Best Show Yet!
Celebrating
our Fifth Anniversary the Las Vegas International Accordion Convention had over
440 people from all over the world. Attendees came from as far away as
Barbados, Scotland, and even South Africa. This year there were many more young
accordionists who attended the convention on youth scholarships than ever. With
an overwhelming response the convention was deemed a HUGE SUCCESS.
Featured this year were top talents in almost all areas of the
accordion. Highlights to this years event was three time Grammy Award winner
Walter Ostanek who brought a smile to everyone’s face including the Tonight Show
filming crew.
Pictured to the left is Gary Blair Junior.
He and several other talented young people attended the event including Gary's
father who came from Scotland. Gary Blair senior performed as a surprise
guest artist and set a new definition for speed! Thanks Gary and Gary
Junior for being part of our event!
The Tonight Show filming crew along with Howie Mandel visited
the Convention and the segment aired Wednesday June 23 on your local NBC
affiliate. Shots were taken of many of the attendees and performers with Howie
in many different accordion situations. The segment was
an entertainment and comedy segment that did feature only one aspect of the
convention which was polka music (almost all genres were represented with 7
concerts). The segment did show people having fun and showing the
accordion in a positive fun light. No jokes where made directly about the
accordion and Howie did thank the Las Vegas International Accordion Convention
on air for allowing them to do the segment. We thank the Tonight Show for
allowing 6 million viewers to realize the accordion is ALIVE and doing well!
Featured
this year were 16 World class Accordion artists plus backup musicians. The
lineup included, Walter Ostanek, Art Van Damme, Peter Soave, Mario Tacca & Mary
Mancini, Gary Blair, Don Lipovac, Tony Lovello, Stas Veglevski Alex Meixner, Janet Todd, the
“K” Trio, Gina Brannelli, Mady Soave, Mirco Patarini, Ron Borelli, Gordon Kohl
and Steve & Michael Trucco along with backup musicians Gaylord & Eddy Klacncik
plus Ken Seifert on bass and Rich Dalabio on drums.
Over 40 workshops and classes were offered and the classes were
well attended. Four evening concerts were each varied in variety of music from
classical to jazz to polka.
This
year the Deiro youth performers were Daniel Jakolich, Sammy Thomas and Spencer
Wagner – the final judging was done by Guido Diero Junior who awarded all the
recipients a gold medal and he awarded the Crystal Deiro award to Spencer
Wagner.
Other awards given this year were to Joan Cochran Sommers as
the Honorary Conductor of the 2004 convention. The Good Time Accordion Club was
honored with the Crystal Frosini Award for their outstanding work in promoting
the accordion. The lifetime achievement award was presented to Tony Lovello
with a special video presentation of his life and a Honorarium was given to Jay
Todd for his work in publicizing the event.
Over 125 attendees were so excited about this year's event that they
paid a deposit and signed up for next year's event which will be held June 26 to
29, 2005 at the Gold Coast Hotel and Casino Convention Center. We are looking
forward to a great new year with our move to the Gold Coast.