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Happy
St. Patty's Day!
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| Accordionist Tim Padilla on Tour |
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Deemed as one of the hottest
accordionists in America, Norco’s own country boy, Tim Padilla, is
now heating up the stage at the Champagne Theater in Branson, Missouri.
Tim, also known as "The Entertainer," is currently performing
as a lead Singer/Dancer/Accordionist in the live tour of the Lawrence
Welk Show 2002, "America's Favorite Variety Show."
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| Accordion Celebration features Diane Schmidt |
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| Celebrating the Concertina in New York |
 The
Center for the Study of Free-Reed Instruments presents "The Incredible
Concertina" A Concert in Honor of Sir Charles Wheatstone - A Bicentennial
Celebration. Concertina
Artists include: Allan Atlas, David Cornell, Jody Kruskal, Tom Kruskal,
Séan Minnie, Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin, Wim Wakker, and Stephaan van Zyl with
pianists David Butler Cannata, Brendan Dolan, and Paul van der Reijden and
Jim Cowdery (penny whistle) Danie Labuschagne ('cello) Liz Wollman (guitar).
Playing music from the Victorian salon and recital hall, the music halls
and whaling ships, the "new concertina repertory", and a slew of folk traditions:
English, Scots, Irish, Cape Breton, and Boer The event will be held on Friday April 12, 2002, at 7:00 P.M. Baisley Powell Elebash Recital Hall. Informal get-together: 3:00-5:00 P.M. Music Students' Lounge (Room 3502) The Graduate Center, CUNY 365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street) New York City Registration fee: $20 ($10 with CUNY or Senior Citizen ID): Make out check or money order (please do not send cash) to: The Graduate Center/CUNY and sent to: Continuing Education & Public Programs CUNY Graduate Center (Room 8111) 365 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10016 To check on the availability of tickets and for further information, please call (212) 817-8215, or e-mail: continuinged@gc.cuny.edu For more information, you may also contact the Center for the Study of Free-Reed Instruments by calling: Prof. Allan W. Atlas Ph.D. Program in Music Graduate Center/CUNY 365 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10016-4309 Phone: (212) 817-8590 Fax: (212) 817-1529 |
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| Las Vegas Legendary Lineup |
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The organizers of the Las
Vegas International Accordion Convention invite you to join this history-making
once in a lifetime event! Internet: www.accordioninfo.com |
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| Tony Lovello in Milwaukee |
 Maintaining
his busy concert schedule, accordion Razzler-Dazzler Tony Lovello will be
appearing as the feature artist at the Milwaukee
Accordion Club on May 29, 2002.From Buffalo, New York Tony Lovello, formerly with "The Three Suns," will razzle and dazzle you with his flashy arrangements that are crowd pleasers. Lovello's talents have led him to appear with Debbie Reynolds, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Eddie Cantor, Pat Boone, Jimmy Durante, and Kate Smith. His latest appearance was with Roy Clark on the television show "Hee-Haw." On numerous occasions, Tony has performed his special arrangement of the National Anthem for the University of Kentucky basketball team at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky where he now resides. He has also performed the same at Yankee Stadium in New York. From start to finish, you will be delightfully entertained with his style of playing. Many accordionists agree, Tony provides a new dimension in accordion sound. |
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| North Texas Irish Festival |
| The North Texas Irish Festival
is the largest Celtic Festival in the Southwest. This is the top event produced
and sponsored by the Southwest Celtic Music Association. The 2002 North
Texas Irish Festival will be held on Saturday March 2nd from 10:30AM-10:30
PM & Sunday March 3rd from 11:30 AM - 8:30 PM at
the Fair Park in Dallas, Texas. Among the headline performances are two groups featuring accordion, including Cavan and Bohola.  Accordionist
Brett Gibson (pictured left in Cavan picture) performs in the Kansas City
based group Cavan (formerly known as Gabriel's Gate). Cavan performs an
astonishing variety of music drawn from and inspired by the ancient Celtic
traditions of Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, and Galicia, to which they add
a little spice from the Middle East. Their concerts combine the compelling
Celtic dance rhythms: Jigs, Reels, Waltzes, and Strathspeys, with songs
telling stories from past and present. Since three of the members are composers,
they perform an unusual number of original songs and tunes for a Celtic
band.Brett Gibson, a champion accordionist from New Zealand who currently resides in Kansas City has performed with the band for many years, and is featured on their recordings which include some of his original compositions.  bohola,
a band forged in Chicago by three of Irish Music’s most innovative musicians,
Jimmy Keane, Sean Cleland and Pat Broaders, play a driving, muscular, and
yet emotive style of Irish Music with deep roots in the “pure drop” tradition,
melded with the raw and gritty urbanized musical vernacular of the Irish-American
experience. With each regarded as the tops in his field, this combination
provides a powerful, rich and distinctive sound that is coupled with a dynamic
and energetic presence - the sum of which is bohola. Each musician has an
extensive background in Traditional Irish Music, learning at the hands of
some of the finest exponents of Traditional Irish Music in Chicago and Ireland,
with a cumulative playing knowledge of over 95 years. Although formed in
late 1999, the members of the group have known each other for many years.
