2022 News Archive
February 27, 2022
Dear WMAS members and friends!
We hope you're able to take a break from the news and enjoy the warming weather and flowers breaking through the soil! The club turned 19 years old this month, and we look forward to sharing cake and festivities as soon as the coast is clear.
But we did receive a wonderful birthday surprise at the February 13 meeting. The meteorologists had warned of snow showers for that afternoon, so the turnout was low — but the trek was rewarding. Here’s how club President Peter DiGiovanni tells it:
About 24 hours before the February 13 WMAS meeting, while rehearsing duets with Halina Banas-Jones, I had an idea: why not project the music on the wall so everyone can see it! After all, I had all the play-along music on my iPad, as well as a ton of other lead sheets and fake books. (This is a direct result of pandemic-lifestyle-induced boredom, which prompted me to make the leap from paper to iPad.) So on the way to the meeting I bought a projector, which I then connected with the iPad and pointed at the wall. The image was bright enough to use in a lit room and large enough to fill the space from floor to ceiling. What a breakthrough! No more lugging huge binders, no more hunting for the music (and finding it just as the song wrapped up), no more staring at each other and wondering what to play next, and no more music stands! Sorting and indexing the sheet music is easily done on the iPad using the forScore app, so when someone called out a song title or a theme, like “love” in honor of Valentine’s Day, I could quickly pull up the music.
Our next meeting is on the first day of Spring, at 4 pm Sunday, March 20. We look forward to seeing you then!
**********
July 20, 2022
Dear WMAS members and friends!
We had a nice crowd for our special guest-artist concert this past Sunday, with the amazing musician/composers Emmanuel Trifilio on bandoneon and Christian Perez on guitar. Their program included favorites by Astor Piazzolla and Gerardo Matos Rodríguez, as well as a number of gorgeous original compositions. If you missed the concert and would like to hear samples, try https://www.trifiliotangomusic.com/recordings or https://www.facebook.com/emmanuel.trifilio.
Greeters Karen and Luis Uribe, on accordion and percussion, got the afternoon off to a joyful start.
Upcoming Events
On the evening of Tuesday, August 2, Sleepy Hollow United Methodist will be hosting an ice cream social as part of the Falls Church Night Out program, and we’ve been invited to perform. If you’re interested in playing in a pickup WMAS ensemble, please contact Robert Ford at [email protected] or 703-308-3580.
Our August 21 meeting will feature a play-along, but we welcome you to sign up for a solo or two, or to greet. Stas Venglevski will be with us on September 25 for another guest-artist concert. This one will be free to members, but we’ll ask nonmembers for a small donation.
October 16 is our Oktoberfest, November 6 is our first rehearsal for the Holiday Concert, November 13 is our monthly meeting followed by a rehearsal, December 4 is another rehearsal, and the Holiday Concert itself is on December 11. As usual it will be preceded by a dress rehearsal.
We have lots of music coming up and look forward to seeing you soon.
All of the above events (except the ice cream social) are listed on the WMAS calendar, at www.washingtonaccordions.org. Please check it out!
**********
August 25, 2022
Dear WMAS members and friends!
Robert Ford started as greeter for our August 21 meeting and morphed into the opening act, delighting us with a few classical/popular tunes, including “Despacito,” Mozart’s “Turkish March” (“Rondo Alla Turca”) and Chopin’s “Minute Waltz.”
WMAS President Peter DiGiovanni asked for suggestions for the Holiday Concert, as it’s already past the time that he usually starts organizing the music for that mid-December event. Please let him know what you’d like the orchestra to play.
The rest of the meeting was devoted to a play-along to music from the Firehouse Jazz Band Fake Book, projected on the wall. It was a fun exercise in sight-reading, if not producing performance-worthy music.
Upcoming Events
Stas Venglevski will star at our next meeting, on September 25. This guest-artist concert will be free for members, but we’ll ask nonmembers for an $8 donation. Let's fill up the room, so please invite your family and friends!
October 16 is our Oktoberfest, November 6 is our first rehearsal for the Holiday Concert, November 13 is our monthly meeting followed by a rehearsal, December 4 is another rehearsal, and the Holiday Concert itself is on December 11. As usual it will be preceded by a dress rehearsal.
