The Confédération Internationale des Accordéonistes (CIA) held their 75th Coupe
Mondiale World Accordion Championships and 148th CIA International General
Assembly of Delegates in Zofingen, Switzerland. The event will be hosted by the CIA
member accordeon.ch from 4-9 October 2022.
Founded in 1935 in Paris, France, the Confédération Internationale des
Accordéonistes (CIA) is a member of the International Music Council, an NGO official
partner of UNESCO). The American Accordionists' Association (AAA) and the
Accordionists and Teachers Guild, International (ATG) have long since shared the USA
membership to the CIA.
Over 80 contestants competed in six categories of competition, with winners
representing a variety of countries. This years Coupe Mondiale winner was Serbian
accordionist Dragoslav Vasiljevic. In an exciting competition, after three demanding
rounds of competition held over several days, with a score of 23.49 he narrowly edged
out Hang Ding from China who was just fractions of a point behind with 23.41.
The American delegation this year included Kevin Friedrich representing the
AAA (also CIA Ambassador) and ATG President Mary Ann Covone, Joan Cochran
Sommers (CIA Honorary Member and President of the 75 th Coupe Mondiale Jury) and Liz Finch representing the ATG.
The Mayor of Zofingen, Christiane Guyer welcomed everyone to the 75th Coupe Mondiale in Zofingen during the Opening Ceremony Concert which featured an array of unique Swiss performances including Yodeling and Alp Horns as well as the winner of the 2021 Coupe Mondiale held in Munich, Olzhas Nurlanov.
Three special presentations were made the event, including the CIA Merit Award for outstanding contributions to the International accordion movement, which went to Vojin Vasovic from Serbia and Prof. Ricardas Sviackevicius from Lithuania while the Honored Friend of the Accordion Award for services to the accordion movement was presented to lois Breitfuss from Austria.
After Mirco Patarini (Italy) was re-elected as CIA President last year, this General Assembly included elections for all other offices. Newly elected CIA Executive Committee members include: Kevin Friedrich (USA - Ambassador), Zorica Karakutovska (North Macedonia - Vice President), Jörgen Sundeqvist (Sweden - Vice President), Kimmo Mattila (Finland - General Secretary), Alexander Silivanov (Russia - Chairperson of the Music Committee), Harley Jones (New Zealand - Public Relations Manager) and Li Cong (China – Vice President) (not pictured).
In addition to the re-elected Chairperson, Alexander Selivanov (Russia), members of the CIA Music Committee include: Grayson Masefield (New Zealand - Vice Chairperson), Jiří Lukeš (Czech Republic), Ruedi Marty (Switzerland), Danijela Gazdic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Antonio Spaccarotella (Italy) and Crystal Wang (CongYu Wang) (China).
To compliment the competitions, several magnificent concerts were held including the spectacular Misa a Buenos Aires by Martin Palmeri performed by the Accordion Orchestra Brittnau and the Soland Choir under the direction of Ruth Soland with soloists Susanne Wiesner (Alto) and Julien Tudisco (Bandoneon).
The 60 strong Blue Project Orchestra was a group formed specifically for the event and performed under the baton of Lionel Chapuis. The program included works related to ‘blue’ including things like Blue Rondo a la Turk, Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin with piano soloist Ettienne Murith and Bluesette by Jean Thielmanns and Worlgang Russ.
The awards concert opened with the World Premiere of a new Finnish work by renowned composer Kalevi Aho, when Janne Valkeajoki performed his newly composed Sonata No. 3.
After five busy days of competitions and concerts, the Coupe Mondiale festival came to a close with the stars of the event, the young artists themselves with the Awards presentation and Concert featuring the winners of the six categories of competition.
The Winners of the 2022, 75th Coupe Mondiale event were:
Coupe Mondiale
1st. Dragoslav Vasiljevic (Serbia)
2nd. Hang Ding (China)
3rd. Alessandro Pagliari (Italy)
Masters Coupe Mondiale
1st. Radovan Ivanovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
2nd. Drago Garic (Serbia)
3rd. Aleksandar Radovic (Serbia)
Junior Coupe Mondiale
1st. Antonio Del Castillo (Germany)
2nd. Mantas Leonardo Lizzi (Lithuania)
3rd. Husejn Bajraktarevic (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
International Competition for Virtuoso Entertainment Music
1st. Vladimir Kashuta (Ukraine)
2nd. Anastasija Zubova (Latvia)
3rd. Joaquín Donoso Muñoz (Chile)
Junior International Competition for Virtuoso Entertainment Music
1st. Emanuele Viti (Italy)
2nd. Matteo Tortora (Italy)
3rd. Francesco Perna-- (Italy)
International Competition for Ensemble Music - Classical
1st. Duo Diverso (Lithuania)
Alma Petrauskaite (accordion) and Kristina Jeganian (piano)
The CIA Swiss member accordeon.ch organizers President Yvonne Glur and CIA
Honorary Vice President Ruedi Marti received a standing ovation for staging the event.
All activities including concerts, competitions, events and final results including all
adjudicator marks can be viewed online in the Daily Reports and Video Center found on
the CIA Coupe Mondiale website www.coupemondiale.org. Champions from the 75
years of competitions, including many USA winners can be found on the CIA website at
www.accordions.com/cia .
Plans are now underway for the 76th Coupe Mondiale to be held in Bijeljina,
Bosnia and Herzegovina from 5-9 September 2023.
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