Victoria Accordion club

June 4, 2006 – meeting highlights

BAND REPORT

• Gerhard Herndler will be the new Band Rep.

• The Breast Cancer Fundraiser at St. Patrick’s School on May 27^th was a great success. The band participated and had the crowd dancing within minutes of starting their program.

• Band performance June 16^th at Water’s Edge in Sidney 7:00 p.m. Music is being provided for a monthly potluck dinner.

• The band will be playing Father’s Day June 18^th for the beer garden at the Leonardo Da Vinci Center 6:00 p.m.

Fathers will be provided with a free meal.

• If anyone would like to book the band for future dates, Gerhard is the man to contact. ghretired@telus.net

OLD BUSINESS

• There won’t be a Schnitzel night at the Edelweiss Club during the summer. The next Schnitzel night will be Sept. 7^th. We need a volunteer.

• Father’s Day June 18^th at the Edelweiss Club. Mary Ross will provide the music.

• Chemainus Accordionfest August 11-13.

Volunteers from the VAC met at 12:30 today to help organize the event.

We will need volunteers to sign up for various positions during the weekend.

A separate report will be e-mailed to members in the near future.

• There are various accordion competitions, workshops for members to check out.

Calgary 17 Annual Accordion Music Festival June 16-18^th 403 251 6272

Shuswap Lake Accordion Festival June 23-25 Contact Dianne Riley 250-675-2531

Sunshine Coast Summer School of Celtic Music July 10 -14

Edmonton Extravaganza Sept.23-25 www.gerl.ca/accordion

Music section

It was great to have many accordionists participating and providing music after the meeting.

• Rose Twordik got the toes tapping with a St. Bernard’s Waltz, followed by Somebody Stole My Gal and Please Don’t Talk About Me.

• It was a pleasure to have a return visit from Jadzia Christensen. She has moved up to a 120 bass accordion and entertained us with Golden Slippers, Coming Round the Mountain, and Camptown Races.

• Eric Oscar always fascinates us with his performances on his Swiss Schwyzerorgeli.

This instrument has a diatonic right hand and the left hand is set up to progress in 4ths, so the bass above C would be F and then Bb Eb etc. (like an upside down stradella bass). If this isn’t confusing enough he decided to play Swiss tunes on a harmonica while playing the accordion. Eric has kindly written out the names of the tunes that he played.

1) Bim Bärtel uf em Oberberg

2) harmonica+oergeli: ? - in Germany it's a schottische/song called Im Grunen Wald ist Holzauktion, not sure what the Swiss call it but it's a Swiss rendition I played (as a polka or Swiss 'schottische').

3) My tune, the Vancouver Island Polka.

• The theme for June was tunes from Hollywood and Ken Beattie took up the challenge by playing Belle Notte. If you don’t recognize the title, the song is from the spaghetti scene from The Lady and the Tramp. Ken continued an Italian theme with Anema E Core, Arrivederci Roma, and Tarentella Napoletana.

• Joyce Bennett made her debut performance with the tango La Cumparsita.

Joyce lives in Victoria for half of the year and winters in California. We will look

forward to hearing future performances while she is in town.

• Robert Hildenbrand finished the performance segment with The Merry Widow Waltz and the tango Ole Guapa. Robert has an amazing memory to remember all the sections of the Viennese Waltzes. Most of us are only familiar with the main theme.

July 3^rd theme will be Summer Music

Eric Oscar plays Swiss tunes as a “duet” on his harmonica and diatonic accordion.	Mary Ross-Klektau accompanys Joyce Bennett (right) on her debut performance in the club.