Catching Up on Your Reading
As you may know, in the past several years Joan Grauman has been writing articles for the American Accordionists’ Association (AAA) website, more than 40 altogether. Some of them cover WMAS members and former members!
Here are ten that Joan recommends; please check them out!
Article 9: on Frank Busso, Sr.
Articles 11 & 12: on Lou Coppola
Article 21: on Joyce Palmer
Article 28: on JoAnn Pankow
Article 29: on Stella Allison
Article 30: on Rose-Marie Coppola
Article 32: two-part article on the accordion in the media spanning over nine decades
Article 33: on Peter DiGiovanni
Article 41: on Joan Grauman
We have lots of music and fun coming up and look forward to seeing you soon.
All our events are listed on the WMAS website, at https://www.washingtonaccordions.org.
**********
October 5, 2022
Dear WMAS members and friends!
Our September 25 meeting felt like old times. More than 50 people turned out to see Stas Venglevski in a concert that was originally scheduled to take place in March 2020. As you may recall, that was the moment the world was shutting down “for a couple of months,” until something called Covid-19 passed. Two and a half years later, we’ve learned, more or less, to live with Covid, and we were finally able to host Stas.
Come to think of it, maybe this concert was even better than the one we’d originally planned. After all, Stas had all kinds of extra time to practice! His playlist was rich and varied:
Passacaglia by J.S.Bach
Full Moon Suite (Potential, Momentum, Fugue-Motion) by Stas Venglevski
Rondo & Allegro by Joseph Frey
Music for a Found Harmonium by Simon Jeffis
Musette Caprice by Stas Venglevski
Russian Winter (Variations on Russian Folk Song)
Summer Sunshine by Stas Venglevski
Indiferance by Joseph Colombo
Odeon (Brazilian Tango) by Ernesto Nazareth
El Choclo (Tango) by Angel Villoldo
Rocky Top by Felice & Boudleaux Bryant
Tica Tica by Jorge Gomez
Following the concert and a refreshment break, Stas conducted ten of us accordionists in a delightful five-part arrangement of Charlotte by Claude Thomain. No one had seen the music before the meeting, so it was an adventure in sight-reading as well as ensemble-playing. After about a half hour, Stas managed to elicit a very credible performance from the group. Thanks go to Stas for sharing his pedagogical skills with us!
UPCOMING
Peter DiGiovanni is putting the finishing touches on the Holiday Concert music he will be distributing soon. Please let him know if you’ll be playing in the Holiday Orchestra, if you haven’t already done so. This is a rare opportunity for us to play together, regardless of our level of expertise – Peter is tailoring the parts for beginning, intermediate, and expert musicians.
Our next meeting, on October 16 at 4 pm, is our annual Oktoberfest. Please sign up to play a polka, waltz, or other dance tune. We could also use a greeter, people to decorate the room, and everyone to bring appropriate refreshments (but no beer, which would be appropriate but not in the church).
November 6 at 2 pm is our first rehearsal for the Holiday Concert, and November 13 at 2 pm is our monthly meeting followed by a rehearsal. We’ll rehearse again at 2 pm on December 4, and the Holiday Concert itself will take place at 4 pm on December 11. As usual it will be preceded by a dress rehearsal at 2 pm.
**********
October 31, 2022
Dear WMAS members and friends!Happy Halloween and Day of the Dead!
We were an enthusiastic group that gathered on Sunday afternoon, October 16, for the annual WMAS Oktoberfest celebration. Several people performed for us. One duo, Halina Banas-Jones and Peter DiGiovanni, along with soloists Robert Ford, Chuck Silio, Joe Kulick, and Yimeng Huang, played a variety of dance tunes: a ländler plus polkas and waltzes. After a break for refreshments, the group joined in a spirited play-along, enhanced by dancing and spontaneous singing by the audience.
