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.

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)