82nd ATG - Competition and Festival in Kansas City, Missouri
By Herbert Scheibenreif
Under its very active president Mary Ann Covone, ATG has experienced a great upswing in recent years and has inspired many new members to take up the accordion. The 82nd Festival of the Accordionists & Teachers Guild, International (ATG) in Kansas City, Missouri, was all about the 90th birthday of Prof. Joan Cochran Sommers. The celebration of her birthday was particularly touching, where many of her companions shared their views with video messages.
The workshops offered a diverse cross-section of many areas that could be interesting and helpful for accordionists in their daily educational and artistic work. Following an initiative by ATG, the documentary film "A World of Accordions Museum, A Harrington Legacy" was made last year about the world's largest accordion museum in Superior, Wisconsin, which now has over 2500 instruments. Helmi Harrington now had the opportunity to present this film to a wider public. In his extremely interesting presentation on "Sheet Music Copyright Issues", Professor Ted Piechocinski dealt with legal access to printed, arranged and copyrighted music.
In addition to the national competitions in the various categories of classical, light, ensemble and orchestral music, an international competition for accordion soloists was held for the first time this year, which was particularly attractive due to the endowment of $5,000 and $3,000 for the first two places. The concept with the requirement of a program of around 25 minutes with works of different character (original works and transcriptions) was a complete success. The Moldovan Radu Ratoi (winner of all the major competitions in recent years) and the Swede Leonid Florin Muravyov (student of Friedrich Lips in Moscow and also winner of international competitions) once again gave examples of their impressive skills. Joan Sommers chaired an international jury consisting of Liz Finch and Stas Venglevski (USA), Michael Bridge (Canada) and Herbert Scheibenreif (Austria). Hopefully this competition will be able to take place next year as well.
This year's evening concerts took place in the beautiful "White Recital Hall" of the University of Music Kansas City (UMKC). As a thank you for her many years of support and friendship, as well as in recognition of her countless contributions to the accordion world, Stas Venglevski dedicated his latest suite "Poems of Life & Love" to Joan Sommers and now premiered it. The international importance of the festival was documented by the presence of the Italian CIA President Mirco Patarini and the Spanish accordionist/composer Gorka Hermosa, whose works are now performed at concerts and competitions around the world. Gorka Hermosa dedicated his work "Oparoa" (Basque for "truly full", referring to the life of Joan Sommers) to the jubilee, as did the Englishman Ian Watson with his "Eternal".
The final gala concert was opened by the winners of the "World Cup Competition" Radu Ratoi and Leonid Florin Muravjov, as well as Michael Bridge. Afterwards, the festival orchestra under the direction of Joan Sommers impressed with a spectacular program. The performances of the festival orchestra (consisting of 74 accordionists) together with the festival choir (44 singers) were particularly spectacular: "O'Fortuna" from Orff's Carmina Burana and "Let There Be Peace On Earth".
We can only congratulate ATG on this extremely successful event and thank them for the many impulses in various directions! See you again at the 83rd festival in Chicago in July 2025!
Silent Auction Recap
By Susan Baert
At this year’s ATG Festival in July, we had a large silent auction. Everyone at the festival enjoyed looking at 3 tables of offerings at the silent auction. The auction items were shown on social media in the month prior to the festival, to raise awareness and interest in the auction. Items listed in the auction included sheet music, artwork, items for a musician, and gift baskets.
Many of the items had multiple bids before the winner was the final bidder at 1:00 pm on Saturday, July 27th. The 6 bundles of sheet music from the Peter Giacolone collection brought in a total of $125. All items at the silent auction that sold totaled $820.
A great big thank you to all who donated their talents and items to make our auction a success:
Accordiongifts.com (Dan Grauman) – Gift Baskets
Kenn and Susan Baert – Quilt
Michael Bridge – Music Lessons
Mary Ann Covone – Theory Class
Beverley Fess – Accordion Case
Joan Grauman Morse – Artwork
Esther Lanting - Artwork
Grayson Masefield - Music Lessons
Marty McIntyre – Microphone/tablet holder
Betty Jo Simon - CDs
Peter Soave - Music Lessons
Cathy Sue Weiss – Air Fryer
Stat Venglevski CS
Thomas Zoells – Recording session
Friday/Saturday Concerts
Reviewed by Steve Mazurek
FRIDAY
ATG’s Friday evening concert presented three top accordion performers: Gorka Hermosa, Michael Bridge and Grayson Masefield.