Now that the trees are changing color and dropping their leaves, we know the holidays are just weeks away, and that means it’s time to prepare for the annual WMAS Holiday Concert! Peter has sent out the music to everyone who signed up to play in the Holiday Orchestra, and we hope you’ve had a chance to play through it and begin practicing. Remember to listen to the MP3 audio recording of each piece so you can work on the timing and dynamics along with the notes. Please bring your music, organized in a binder, plus your music stand to each rehearsal.
Our first rehearsal is this Sunday, November 6, at 2 pm, at Sleepy Hollow United Methodist Church, our usual spot. Daylight savings ends the night before, so don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour before you go to bed on Saturday, November 5. While we are on standard time, all meetings will start at 2 pm so we can get home before dark.
NEXT MEETING
Our next regular meeting will be Sunday, November 13, at 2 pm. On the program: Mini-concert with Ken Kunec, followed by a rehearsal for the Holiday Concert. As always, please bring refreshments to share.
MESSAGE FROM PETER ABOUT THE HOLIDAY CONCERT
Orchestra rehearsals begin Sunday, November 6 at 2 pm Eastern Standard Time. (If you forget to change your clocks, you will be an hour early for the rehearsal, so please wait for the rest of us!) Peter has sent all participants all the orchestra music, along with MP3s to practice along with, so please take the time to go through it over the next few weeks to be ready for the rehearsal. It promises to be a satisfying and fun experience for us and our audience. Also, members who would like to play a solo at the concert should let Mara or Peter know so we can put the program together. The five-minute rule will apply.
**********
November 27, 2022
Dear WMAS members and friends!
We hope you had a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving!
We had a nice turnout for Ken Kunec’s delightful mini-concert on November 13. As expected, Ken offered us not only a lot of good music but also plenty of fun and laughter. After a break for refreshments, the Holiday Orchestra spent the rest of the afternoon rehearsing for the December 11 concert.
Our next rehearsal is this Sunday, December 4, at 2 pm, at Sleepy Hollow United Methodist Church, our usual spot. We’ll have only one more rehearsal after this, just before the actual concert, so let’s hope everyone is putting in a lot of practice time.
Here’s more about December 11. We will NOT be holding a potluck this year; instead we will have a reception with finger food. The club will buy a couple of platters of wraps or small sandwiches from a supermarket, and we’re counting on our members to bring the rest: cookies, crackers & cheese, etc. Food does NOT need to be wrapped in individual portions.
We'll need people to help set up and clean up.
Dress for orchestra members is festive.
A flyer for the concert is downloadable here. Please send it to your family and friends.
Thanks! We look forward to seeing you soon.
**********
December 31, 2022
Dear WMAS members and friends!
We hope your holidays have been peaceful and happy!
The 20th annual WMAS Holiday Concert, on December 11, was a big success and a lot of fun. Although some of the music –- almost all arranged by our president and conductor Peter DiGiovanni –- was quite challenging and our rehearsal time limited, everyone put in the necessary practice time at home, and we pulled it off. Bravo Peter, and bravo orchestra members! Many thanks also go to Ken Kunec for his masterful and entertaining master of ceremonies performance, which included leading an impromptu “choir,” and to John and JoAnn Pankow for handling the reception. We are grateful, too, to the volunteers who decorated the room and to everyone who showed up to watch the concert. Our 20th – amazing!!!
If you missed the event or would like to see it again, here’s a link to the private (unsearchable) youTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jh73Z_nBBg (In Settings, please choose 1080p (HD) for best viewing.) More kudos to Peter for working his magic on the raw footage!
Next Meeting
It’s that time again: elections! Our current, trusty officers are willing to stay on for another year, but if you would like to put up your name or another’s for one of the offices, please let us know asap. Otherwise we will ask members to vote in-person at the January 22, 2023, meeting or by responding to this email before the January 22 meeting.
Also at that meeting we will review the Holiday Concert and how it might be improved, and we will discuss ideas for improving the club’s programming. Please think about how you might contribute to the discussion! We’ll also have a play-along featuring the music of Elvis and Mozart, both of whom have January birthdays, so please bring your instruments.
If you would like to serve as greeter or perform a solo piece or two for the group, please let us know.
