciccone, the composer of that commissioned piece, entitled “Child’s Play.”
Plus, you are likely to see, at any one time, hundreds of strolling men, women and children demonstrating their passion for the bellowing musical instrument at the Triple A, along with a handful of lectures and workshops worth attending, including:
*Music Notation in the 21st Century – Joseph A. Natoli
*Survivor: The Accordion! Dr. Robert Young McMahan
*9 Types of Bellows Shakes – Michael Bridge
*The Musical Life of Charles Magnante – Don Gerundo & Ray Oreggia
*Piano, Diatonic, Chromatic… Oh my! – Cody McSherry
*My Musical Life – Mario Tacca
*American Folk Music on the Piano Accordion – Sam Reider
*Innovative Bass Lines – Sam Falcetti
*Master Class with Michael Bridge
“Philadelphia has a great deal of accordionists and accordion music,” said Linda Reed, Second Vice President, American Accordionists’ Association, who happens to be this year’s festival coordinator. “It is centrally located for many of our members, and we have hosted this event in Philadelphia proper, first, many years ago. The Valley Forge area was a great choice this year for many performers and families.”
And yes, I will be there, strapped in, locked and loaded for a waltz.
For more information: www.ameraccord.com
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