Gorka Hermosa, a Spanish accordionist, performer and composer from the Basque region of Spain opened the concert with five of his original compositions: Alabei, Brehme, Amore, Anatango, and Variaciones sobre el Libertango, a variation on Astor Piazzolla’s work Libertango.
Second on the program was Michael Bridge, a performer, composer and teacher from Ontario, Canada. A virtuoso in both the acoustic and digital accordion, Michael’s performances were delivered on the latter, demonstrating his and the digital accordion’s capabilities. He opened his segment with Evolutionary Toccata in D-Minor, an electronic variation on J. S. Bach’s organ composition. He followed up with Back to Napoli (Curtis/Ricci), Diachovo Horo a traditional Bulgarian Dance in 9/8 meter, and Palladio (Karl Jenkins). All the works were arranged for digital accordion by Mr. Bridge.
After the intermission, Grayson Masefield, performer, teacher and a five-time World Accordion Champion from New Zealand, closed the concert in a performance with Ensemble Ibérica, a renowned Kansas City group that promotes and performs music from Iberia all over the world. Most of the tangos performed were composed by Astor Piazzolla and included: Oblivion, El Choclo, Muerte del Angel, Adios Nonino, and Libertango. A single tango by Carlos Gardel was also performed: Por una Cabeza.
SATURDAY
The final concert of the 2024 Festival was held on Saturday evening. On the program were Michael Bridge, two Winners from ATG’s 2024 World Cup Competition and the ATG Festival Orchestra.
Mr. Bridge opened the concert with three of his arrangements for digital accordion: Oblivion (Astor Piazzolla), La Cumparsita (Gerardo Rodreguez/the Gotan Project), and the 1812 Overture (Pytor Ilich Tchaikovsky). The last number was replete with cannon fire and musical fireworks.
Next on the program was the second-place winner of the World Cup Competition: Leonord Florin Muravjov, from Stockholm, Sweden. Mr. Muravjoy performed two compositions: Metamorphoses (Torbjorn Lundquist) and Shepherd Girl’s Dance (Hugo Alfven).
Radu Ratoi, from the Republic of Moldova and first-place winner of the World Cup Competition, came next. Mr. Ratoi performed two compositions: Dance Macabre (C. Saint-Saens, Arr. By V. Horowitz, transcribed for Bayan by Y. Shishkin) and Tanscendental Etudes No. 10, Appasionata (F. Liszt, Arr. Radu Ratoi).
Following their performances, the audience was surprised by an encore performance of Mr. Ratoi and Mr. Muratjov in a duet rendering of the William Tell Overture (Rossini) arranged for two Bayans. Smiles and small chuckles could be seen and heard from the older members of the audience, as they recalled the Lone Range of their youth. This was, of course, immediately followed by rousing applause and a standing ovation.
The 2024 ATG Festival Orchestra concluded the program under the baton of Joan Cochran Sommers, with six orchestral works, two of which included a forty-member chorus under the direction of Robyn Hartfield. First came O’Fortuna from the cantata Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, arranged by Maestra Sommers for accordion and chorus.
This was followed by Oparoa (Truly Full), an original composition by Gorka Hermosa and dedicated to Maestra Sommers for her ninetieth birthday. Next were the Polovetsian Dances I & II from the opera Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin, arranged by Paul de Bra. Eternal by Ian Watson was the next work to be performed. This was commissioned by the ATG and dedicated to Maestra Sommers. A medley from the Disney Movie Classic Beauty and the Beast by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman followed. This was based on an original arrangement by Calvin Custer and arranged for accordion orchestra by Maestra Sommers.
The last piece on the program was Let There Be Peace on Earth, composed by Sy Miller and Jill Jackson-Miller. This was arranged for accordion and chorus by Maestra Sommers, based on an original arrangement by Mark Hayes.
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