What began as musical kinship has emerged as bohola. Bohola accordionist Jimmy Keane was born in London of Irish-speaking parents, immigrated to Chicago from Ireland with his family in the early 1960’s. His late father James, was a sean-nos (old style) singer who actively encouraged Jimmy to take up traditional music. In his early teens he began playing music with his Chicago contemporaries, fiddler Liz Carroll, and flute-player and stepdancer, Michael Flatley. Jimmy has achieved astonishing and unprecedented success in competitive playing by winning five consecutive All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil’s on the piano accordion and is regarded by many as the instrument’s finest exponent. Jimmy has recorded and toured extensively with such luminaries as Mick Moloney, Seamus Egan, Eileen Ivers, Robbie O’Connell, Liz Carroll and Dennis Cahill. He has produced numerous recordings and is an arranger and composer of music, of which many of his compositions have become part of the mainstream in Irish Music around the world. For full schedule and further information, please visit: www.ntif.org |
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| Attention National Competitors |
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Set in the beautiful National
Museum, this years competitions hosted by the DANSKE HARMONIKASPILLERES
LANDSFORBUND (DHL) will be offering thousands of dollars in prize money,
special prizes this year include 10,000 Danish Kroner for the best performance
of the test piece in the Coupe Mondiale, and a concert tour to New Zealand
and Australia and USA for the winner of the new category the International
Competition for Piano Accordion. |
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| National Music Day |
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| Music Theory Website |
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For more information, please visit: http://www.musictheory.halifax.ns.ca |
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| Meet Wayne Toups |
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As he matured as a musician, Toups began incorporating the soul music of Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge and Wilson Pickett into his sound. By the 1980's he'd picked up influences from rock bands such as The Doobie Brothers. Lynard Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers. He decided he wanted to make music for "the younger generation," as he puts it, by stirring all of this into his musical stew. He debuted his fusion style on a 1987 album called ZydeCajun. And he's been crisscrossing musical genres ever since. Signed to Mercury Records, Toups became the first Cajun act to crack the Top Pop Albums chart when Blast From the Bayou appeared in 1989. He was tapped to sing the theme song for TV's Broken Badges series and his "Two Step Mamou" appeared on the soundtrack of the hit movie Steel Magnolias. Mercury issued Fish Out of Water in 1990. This time, Toups toured Southeast Asia. A year later he conquered Europe with a series of S.R.O. concerts. Next, country stars began calling to request his sound on their records. Mark Chestnutt hired Toups and his accordion to back him on his No. 1 hits "Gonna Get a Life" and "It Sure is Monday." That's Toups on Clay Walker's chart-topper "Live Laugh Love." That's also Toups on the giant Alan Jackson hit "Little Bitty." Sammy Kershaw featured Toups in both his video and his recording of "Christmas Times A-Coming." George Jones, Mark Wills and others have requested the Toups touch on Music Row. So has British pop star Thomas Dolby, who hired Toups for his albums Astronauts & Heretics (1992) and Retrospective (1995). "The most recent time I was up in Nashville it was to work with Garth Brooks and Ty England," Toups reports. "Garth was producing him, and I think he's the one who requested me. We had our pictures taken together. He even drove us back to our hotel room afterwards. Maybe it was because I'm a musician and he was infatuated by the sound of the accordion and the way that I played it, but he was really a sweetheart to me and my wife." His own recording career has continued as well. His Back to The Bayou album of 1995 yielded a substantial regional hit, "Take My Hand" and other Toups tunes appeared on the soundtrack of the film Dirty Rice. "This year it's more of the same," says the acclaimed stylist, "all the festivals we normally do, with sold-out shows everywhere we go. We'll be out there doing 100 or 125 shows and I'd like to get it even higher than that. I love to work. It's exciting. I'm still loving every minute of it." Wayne Toups is a true American
original. He has fused such styles as cajun, zydeco, rock, folk, R&B
and country into his own unique and very popular brand of music he terms
as 'zyde-cajun.’ On "Little Wooden Box," Wayne returns
to his Louisiana roots and performs many Cajun and Louisiana classics.