Thanks! We look forward to seeing you on the 22nd.
Happy New Year!
Message from Lou and Rose-Marie Coppola's Son:
Good day. My name is John David Coppola, and I’m interested in putting up my parents' Giulietti accordions for sale. See them here. (Please note that the Titano has already been sold.)
Of course, my parents were the rock stars of accordions back in the day! My dad (among other things) was the leader of the USAF Strolling Strings, performing for nine presidents at the White House. My mom performed on The Lawrence Welk show and at Carnegie Hall (when she was 17) before starting her own music business The Strolling Strings in Washington DC.
I too (& my brother) had to learn at an early age to play the accordion. I won the 9-year-old national accordion competition (on Giullietti Freebass) and then moved on to the upright bass -- which I play professionally still. How many accordionists do you really need in one family anyway, right?!
To see more about my dad, I would check out these links:
www.loucoppola.com
http://www.ameraccord.com/articles/Coppola/2013LouCoppola.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TtHWqSs5L0
And my mom’s business was www.thestrollingstrings.com
I have 4 Giuliettis, 1 Ace, and 1 Mussi available (& 6 assorted cases) -- all played by my parents.
If you check out my folks’ websites, you’ll see photos of these actual accordions being played at the White House -- and for many other celebrities, including Oprah, Merv Griffin (on his show), Joe Gibbs, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Fran Dresner, and even John F. Kennedy (who I was named after) and on and on.
These instruments are in excellent shape and stored well. My folks never smoked. I also remember as a kid, going up to NYC to see family with my dad and almost annually dropping off the accordions to Mr. Giulietti himself. I got to roam around the warehouse and his associates would tune the reeds. It was quite an experience (& sound), especially hanging out with Mr. G! One0time jazz great Art Van Damme happened to be there too. Back in the ‘70s. Crazy.
I did get an offer from “House of Bellows” in Philly for all the accordions but wanted to first see if anyone local would be interested. I’m open to any and all offers. I’d rather have them go to someone who might have known my folks.
Thank you for your time -- and for reading this long email.
John David Coppola
703.627.3372
[email protected]
Dear WMAS members and friends!
We hope you're able to take a break from the news and enjoy the warming weather and flowers breaking through the soil! The club turned 19 years old this month, and we look forward to sharing cake and festivities as soon as the coast is clear.
But we did receive a wonderful birthday surprise at the February 13 meeting. The meteorologists had warned of snow showers for that afternoon, so the turnout was low — but the trek was rewarding. Here’s how club President Peter DiGiovanni tells it:
About 24 hours before the February 13 WMAS meeting, while rehearsing duets with Halina Banas-Jones, I had an idea: why not project the music on the wall so everyone can see it! After all, I had all the play-along music on my iPad, as well as a ton of other lead sheets and fake books. (This is a direct result of pandemic-lifestyle-induced boredom, which prompted me to make the leap from paper to iPad.) So on the way to the meeting I bought a projector, which I then connected with the iPad and pointed at the wall. The image was bright enough to use in a lit room and large enough to fill the space from floor to ceiling. What a breakthrough! No more lugging huge binders, no more hunting for the music (and finding it just as the song wrapped up), no more staring at each other and wondering what to play next, and no more music stands! Sorting and indexing the sheet music is easily done on the iPad using the forScore app, so when someone called out a song title or a theme, like “love” in honor of Valentine’s Day, I could quickly pull up the music.
Our next meeting is on the first day of Spring, at 4 pm Sunday, March 20. We look forward to seeing you then!
**********
July 20, 2022
Dear WMAS members and friends!
We had a nice crowd for our special guest-artist concert this past Sunday, with the amazing musician/composers Emmanuel Trifilio on bandoneon and Christian Perez on guitar. Their program included favorites by Astor Piazzolla and Gerardo Matos Rodríguez, as well as a number of gorgeous original compositions. If you missed the concert and would like to hear samples, try https://www.trifiliotangomusic.com/recordings or https://www.facebook.com/emmanuel.trifilio.
Greeters Karen and Luis Uribe, on accordion and percussion, got the afternoon off to a joyful start.
