Best Handheld Recorder for Accordions

This is the Tascam DR1, my choice in hand held recorders. You could get more and pay more, but for economy and service this electronic device is superb. An accordion recorded with the Tascam DR 1 sounds like an accordion and not a pseudo distorted tin-like replication Alvin and the Chipmunks may have produced. It's well worth it's weight in acorns.

Trending: Accordions

http://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/

Look closely at this new advertisement for the Minnesota Orchestra promoting their Classical Season Sampler Concert.  It's a trendy piece of art depicting downtown Minneapolis and our Orchestra Hall on Nicollet Mall.

Look closer.

In the right lower corner is an accordionist who is not dressed like a clown, in rags, or surrounded by angels with harps looking smug (per Gary Larson's 'Welcome to Heaven' cartoon posted on August 22, 2008). The trend is accordions, big or small, classical or folk. I'm happy, accordion is trendy.

Guthrie Theater Production

When this show opens in a couple of weeks I'll be part of the live music.  It's an amazing production.

The text on this advertisement from the Guthrie Theater reads:

"Heaven is a mind-bending dance theater epic that follows an American war photographer on an odyssey through war-torn Bosnia in the early 1990's. Set to a hard-driving Balkan score, the dance and music fly through the realms of pop, rap, rock, percussion, and opera mixed with traditional and contemporary Balkan styles. The story is heart-wrenching and suspenseful, but surprisingly hopeful. It blasts off at the frenetic pace of a battle, stopping along the way to look at the humanity behind the suffering. It is a story of survival, hope, understanding, forgiveness and even beauty in the face some of the most horrific events the late 20th century has seen."