Our May Concert
Rebecca
Our May concert started with Gordon Priestley playing Weasel’s Revenge, Poste Cardiale, Style Musette, La Noyee and Vienna Forever. Rebecca then played Snow Waltz, Bianca Cappana and My Wild Irish Rose. Next we had a Justin Graham who had travelled over from Halifax to visit the club, Justin played a Selection of jigs Reels, Strathspeys and his own composition called Broken Fingers, Justin composed the tune while recovering from breaking his fingers in an accident, we hope to see Justin at the club again. After the break we started the second section of the night with John Lennox playing Those Were The Days, The Green Grass Of Home, Delilah and O Sole Mio. Colin Ensor then took to the stage and gave us renditions of That Lovely Weekend, The Greatest Mistake Of My life, The Maigret Theme, Sweetheart Of All My Dreams and Who’s Taking You Home Tonight. Our next player was Sara Daly playing Josephine’s Waltz, Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone, Westering Home, Let Him Go Let Him Tarry and Emma and Jamie’s Wedding. Bill Agnew was our next player, he started with Drifting and Dreaming, then went on to play Cuckoo Waltz, That Why The Lady Is a Tramp, Bye Bye Blues, Ain’t Misbehaving, Anything Goes, Bridges of Paris, Cruising Down The River, In My Mother’s Eyes, You Made Me Love You, Swannee, Dixie, Marching Through Dixie, What Do you Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For?, Please Release Me, Show Me The Way To Go Home, Goodnight Sweetheart and Oh Susannah. Reuben Hickinbotham then played What a Wonderful World, Cavatina, Moonlight Serenade, That’s Why the Lady Is a Tramp, My Blue Heaven and You only Live Twice. I had brought My Midi Systems along and played a few tunes and demonstrations of how midi works to end the evening. David Batty
July 20th
The Priory Club have booked a function in the room for the day on the 20th July, and want the room for the evening this means we will be unable to go ahead with our booking. Please make a note in your diaries/Calendars that there will be no meeting on the 20th July.
Wirral Accordion club
This club is on every Tuesday at The Place In The Park, 109 Liscard Road, Wallasey CH44 9AE. The night starts at 7pm.
British Commercial Vehicle Museum Events
26th June 10:00am to 4:30pm Vintage & Classic Motorcycle Event
24th July 10:00am to 4:30pm Classic Van & Pickup Day and The Great British Mini Show
14th August 10:00am to 4:30pm Vintage & Classic Car Show
21st August 10:00am to 4:30pm The Great British Lorries Day
18th Sept 10:00am to 4:30pm The Autumn Transport Show
All of the above events are held at the Museum on King Street, Leyland, PR25 2LE. Outdoor events are generally Free, If you wish to have a look round the Museum there is an admission charge for the museum. For more information Tel: 01772 451011 or visit www.britishcommercialvehiclemuseum.com
This Wednesday
This Wednesday is a Local Players Concert featuring our local talent. Please bring your accordion along and give us a tune. If you haven’t played at the club before then please bring your accordion along and play something for us, we love to see new players, those who have not plucked up enough courage to play and also hear our regulars too.
The doors open on Wednesday night at 7.30pm for a prompt 8pm start. Arriving earlier than 8pm gives you time for a chat. If you see someone you don’t know then please say hello and make them welcome at the club.
If you know anyone who would enjoy coming along to our concert nights then please bring them along.
If you have not been at the club for a while, please bring yourself along, its quite good 🙂
See you on Wednesday.
David Batty
New Accordion Museum in Tacheng, China
December 2015 saw a new accordion museum open it’s doors in Tacheng City, Tacheng prefecture, which shares a border with Kazakhstan. In Tacheng the accordion is akin to a symbol of the city, out of every 10 people there will be two or three who can play the accordion. The Tacheng Accordion Museum, is the only one of its kind in the country. So far, the collection includes 330 accordions from 10 countries, such as China, Russia, Germany, Italy and Ukraine, with the oldest accordion being 103 years old. The museum was set up by Dawran Dosanhan with the support of local government. He started setting up the museum in 2014 after spending six years collecting accordions from around the world. Dawran is an accordion enthusiast who fell in love with the instrument at the age of 9 years old when he was taking part in a wedding at a neighbor’s home, and a guest began to play the accordion. Suddenly he was attracted by the beautiful music and couldn’t help touching the instrument during the break. Excitement filled him and he wanted to have his own accordion. His family were not very rich, two years later his father bought him an accordion. At first, Dawran taught himself by listening to music from the loudspeaker at school and from TV, and then he was admitted by a music class at Tacheng Normal School and began a systematic study of the accordion. The six years’ experience of collecting accordions have not been plain sailing. In 2014, when he was collecting accordions in Kazakhstan, he met a 92-year-old Russian who had 22 accordions made in Germany during the Second World War. He wanted to purchase these accordions but the man refused. When Dawran explained that he wanted to open a museum in China’s Tacheng prefecture to showcase accordions from each period in history, to help people learn more about the instruments, the man happily agreed. As Dawran removed these accordions, the man couldn’t help shedding tears while touching the instruments affectionately, as if he was saying goodbye to his children, this touched Dawran, and every time he stands in the exhibition hall of the museum, he can’t help but recalling these memories and feels a responsibility to share and spread the accordion culture.