Upcoming Events
On the evening of Tuesday, August 2, Sleepy Hollow United Methodist will be hosting an ice cream social as part of the Falls Church Night Out program, and we’ve been invited to perform. If you’re interested in playing in a pickup WMAS ensemble, please contact Robert Ford at [email protected] or 703-308-3580.
Our August 21 meeting will feature a play-along, but we welcome you to sign up for a solo or two, or to greet. Stas Venglevski will be with us on September 25 for another guest-artist concert. This one will be free to members, but we’ll ask nonmembers for a small donation.
October 16 is our Oktoberfest, November 6 is our first rehearsal for the Holiday Concert, November 13 is our monthly meeting followed by a rehearsal, December 4 is another rehearsal, and the Holiday Concert itself is on December 11. As usual it will be preceded by a dress rehearsal.
We have lots of music coming up and look forward to seeing you soon.
All of the above events (except the ice cream social) are listed on the WMAS calendar, at www.washingtonaccordions.org. Please check it out!
**********
August 25, 2022
Dear WMAS members and friends!
Robert Ford started as greeter for our August 21 meeting and morphed into the opening act, delighting us with a few classical/popular tunes, including “Despacito,” Mozart’s “Turkish March” (“Rondo Alla Turca”) and Chopin’s “Minute Waltz.”
WMAS President Peter DiGiovanni asked for suggestions for the Holiday Concert, as it’s already past the time that he usually starts organizing the music for that mid-December event. Please let him know what you’d like the orchestra to play.
The rest of the meeting was devoted to a play-along to music from the Firehouse Jazz Band Fake Book, projected on the wall. It was a fun exercise in sight-reading, if not producing performance-worthy music.
Upcoming Events
Stas Venglevski will star at our next meeting, on September 25. This guest-artist concert will be free for members, but we’ll ask nonmembers for an $8 donation. Let's fill up the room, so please invite your family and friends!
October 16 is our Oktoberfest, November 6 is our first rehearsal for the Holiday Concert, November 13 is our monthly meeting followed by a rehearsal, December 4 is another rehearsal, and the Holiday Concert itself is on December 11. As usual it will be preceded by a dress rehearsal.
Catching Up on Your Reading
As you may know, in the past several years Joan Grauman has been writing articles for the American Accordionists’ Association (AAA) website, more than 40 altogether. Some of them cover WMAS members and former members!
Here are ten that Joan recommends; please check them out!
Article 9: on Frank Busso, Sr.
Articles 11 & 12: on Lou Coppola
Article 21: on Joyce Palmer
Article 28: on JoAnn Pankow
Article 29: on Stella Allison
Article 30: on Rose-Marie Coppola
Article 32: two-part article on the accordion in the media spanning over nine decades
Article 33: on Peter DiGiovanni
Article 41: on Joan Grauman
We have lots of music and fun coming up and look forward to seeing you soon.
All our events are listed on the WMAS website, at https://www.washingtonaccordions.org.
**********
October 5, 2022
Dear WMAS members and friends!
Our September 25 meeting felt like old times. More than 50 people turned out to see Stas Venglevski in a concert that was originally scheduled to take place in March 2020. As you may recall, that was the moment the world was shutting down “for a couple of months,” until something called Covid-19 passed. Two and a half years later, we’ve learned, more or less, to live with Covid, and we were finally able to host Stas.
Come to think of it, maybe this concert was even better than the one we’d originally planned. After all, Stas had all kinds of extra time to practice! His playlist was rich and varied:
Passacaglia by J.S.Bach
Full Moon Suite (Potential, Momentum, Fugue-Motion) by Stas Venglevski
Rondo & Allegro by Joseph Frey
Music for a Found Harmonium by Simon Jeffis
Musette Caprice by Stas Venglevski
Russian Winter (Variations on Russian Folk Song)
Summer Sunshine by Stas Venglevski
Indiferance by Joseph Colombo
Odeon (Brazilian Tango) by Ernesto Nazareth
El Choclo (Tango) by Angel Villoldo
Rocky Top by Felice & Boudleaux Bryant
Tica Tica by Jorge Gomez
Following the concert and a refreshment break, Stas conducted ten of us accordionists in a delightful five-part arrangement of Charlotte by Claude Thomain. No one had seen the music before the meeting, so it was an adventure in sight-reading as well as ensemble-playing. After about a half hour, Stas managed to elicit a very credible performance from the group. Thanks go to Stas for sharing his pedagogical skills with us!
