WMAS
NEWS
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WMAS NEWS UPDATE
February 10, 2009
Meeting Notes
Our sixth birthday party on February 8 was, in the words of member Mary Elizabeth Smith, “the nicest meeting ever.” Instead of the usual ring of chairs, which seems to intimidate would-be dancers and musicians alike, we set up the room cabaret-style. Then we added tablecloths and festive decorations: candles, and red and white balloons anchored by red-painted, heart-shaped weights made especially for the occasion by Ron Paulson. Door prizes, lots of snacks, and a delicious tres leches birthday cake added to the fun.
Our emcee, Ken Kunec, was at his entertaining best, and our members provided non-stop dance music of all varieties on squeezeboxes of all varieties. People danced the polka, waltz, fox trot, schottisch, and even the Charleston! A special treat was the English country dance, taught by Louise Neu to music played by by Barbara Gorin, even though we dancers sort of botched it. It was fun anyway, but it would be nice to try again another time when we have more time to learn it. From England we moved on to Israel and a circle dance, and then home again to the good old American chicken dance. (Some people seemed to have slipped out just before the chicken dance, but maybe they had a long drive home.)
Upcoming Meetings
The executive committee, at its February 1 meeting, decided we should make time for an organized group play-along at each meeting. We were able to squeeze this in at the end of the party, even though we didn’t announce it or encourage everyone to bring their accordions. Peter DiGiovanni passed out music for the play-along and will pass out a couple more pieces at the next meeting. Please bring your accordions to each meeting so you can participate.
On March 15, Jim Vandelly will present a workshop on bass patterns. Please print out the attachments from the email; we will use them in the workshop.
At our April 19 meeting special guest Lenny Feldmann will play a concert, and on May 17 we’ll hold our annual spring concert, featuring our members. As you may have figured out, we are trying to schedule our meetings to avoid holidays and long weekends, so sometimes the meeting will fall on the second Sunday of the month, and sometimes on the third Sunday. See the calendar for more details.
Accordions on Stage and on the Air
The Army Strolling Strings with Accordionist Manny Bobenrieth
Thursday, March 12, 2009, 7:30 pm
Brucker Hall,
Fort Myer, VA
Free and open to the public
Stas Venglevski (accordion) and Misha Litvin (domra) in Concert
Friday, March 13, 2009, 8:15 pm
Masonic Temple
410 University Boulevard West
Silver Spring, MD 20901
Tickets at the door: $15
Reception afterwards
More info at joangrauman@comcast.net
Accordions on the Radio in Richmond
For any members who can tune in to Richmond public radio station WCVE-88.9 FM, Bob Jacobs willl be doing a show on swing/jazz accordion playing at 11 am on Feb. 28, 2009, on Steve Clark’s “Sound of Swing”