Vitaly Voronko
Vitaly got through to the Live Semi Finals on Britain’s Got Talent… he appeared on the second semi final show. He performed a medley of tunes from the Lion King and received three buzzes, When it came to the public vote Vitaly came last. To Watch his Semi Final Performance visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysJ9t4yu6dY
See Through Accordion
Delicia Accordions have made an accordion with a see through case, meaning you can see where all the components sit. There are no bellows on the accordion so it can’t be played. A video of the accordion sitting on a turn table at an exhibition. If you have never seen inside an accordion before this is certainly an interesting video. You can see the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhMIvrKKSCE
Chester Accordion Club
Chester Accordion Club’s next meeting is on Tuesday 28th June at The Groves Club, Chester Road (A5032), Whitby, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. Telephone Lynn McCallum on 0151 339 9850.
The BBC Needs You….
The BBC are looking for Orchestra Members to join their first Virtual Orchestra and you can play from the comfort of your own home… many a times have we all heard and possibly said “I played that better at home” The BBC are looking for musician and even lapsed musician’s to pick up their instruments learn to play Bizet’s Toreador Song and film themselves playing the piece in time with the conductor Marin Alsop. The End result will be revealed on 10th September 2016 as part of the celebrations for Last Night of the Proms 2016. You can find a link to the sheet music at the bottom of this article, there are 44 different instruments listed on their sheet music page, for each of the instruments there are different levels: Basic, Advanced and full lead with bass stave. There are even a few masterclass videos and tips from ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) there are a couple of things to note:
- You must play Bizet’s Toreador Song to be included in the Virtual Orchestra. Alternative submissions will not be accepted.
- Only one submission per person will be accepted. Entries cannot be revoked once submitted, so please ensure you are happy with your video before uploading.
- Submission videos can feature individual musicians or musical groups.
- You must be aged 16 or over to play in the Virtual Orchestra. Entries featuring individuals below the age of 16 will not be included.
- We can’t guarantee that every contribution to the Virtual Orchestra will be used in the final film, but we will do our best to include as many submissions as possible.
- The closing date for submissions is 27 August at 23:59 so don’t wait until the last minute to upload your entry.
As a thank you, they will be giving away a limited number of tickets to BBC Orchestra events on a first-come, first-served basis as well as a personalised Get Playing certificate for taking part. If you need some help with Musical Symbols visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols To read more about The Virtual Orchestra visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03m1dpm Where you can download the sheet music from the “Music” page.
Wyre Club
The next meeting of the Wyre Club is on Wednesday 22nd June 2016 at The North Euston Hotel on the Esplanade at Fleetwood, FY7 6BN. Further details tel. 01253 883681.
Leonard Brown and His Band New CD
Leonard Brown and His Band have brought out a new CD called “Requested by You” The Tracks on the CD are: Willie and Bertha’s Boston, Valse Parisienne, The Craic at Clashmore Hall, Kiwi Pipers, Bayerisch Kraut Polka, Canadian Jigs, Fiddle Feature – Draggin The Bow, Leonard Broon’s Reel, The Rose, Accordion Duet – Bel Fiore, Quickstep Collection, Kate Martin’s Waltz, The More I see You, Ukrainian Polka, The Blue Danube, John Macdonald of Glencoe, Crossing The Minch, Cape Verdean Blues, 17 Jigs, A Fond La Caisse, 19 Danny Boy and Iain MacPhail Reels. The CD Costs £11.95 including UK Postage and is available to buy from his website where you can also hear samples of some of the tracks. www.leonardbrownaccordion.co.uk
Accordion Magic Weekend Middlewich
Held on the 18th and 19th June 2016 in John & Jackie Romero’s back garden which overlooks onto the Trent & Mersey canal – Just off Junction 18 of the M6. In attendance so far are: The Weaver Valley Accordion Orchestra, North Staffs Accordion Orchestra, Harry Hussey, Stephan Andrusyschyn, Jovan Rnjak and Colin Walker. To find out more or find out about playing at the event call 01606 270148. Last years event raised £470 for the charity Winstons Wish, which added to the overall total of £12,219 that John and Jackie have raised for Winstons wish through their various accordion festivals and this annual accordion magic event.