UPCOMING
Peter DiGiovanni is putting the finishing touches on the Holiday Concert music he will be distributing soon. Please let him know if you’ll be playing in the Holiday Orchestra, if you haven’t already done so. This is a rare opportunity for us to play together, regardless of our level of expertise – Peter is tailoring the parts for beginning, intermediate, and expert musicians.
Our next meeting, on October 16 at 4 pm, is our annual Oktoberfest. Please sign up to play a polka, waltz, or other dance tune. We could also use a greeter, people to decorate the room, and everyone to bring appropriate refreshments (but no beer, which would be appropriate but not in the church).
November 6 at 2 pm is our first rehearsal for the Holiday Concert, and November 13 at 2 pm is our monthly meeting followed by a rehearsal. We’ll rehearse again at 2 pm on December 4, and the Holiday Concert itself will take place at 4 pm on December 11. As usual it will be preceded by a dress rehearsal at 2 pm.
**********
October 31, 2022
Dear WMAS members and friends!Happy Halloween and Day of the Dead!
We were an enthusiastic group that gathered on Sunday afternoon, October 16, for the annual WMAS Oktoberfest celebration. Several people performed for us. One duo, Halina Banas-Jones and Peter DiGiovanni, along with soloists Robert Ford, Chuck Silio, Joe Kulick, and Yimeng Huang, played a variety of dance tunes: a ländler plus polkas and waltzes. After a break for refreshments, the group joined in a spirited play-along, enhanced by dancing and spontaneous singing by the audience.
Now that the trees are changing color and dropping their leaves, we know the holidays are just weeks away, and that means it’s time to prepare for the annual WMAS Holiday Concert! Peter has sent out the music to everyone who signed up to play in the Holiday Orchestra, and we hope you’ve had a chance to play through it and begin practicing. Remember to listen to the MP3 audio recording of each piece so you can work on the timing and dynamics along with the notes. Please bring your music, organized in a binder, plus your music stand to each rehearsal.
Our first rehearsal is this Sunday, November 6, at 2 pm, at Sleepy Hollow United Methodist Church, our usual spot. Daylight savings ends the night before, so don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour before you go to bed on Saturday, November 5. While we are on standard time, all meetings will start at 2 pm so we can get home before dark.
NEXT MEETING
Our next regular meeting will be Sunday, November 13, at 2 pm. On the program: Mini-concert with Ken Kunec, followed by a rehearsal for the Holiday Concert. As always, please bring refreshments to share.
MESSAGE FROM PETER ABOUT THE HOLIDAY CONCERT
Orchestra rehearsals begin Sunday, November 6 at 2 pm Eastern Standard Time. (If you forget to change your clocks, you will be an hour early for the rehearsal, so please wait for the rest of us!) Peter has sent all participants all the orchestra music, along with MP3s to practice along with, so please take the time to go through it over the next few weeks to be ready for the rehearsal. It promises to be a satisfying and fun experience for us and our audience. Also, members who would like to play a solo at the concert should let Mara or Peter know so we can put the program together. The five-minute rule will apply.
**********
November 27, 2022
Dear WMAS members and friends!
We hope you had a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving!
We had a nice turnout for Ken Kunec’s delightful mini-concert on November 13. As expected, Ken offered us not only a lot of good music but also plenty of fun and laughter. After a break for refreshments, the Holiday Orchestra spent the rest of the afternoon rehearsing for the December 11 concert.
Our next rehearsal is this Sunday, December 4, at 2 pm, at Sleepy Hollow United Methodist Church, our usual spot. We’ll have only one more rehearsal after this, just before the actual concert, so let’s hope everyone is putting in a lot of practice time.
