2009 Photos The American Accordionists’ Association 2009 Festival was held in Memphis, TN at the Holiday Inn Suites on the campus of the University of Memphis from July 15-19, 2009.

Highlights of the Festival included performances by Riders in the Sky featuring Joey Miskulin; Jeff Lisenby and the NashVegas Jazz, Tony Lovello, Bruce Gassman, Joe Natoli and Mary Tokarski.

Comprehensive workshops in every possible subject kept Festival goers busy throughout each day. Workshops included: Mary Kathryn Archuleta – “Teaching Strategies for students with Special Learning Needs”; Randy Martin – “You can play jazz, too!”; Dominic Karcic – “Embellishing Made Easy”; Beverly Roberts Curnow & Dr. Robert Young McMahan – “The Accordion Novelty”; Dr. Helmi Harrington – “A World of Accordions Museum”; Tony Lovello – “The Entertainer”; Bernard Metais – “100 Years of Musette Style in Paris”; Joan Grauman – “AAA Archivist” and Joe Natoli – “Learn to Compose Yourself” and the “Roland V-Accordion – Right out of the box!”

Contest chairman, Mary Tokarski, announced the winners in the top categories which included the Maddalena Belfiore Competition for Female Accordionsts – 1st place – Angel Liu of China; The Vivian Vivio Stolaruk Entertainment Competition – also won by Angel Liu; The International Piano Accordion Competition (Carmen Carrozza Scholarship) – 1st place – Martynas Levickus of Lithuania; A Tribute to the King – The Elvis Presley Category – 1st place – John Moceo of Staten Island, NY.

This year, the AAA introduced the Elsie M. Bennett Composition Category and received three wonderful entries all of which were performed at the Awards Concert. 1st place went to Martynas Livickus for his piece entitled Quiver; 2nd place was Memphis native, Linda Warren for “The Hire Fest Polka” and 3rd place to Kathryn Archuleta for a 6 part psalm entitled “Psalm 141”which was performed by members of the Connecticut Accordion Orchestra including Mary Tokarski, Kathy DiCocco, Marilyn O’Neil, Sandy Zera, Linda Soley Reed and Bob Vitale. Congratulations to all!

Special thanks to our exhibitors including A World of Accordions Museum, the AAA Archives, MusicMagic USA, Roland Accordions and Squeezin’Art for bringing their wonderful displays to Memphis. Thank you for your support.

Friday’s sightseeing tour of Memphis was culminated by the mass band performance at Graceland under the direction of Frank Busso, Sr. A myriad of newspaper reporters and TV cameras recorded the performance of Love Me Tender and Blue Suede Shoes which was broadcast on all the local TV stations as well as the “Elvis” channel on Sirius radio. The group then enjoyed a tour of Graceland before heading back for the evening’s festivities.

The 2009 guest conductor of the AAA Festival Orchestra was California’s Randy Martin of the Martin School in Fullerton, CA. The ambitious program which included Lesginka, Galop, Furiant and a Rock & Roll Trilogy kept orchestra members busily practicing their parts. The magnificent performance at the Saturday evening banquet was enjoyed by all the attendees who are looking forward to the 2010 Festival which will be announced shortly.

Thanks to Mary Tokarski, Faithe Deffner, Frank Busso, Sr. and Linda Soley Reed for their untiring efforts to make the Festival a great success. See you in 2010!
2009 Photos