Included in the mix is a version of the unofficial Louisiana state song
"New Orleans Ladies" in French!!! 1. Little Wooden Box For more information, and
CD purchase, please visit Wayne on-line at: For Booking information,
please contact: PHONE: 318-640-5555 |
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| Jon Hammond at Home and Abroad |
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Jon and Barry began playing
together 33 years ago at Lick Wilmerding High School in San Francisco.
This month they celebrated 19 year anniversary of continuous broadcasting
in New York of Music/Travel Softnews TV Show-The Jon Hammond Show. Barry
moved to New York City in 1973 and 2 days after arriving got his first
major league jazz gig with drummer Chico Hamilton's band. 2 weeks later
he was performing at the Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland! He recorded
with many of the greats in N.Y., Ray Barretto, Joe Farrell, Brecker Brothers,
Airto and Flora Purim. He has the distinction of playing on the No. 1
smash hit 'Street Life' with The Crusaders and performed with Joe Cocker
at the 1982 Grammy Awards. Miles Davis handpicked Barry for his comeback
album Man With The Horn. |
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| Barenaked Ladies (bnl) Everywhere! |
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Born in 1969, accordionist,
keyboardist, vocalist and guitarist Kevin Hearn was asked to join bnl
in May of 1995, to replace Andy Creeggan. He joined the tour before Born
On A Pirate Ship was released but he did not play on the CD. |
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| William Schimmel the Music Adapter |
 New
York accordionist DR William Schimmel is Music Adapter for the upcoming
run of "Shmulnik's Waltz", a play by Allan Knee with music composed by David
Shire.The play will open on March 1st at the Lake Worth Playhouse in Lake Worth, Florida. It was originally an Off-Broadway Show which began 10 years ago at the Jewish Repertory Theatre and then moved to the John Houseman Theatre, in Manhattan. Since its New York run, it has received more than 20 out of town productions all over the United States and Canada. In New York, Dr. Schimmel worked closely (as musical director and adapter) with Grammy and Oscar winner David Shire and director Gordon Hunt (father of Helen Hunt) in adapting the music for the stage, scoring it for accordion and violin as well as making the musicians character actors as well. The accordion, to this day, remains the musical anchor of the play. Dr. Schimmel has been music adapter and consultant on all subsequent out of town productions. For play details visit www.billschimmel.com or e-mail: GWILLIAMANDMICKI@aol.com |
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| Rose City Accordion Club Camp |
 The
Rose City Accordion Club will hold their annual Accordion Camp at Silver
Falls, Oregon from June 23rd to 27th. This year's tutors include Joe Morelli (Canada), Joe Baccellieri (USA), Don Battari from Portland, and Gary Blair from Scotland. The camp aims to give participants of all ability levels the opportunity to learn, rehearse, play, practice, perform and have fun! For further details phone Geoff Levear: +1 503 452-4517 |
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| Just for Fun |
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| Note: In order to provide as much information as possible for the United States National Accordion News stories, many different sources are often researched to gather additional information and pictures to complement what has been submitted. This information is then correlated to provide the news on www.accordionusa.com in the spirit of which it is intended, which is to provide a free news service to the Accordion Community, specifically in the United Sates. If you feel any copyright has been violated please advise www.accordionusa.com and the article will be removed immediately. |
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Acclaimed
entertainer and musician Tim Padilla (www.timpadilla.com) has released
his debut solo album on entitled "Accordionly Yours" featuring
ten musical selections on the accordion, backed by a master-class ensemble
of performers recruited from the well-known Lawrence Welk Orchestra. 
