Teachers Should Always Keep Learning

A couple days ago I attended a Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Faculty Forum about Promising Practices for Student Success on the Minneapolis Community and Technical College campus. I listened to the keynote speaker about the rewards and challenges students have in completing a degree program and the rewards and challenges we as educators have in guiding them to completion. Later in the morning I attended break out sessions on the importance and benefits of blogging and use of iPads in education.

All and all it was a stimulating day which left me with new ideas on how and why to develop this blog, whether or not I want to by an iPad or android and how I might use that technology teaching music; my interest in connecting with my students and helping them to succeed was refreshed.

It seems to me that if we want to encourage our students to work at learning new things we as their teachers should be good role models and keep learning ourselves.

Thanks MNSCU for providing the opportunity to help me think outside the box and be an active learner!

Martenitsa, celebrating Spring the Bulgarian way

On March 3 Orkestar Bez Ime and Mila Vocal Ensemble will be collaborating in a celebration of Spring at the Acadia Cafe in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The event will bring Bulgaria and Macedonia to the West Bank area of the University of Minnesota. Martenitsa! For more information on the concert, visit http://www.rogaria.com/shows.html

I learned this about 'Martenitsa' from Wikipedia........

"This is an old pagan tradition and remains almost unchanged today. The common belief is that by wearing the red and white colours of the martenitsa people ask Baba Marta for mercy. They hope that it will make winter pass faster and bring spring. Many people wear more than one martenitsa. They receive them as presents from relatives, close friends and colleagues. Martenitsa is usually worn pinned on the clothes, near the collar, or tied around the wrist. The tradition calls for wearing the martenitsa until the person sees a stork or a blooming tree. The stork is considered a harbinger of spring and as evidence that Baba Marta is in a good mood and is about to retire.

The martenitsa is also a stylized symbol of Mother Nature. At that early-spring/late-winter time of the year, Nature seems full of hopes and expectations. The white symbolizes the purity of the melting white snow and the red symbolizes the setting of the sun which becomes more and more intense as spring progresses. These two natural resources are the source of life. They are also associated with the male and female beginnings.
Wearing one or more martenitsi is a very popular Bulgarian tradition. The martenitsa symbolizes new life, conception, fertility, and spring. The time during which it is worn is meant to be a joyful holiday commemorating health and long life. The colors of the martenitsa are interpreted as symbols of purity and life, as well as the need for harmony in Nature and in people's lives."

Stolen Night Out

One of my favorite pictures from 2009 is on the right, it is of a 'stolen night out' away from the duties of the accordion festival we all were attending.  It is rather a historical picture as all three of us were presidents of accordion associations at the time.  On the left is Linda Soley Reed (American Accordionists Association),  Kevin Friedrich, (The Confederation Internationale des Accodeonistes), and myself, Dee Langley (Accordionists and Teachers Guild, International). The club was  "BB King's Blues Club" on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Good times with good friends.

New Zealand, thinking of you.

Typical shopping street in North Shore City.

 Guess I've been in a reflective mood these last 24 hours as New Zealand struggles to rescue survivors of the recent earthquake.  The epicenter of the quake was on the South Island, in Christchurch, which I've not visited. These pictures are from the North Island where I stayed for a week in August of 2009 while attending the Coupe Mondiale as a representative of the Accordionists and Teachers Guild, International. My thoughts are now with New Zealand and her people in their time of need.

Silver Fern frond unfurling in the wild at a
park we visited. It is rare to find one
within viewing distance from
the ground, they are usually high at the
tops on the trees. The frond is a symbol of
new life, growth, strength and peace.

Cape Reigna at the northern tip of New Zealand, this
is the specific point where the Tasman and Pacific Oceans meet.

View of Auckland across the bay  from
my hotel room balcony in North Shore City

Snow Day

There is no doubt in my mind that the band did indeed play as the Titanic sank.....we all know 'the show must go on'. The StarTribune had this to say about today's weather,  'A storm bearing heavy snow and fierce winds pounded southern Minnesota, including much of the metro area.'. I hate it when they're right.

I managed to make the first rehearsal scheduled for today but missed a party in the late afternoon. Thank goodness the evening rehearsal was canceled, so far I had managed to stop the car when needed.

David Joles, Star Tribune

From my email in response to the cancellation......

An excellent call.  I had a 1:00 rehearsal that I got to late after falling on the ice with the accordion and I'm now home, 2 hours later than planned.  It was an interesting drive, saw a car wrapped around a light pole, an SUV stuck 4 feet off the ground facing backwards on a snowdrift....oh, I could go on and on but you get the driving picture.