Here’s more about December 11. We will NOT be holding a potluck this year; instead we will have a reception with finger food. The club will buy a couple of platters of wraps or small sandwiches from a supermarket, and we’re counting on our members to bring the rest: cookies, crackers & cheese, etc. Food does NOT need to be wrapped in individual portions.
We'll need people to help set up and clean up.
Dress for orchestra members is festive.
A flyer for the concert is downloadable here. Please send it to your family and friends.
Thanks! We look forward to seeing you soon.
**********
December 31, 2022
Dear WMAS members and friends!
We hope your holidays have been peaceful and happy!
The 20th annual WMAS Holiday Concert, on December 11, was a big success and a lot of fun. Although some of the music –- almost all arranged by our president and conductor Peter DiGiovanni –- was quite challenging and our rehearsal time limited, everyone put in the necessary practice time at home, and we pulled it off. Bravo Peter, and bravo orchestra members! Many thanks also go to Ken Kunec for his masterful and entertaining master of ceremonies performance, which included leading an impromptu “choir,” and to John and JoAnn Pankow for handling the reception. We are grateful, too, to the volunteers who decorated the room and to everyone who showed up to watch the concert. Our 20th – amazing!!!
If you missed the event or would like to see it again, here’s a link to the private (unsearchable) youTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jh73Z_nBBg (In Settings, please choose 1080p (HD) for best viewing.) More kudos to Peter for working his magic on the raw footage!
Next Meeting
It’s that time again: elections! Our current, trusty officers are willing to stay on for another year, but if you would like to put up your name or another’s for one of the offices, please let us know asap. Otherwise we will ask members to vote in-person at the January 22, 2023, meeting or by responding to this email before the January 22 meeting.
Also at that meeting we will review the Holiday Concert and how it might be improved, and we will discuss ideas for improving the club’s programming. Please think about how you might contribute to the discussion! We’ll also have a play-along featuring the music of Elvis and Mozart, both of whom have January birthdays, so please bring your instruments.
If you would like to serve as greeter or perform a solo piece or two for the group, please let us know.
Thanks! We look forward to seeing you on the 22nd.
Happy New Year!
Message from Lou and Rose-Marie Coppola's Son:
Good day. My name is John David Coppola, and I’m interested in putting up my parents' Giulietti accordions for sale. See them here. (Please note that the Titano has already been sold.)
Of course, my parents were the rock stars of accordions back in the day! My dad (among other things) was the leader of the USAF Strolling Strings, performing for nine presidents at the White House. My mom performed on The Lawrence Welk show and at Carnegie Hall (when she was 17) before starting her own music business The Strolling Strings in Washington DC.
I too (& my brother) had to learn at an early age to play the accordion. I won the 9-year-old national accordion competition (on Giullietti Freebass) and then moved on to the upright bass -- which I play professionally still. How many accordionists do you really need in one family anyway, right?!
To see more about my dad, I would check out these links:
www.loucoppola.com
http://www.ameraccord.com/articles/Coppola/2013LouCoppola.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TtHWqSs5L0
And my mom’s business was www.thestrollingstrings.com
I have 4 Giuliettis, 1 Ace, and 1 Mussi available (& 6 assorted cases) -- all played by my parents.
If you check out my folks’ websites, you’ll see photos of these actual accordions being played at the White House -- and for many other celebrities, including Oprah, Merv Griffin (on his show), Joe Gibbs, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Fran Dresner, and even John F. Kennedy (who I was named after) and on and on.
These instruments are in excellent shape and stored well. My folks never smoked. I also remember as a kid, going up to NYC to see family with my dad and almost annually dropping off the accordions to Mr. Giulietti himself. I got to roam around the warehouse and his associates would tune the reeds. It was quite an experience (& sound), especially hanging out with Mr. G! One0time jazz great Art Van Damme happened to be there too. Back in the ‘70s. Crazy.
I did get an offer from “House of Bellows” in Philly for all the accordions but wanted to first see if anyone local would be interested. I’m open to any and all offers. I’d rather have them go to someone who might have known my folks.
Thank you for your time -- and for reading this long email.
John David Coppola
703.627.3372
[email protected]