Part of the NE 2 NE Accordion Expedition is about performing on the AAMS Friday night concert in Whipanny, New Jersey.
Although my workshop will be Rroma, I've been asked to provide a
program of French music on the concert. I've been researching and soul
searching to see which tunes (old and new) make my heart shine since I
believe the best concert is given with music from your heart.
I
have been particularly taken with French musette "Valse Merovingienne"
written by Andre Verchuren and Georges Ghestem ca. 1955. The chord
structure is more Celtic than French and the melody is a bit melancholy
while oddly calming.
The name was even more intriguing. With a little help from Wikipedia I learned this:
The
Merovingians were the first Germanic tribe to resettle on Roman land.
Their dynasty came to rule the Franks in a region known as Francia in Latin for 300 years from the middle of the 5th century.
This
is a picture of one of the Merovingian Kings. He reminds me of what the
basic melody of "Valse Merovingienne" sounds like. I do believe I will
enjoy making a new arrangement of the original waltz to play on the
concert!
Often I hear the someone say, "The party has started, the accordion is here!" when I get to a gig. I would love to think they think I'm an awful lot of fun personally, but I believe they are referring to the type of music the accordion plays.
The Friday night concert at AAMS (American Accordion Musicological Society) during the MAMTG (Mid-Atlantic Music Teachers Guild) convention will feature French music. Here one of my favorites, "Jeanette" by Guy Viseur on YouTube.
I just added a couple favorite pictures to my Kickstarter project NE 2 NE Accordion Expedition and thought to share them here. Pledge if you can, you get cool rewards!
Performance with The EDT Folk Orchestra
During the FUBAR Omniverse on KFAI radio, photo by Colleen Bertsch
There's always a bit of intrigue and surprise generated by the reality of travel plans.
I
was checking the Amtrak website for the availability of compartments on
my round trip from Minneapolis to Philadelphia (changing trains in
Chicago) and discovered that one of the trains needed was no longer
listed as a connection. The Cardinal line (Chicago-Philadelphia) had
disappeared.
This prompted a phone call directly to Amtrak where I
poured out my concerns to the agent. She was a gem and dug around in
the files until she saw what the issue was. The Cardinal was active but
the Empire Builder (Minneapolis-Chicago, originating in Seattle) was so
consistently late arriving in Chicago that Amtrak no longer considered
it a viable transfer. This must have happened very recently because I
had checked the website two weeks ago and the connection was listed.
Solution: Leave a day early, stay over night in Chicago to catch the Cardinal the next day as originally planned.
All
was good, for the moment, because the trains connected well on the way
home to Minneapolis. One is always ready for an easy trip back to their
home.
Then I got the other bad news, there were no more
compartments left on that train the day I wanted leave for home. To make
matters a little more complicated, the Cardinal line is the only train
leaving from Philadelphia with checked baggage, it only runs three days a
week. You do need checked luggage when you travel with a larger
instrument as a carry on.
This March I'll be presenting a
workshop telling of my experiences at Amala School in Valejo, Serbia during
the summer of 2012. Amala School is an opportunity to live with Rroma (Gypsy)
musicians and learn music and language. It was an indescribable experience but
I will do my best to pass along the some of the things I learned to others.
Accordion and Clarinet teacher, Amala School, 2012
Here is a description of my workshop:
Play Gypsy (Rroma) Music Today - Dee Langley
Experience the excitement and fulfillment of music at your fingertips while exploring
the rich, mysterious, and romantic melodies of the Rroma people. During the
summer of 2012 Dee attended the Amala School in Vallejo, Serbia where she lived
with and was taught by Gypsy (Rroma) musicians. This workshop is open to anyone
who has a desire to experience world cultures through music and learn more
about what the Rroma people are really like.
AAMS is held in conjunction with the Mid-Atlantic Music Teachers Guild - March
28, 29, - 30 in Whippany, New Jersey.
I specialize in both solo and ensemble work on the accordion and have been fortunate enough to perform with the Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Ancia Quartet, Minnesota Sinfonia, Minneapolis Philharmonic and Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra. I am a past president of Accordionists and Teachers Guild, International and now enjoy being the President of the Mill City Accordion Association as well as event coordinator for the NE Accordion Festival. I live in NE Minneapolis and am a faculty member of Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC) teaching accordion. A very wonderful thing happened recently, I won the 2011-2012 McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians and if that wasn’t enough the 2012 Minnesota Emerging Composer’s Award from the American Composer’s Forum (Orkestar Bez Ime, World Music). A dream comes true for this accordion kid!