Tomorrow is President's Day, Monday.  I'm sleeping in and having cocoa before I get out the snow shovel to dig a path out of the house.  The car is not going anywhere; it's a bona fide snow day!

Accordion and Orchestra

I count myself most fortunate to have played a number of times with both the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. This picture rather rounds out my experiences with accordion, it is the serious side of my music. The picture was taken February 2010 during a performance with the SPCO at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota.  It was a gift from someone in the audience.  A very nice gift.

Aerobic Balkan Band OBI

Sometimes you just gotta be there......

Photo by Shelly Campbell

Last night Orkestar Bez Ime played their every third Thursday of the month gig at Black Dog Coffee & Wine Bar in Lowertown of downtown St. Paul, Minnesota.

This picture was taken by our photographer, Shelly Campbell, during an accordion intensive Bulgarian tune called 'Daichovo' which is in 9/16. For those of you counting Bulgarian rhythms with the aid of Mexican food, 9/16  is taco - taco - taco - burrito.

In this pic you can witness my adoring band mates adding their own personal comment on this complex meter during my accordion solo...oh my....!

(l to r) Natalie Nowytski with leg in the air, Colleen Bertsch with sideways violin and Scott Keever with upside down and backwards mandolin.  Behind me is Katrina Mundinger only visible by the clarinet bell growing out of the top of my bellows.

View from a Pit

Today I was sitting dazed at the computer thinking of everything that is needing to be done from now until the end of May this year.  There are stacks of music and show books at my feet which need to be put into order for easy use during performances. Music needs to be written, learned, rehearsed; it can be a bit overwhelming.


There's quite a bit of difference from what I see as a musician and what the audience sees.  The image above is what I see, the image to the right is a pit-eye view of what the audience is seeing. These are cell phone pictures taken during technical rehearsals of a show by Ethnic Dance Theatre.

Zest for Life

This is a wonderful animation that features the accordion as the catalyst for renewed zest for life!

from nfb.ca......

"A mixture of puppet and hand-drawn animation, The Necktie is the story of Valentin and his quest to find meaning in his life. Stuck in a dead-end job, he has forgotten all about the things that used to bring him joy. Years pass, and boredom replaces all his aspirations and hope for the future. It is only on his 40th birthday, when he rediscovers an old accordion hidden in the depths of his closet, that he regains his lust for life."

http://www.nfb.ca/film/necktie

Festival of Nations surprise.....

Imagine my surprise when I got an email from one of my Orkestar Bez Ime band-mates that she recognized my fingers and accordion as a header on the Festival of Nations web site. Of course I couldn't resist checking it out, the headers revolve so it took me a lot of reloads before I got my picture...but here it is! This year OBI will again be the 'house band' in the Roy Wilkins Auditorium on festival Saturday and then representing Bulgaria all day on Sunday. The dates are May 6-8, St. Paul RiverCentre, St. Paul, Minnesota. Fun!

Russian Bayan Factory

This just one of many wonderful pictures of a Russian Bayan Factory on the blog of Sergei Mukhamedova.

http://ottenki-serogo.livejournal.com/177743.html

The page is in Russian but can be translated by Google Translator.
Now, keep in mind not all translators are equal (some are much funnier than others); Google Translator claims the factory as founded in 1930 and residing in Tula, which may well be accurate.

iPad Accordion

OK, so I challenge this as an accordion anything because where exactly are the reeds that would make this a free-reed instrument? But.....for those who are squeamish about traveling on the airlines with their accordions or happen to like bike touring, here you go!

Na zdrave (to your health)!

What does it mean to 'play in a band'? I truly think 'play' is the important word here. In my last post you saw OBI very proper and quite serious. Um...these pictures are not very serious, unless you consider our intent to start the party after our last show at Minnesota's Renaisance Festival last year.

The weather was cold and dreary last October but that didn't stop us from having a good time. Natalie started the day of fun for us in full character with an Eastern European accent and sentence structure which proved so authentic that it compelled people to talk very simply, slowly and with sign language to her so she would understand they wanted to buy a CD. OBI (minus Colleen who had another gig and plus Sarah who fleeced the crowd for tips) created such a stir in the little open pub during performances that none of us had to spend our own money for drinks the rest of the day....and Natalie kept up her character's performance until we were all locked in the van and driving out of the parking lot. Na zdrave (to your health)!

Orkestar Bez Ime

One might ask themselves, who is this 'band' she's talking about?

An excellent question.

Yes, even though I'm totally accordion-centric and encouraged to be so, I spend most of my musical life working with musicians that don't play the accordion. This is Orkestar Bez Ime, which means 'Orchestra without a name' in Bulgarian. The group has it's beginnings within Ethnic Dance Theatre's The EDT Folk Orchestra. EDT is a fine dance company in Minneapolis/St.Paul whose mission is to foster understanding and awareness of world cultures through the re-creation and presentation of traditional ethnic dance and music. http://www.ethnicdancetheatre.com.