Tracks
are: Little Timmy's
Boogie, Magnolia Waltz, Tarantella, Gypsie Rendezvous, Somebody Stop Me
Polka, Sommerferien, La Paloma, Danny Boy, Onward Christian Soldiers/Go
Tell It On The Mountain, Pagoneya (The Chase)
Although
he shares his talent with residents of convalescent homes as a charitable
effort, Tim is no stranger to the hot music scene having performed "Knockin’
on Heaven’s Door" along with Guns ‘n’ Roses "Slash"
and serenaded Tony Bennett over the radio. And, during a 1998 Christmas
party, Tim played "Little Drummer Boy" on-stage in L.A. with
the band "Chicago." He has numerous credits as an actor in television
and commercials. Currently he is working on recording his 12-piece swing
band - "Rhythm on the Rocks" - located in California.
The
Leavenworth Accordion Celebration will feature many outstanding accordionists
including Diane Schmidt, the winner of the 1970 CIA World Accordion Championships
Competition in Salzburg, Austria. Diane Schmidt is an artist of incomparable
talent with her musical versatility ranging from classical to jazz, from
ethnic to rock styles on both acoustic and MIDI instruments. 
The
9th Annual Leavenworth International Accordion Celebration will be held
June 18-22, 2002 Leavenworth, Washington "The Bavarian Village". 
In
addition, the festival also features the "Petosa Youth Competition."
Petosa Accordions is sponsoring this competition to assist young people
in their musical adventures. Pictured left are Petosa Youth Competition
Winners 2001 3rd-Samuel Thomas, 2nd-Daniel Jaklich and 1st-Monique Brachman.
The
legendary names, Myron Floren, Dick Contino (pictured left), Art Van Damme
and Anthony Galla-Rini together for the first time at the same event!
This is a MUST for every accordion enthusiast; a once in a lifetime opportunity!
Have
you ever dreamed of representing the United States at an International
level? With the Winter Olympics bringing the athletes of the world together
representing countries from around the globe, international competition
is high on the mind of many.
Imagine
people celebrating all kinds of music in harmony on the same day all over
the world. On National Music Day - June 21st, Americans will join people
in over one hundred countries who celebrate music on the longest day of
the year. National Music Day is an opportunity for performers, spectators,
and participants in all fifty states to salute and appreciate the diversity,
variety, and spirit of music.
Born
to a French-speaking rice farmer in Crowley, LA. Wayne Toups was steeped
in bayou music from boyhood. He learned to play Cajun accordion at age
13 and was soon on stage in local talent contests playing the tunes of
Iry LaJeune and other heroes of his culture. 
One
of many recordings, Little Wooden Box includes the following tracks:
Smiley's
Schooner Saloon and Hotel presents 
On
February 13 Barenaked Ladies were featured at the Salt Lake City Winter
Olympics "Olympic Medals Plaza" which went to millions of viewers
around the world. Open any magazine today, and you'll see Barenaked Ladies
accordionist Kevin Hearn relaxing in the Folgers Coffee advertisement
pictured left.
He
plays keyboard, guitar, and his Weltmeister accordion in the band, along
with providing backup vocals on many of the songs. Before that, he was
involved in such groups as The Rheostatics, Corky And The Juice Pigs,
and the Look People. He also has an excellent solo project; it's called
Mothball Mint. 
In
1998 he took a break from the band due to leukemia, and is now back, cancer-free
after a bone marrow transplant from his brother. Chris Brown filled in
for him while he was out.
Disc
One and 
Maroon
