A second visit to Italy and the Accordion Craft Academy

I wrote before about my experience attending the Accordion Craft Academy for two weeks in November 2023. I went back for two more weeks, repairing and tuning accordions under an expert's watchful eye. So much better for learning how to do repairs right, than just reading web pages and watching Youtube videos!

We shaped new piano keys to fit into the treble keyboard; learned to make new pistons for the bass machine; learned to program and reprogram the register switches; and got to see the inner workings of cassottos, chin registers, and free-bass converters.

The second week was spent entirely on tuning: special techniques for bass reeds and for piccolo reeds; learning how much tremolo to apply to notes in each octave of the keyboard; a tour of the Cagnoni reed factory to see the professionals at work.

Oregon Alpenfest 2024

I took a road trip to "Oregon's Alps" this fall, to visit a long-running but new-to-me music festival. Joseph, Oregon is a pretty little town tucked against the base of the Wallowa mountains in northeast Oregon. One look at the area tells you why the Nez Perces chose to live there (and why the white settlers wanted it for themselves, 150 years ago.)

Alpenfest is a small event, and everyone who attends and participates seems to already know everyone else. You'll stick out like a sore thumb if you're the one not wearing Dirndl or Lederhosen. There's a street fair with vendors, and in the evenings, live entertainment. This year there were three groups: a live polka band, Tyrolean dancers (dancing to recorded music), and a pair of alphornists, all imported from the I-5 corridor.

Backwoods Accordion Festival 2024

Accordion to Hoyle made its debut as a vendor at our local music festival, the Backwoods Accordion Festival on July 20th, just up the road from my home town of Fortine at the Trego Pub and General Store. You won't find a prettier venue anywhere in the country, even if it was a blazing-hot 36°C (97°F).

A crowd of a couple hundred enjoyed the entertainment, the beer and pizza served by the pub, and the iced tea and fresh watermelon served by one of the other street vendors.

We had our new Mengascinis on display, as well as a full line of sheet music and accessories, and an 'exploded accordion' for people to look inside and poke around at. People of all ages enjoyed stopping by our booth. We particularly enjoyed one young fan who announced that the 26-key 12-bass Noble Atom was "his size" while the 41/120 next to it was "his father's size."

Leavenworth International Accordion Celebration 2024

One of the highlights of my calendar every year is driving to the pseudo-Bavarian village of Leavenworth, WA, just west of Wenatchee on the east slope of the Cascades, for the Leavenworth International Accordion Celebration held the 4th weekend of June every year.

It's primarily populated by piano accordionists playing popular and old-time music, with a smattering of folks on steirische Harmonika in keeping with the Bavarian theme. But they tolerate button accordion players, and a reasonable amount of light classical music.

There are 4 distinct parts to the festival:

There are classes you can take. This year I took three, one on playing expressively, one on relating better to your audience and choosing music your audience will enjoy hearing, and one on exercises to enable you to play faster with less effort. This last was taught by Gary Blair from Scotland.

A farewell to Stefano Mengascini (1961–2023)

How did I get started out as an accordion dealer, you might ask?

Back in early July of 2023, on a whim I filled out the contact form on Mengascini Accordions' webpage, asking them what their requirements were to be a distributor.

Within just a few hours I received a kind and encouraging reply — from Stefano Mengascini, the head of the company, not from some lowly secretary. (Can you imagine writing to Microsoft about buying some software and getting a personal reply from Bill Gates? Or even meeting the owner of your local car dealership rather than dealing with some slick salesman in the parking lot?)

I am delighted to say that I've had that same kind of warm and prompt response from almost every Italian company I've done business with, in person or online, in English or Italian. I wish I could say the same for most of the North American companies I've dealt with. I hope I can deliver that same kind of personal service to my customers as the Italians did to me.

Attending the Accordion Craft Academy in Castelfidardo

How do you learn to repair accordions? Like any other trade, the apprentice studies with a master. Don't settle for a technician who learned everything he knows from Youtube videos!

Once upon a time, you could have done this by working at your local music store, looking over the shoulder of your town's master repairman. But you can count on your fingers the number of cities in North America where there's still an accordion shop big enough to keep two repairmen busy.

The alternative is traveling to where the accordions are made, and studying with the people who build them. The accordion capital of the world is in Castelfidardo, on the east coast of Italy just south of the old port city of Ancona. Castelfidardo is the home of the Accordion Craft Academy sponsored by Victoria Accordions, as well as a couple dozen other factories, an accordion museum, and the World's Largest Accordion sidedhow attraction.