Members of OBI work with EDT whenever possible from a small ensemble of dancers and lone musician (me) for Young Audience shows in Minnesota elementary schools, to larger productions in the Spring with the full company of 24 dancers and 9 musicians.

However, year round the six inhabitants of Rogaria (OBI's home country) perform together at festivals and dances throughout the Midwest. The members are L to R seated, Colleen Bertsch (violin), Katrina Mundinger (clarinet), Natalie Nowytski (vocals and percussion), Scott Keever (guitar, mandolin), L to R standing, Dee Langley (accordion), Matt Miller (bass).

Closet Accordionist (for a night)

May 2010 - On tour OBI (rogaria.com) stayed for one night in a basement apartment behind Little Bucharest Bistro in Chicago. Very proudly I was shown to my private room.....a real treat while on tour. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was actually a walk-in closet with a bed. There on the floor in it's canvas backpack was my accordion. I wondered how in the world to explain that I was in the closet with my accordion for the first time in my life.

After settling in we went over to the bistro and started playing. And continued playing....until the owner was so happy he broke dishes while dancing and the Romanian Soccer team came in to celebrate. Somewhere around 3:00 a.m. the picture on the left was taken with the infamous saxophonist Gelu and OBI jamming. It was the first time I'd played with $20 bills tucked in my bellows as tips from the diners. What a night! And...I'm out of the closet. Thank you, Branko!

Pictures and Explanations - OBI Midwest Tour 2010

Playing in a band can be a lot of fun, especially if the other folks are like you. Orkestar Bez Ime (OBI) rogaria.com just completed a tour of Wisconsin/Illinois/Michigan. This is me with our bassist, Matt Milller, as we waited in line at the Des Plaines Oasis to buy a cup of coffee. May 13, 2010

Finding a venue for 2010 ATG

Part of the process of planning a festival, convention or any large gathering is find the appropriate venue in which to hold it. The 2010 Accordionists and Teachers Guild, International will be held in the San Francisco Bay Area. This weekend (June 19-22, 2009) I'm looking at hotels in San Jose, not far from San Francisco.

On the left is the view from my room at the Hilton San Jose. I've the privilege have one of the suites in the tower of the building which you can see in the picture at the right. It's beautiful.

Historical TLC for the ATG

Being the new president for the Accordionists and Teachers Guild, International has posed a number of unexpected challenges for me, one of which was the historical filing and storage system of this 69 year old organization.



The 2009 ATG Festival Committee, Mary Tokarski and Michele Boddicker Scheffler and myself, met at the Hilton Airport Mall of America in Bloomington (Minneapolis), Minnesota, May 21-25, 2009. We worked 14 hours a day sorting and filing to discover mementos and statistics from years past. We also set the schedule and worked with the Hilton staff regarding this year's festival 'Accordion Renaissance' presented by the ATG August 13-16 of this year, but that was the easy part of our work week.

Our ATG organizing endeavors unearthed a myriad of findings, from last year's surplus registration desk pencils to a letter from the late Anthony Galla-Rini written in 1940 regarding his views on transcribing orchestral works for accordion orchestra.



The task of sorting through all the storage boxes was an amazing experience. The three of us are proud to look forward into the future of this fine, upstanding organization. The ATG is going to have a great 'Accordion Renaissance' in August at our annual festival and convention.


left to right: Mary Tokarski (CT), Michele Boddicker Scheffler (OR), Dee Langley (MN)

ATG support at NAA in Dallas

Here's a picture from the National Accordion Association convention held in Richardson (Dallas), Texas, March of 2009. It was a wonderful event with lots of good concerts and workshops with the accordion.

Seated on either side of me is the ATG 2nd Vice President, Mary Tokarski and Treasurer, Bruce Lawrie. On the far right is NAA coordinator and ATG board member Norman Seaton.

Other ATG board members in the photo are Esther Lanting, Barbara Scott and Michele Boddicker Scheffler.

AAMS - American Accordion Musicological Society

It's been another great AAMS festival! The workshops were plentiful and well attended, the presenters really out did themselves. There were displays of antique accordions, new and heritage accordion music and merchandise, and there were concerts, competitions and a banquet. But the very finest attribute of this festival is the friendship and openness of everyone, it is truly heart-warming.





This is a picture of the Westmont Philharmonic Accordion Orchestra during the first concert of the weekend. It is conducted by Stanley Darrow. The AAMS festival is typically held the first full weekend in March in King of Prussia, which is nearby to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.