The 65th Coupe Mondiale World Accordion Championships was held in Spoleto, Italy from August 21-25, 2012. Xiaonan Xu (China) was the winner of the 65th Coupe Mondiale International Accordion Competition, 2nd was Vitaly Kondratenko (Russia) and 3rd Alexander Veretennikov (Russia).
Picture above of presentation: left to right, Xiaonan Xu, CIA President Raymond Bodell, Mayor of Spoleto Daniele Benedetti, Mirco Patarini (2012 Coupe Mondiale Artistic Director).
Xiaonan Xu (picture lower left) was a very close 2nd in 2011 when the top five contestants were only a 23.01 to 23.56 mark range from 1st to 5th, no doubt making his win in 2012 even more gratifying.
This is the first time that China has won the Coupe Mondiale category. Chinese contestants have previously won most other Coupe Mondiale categories and winning the top Coupe Mondiale title in 2012 is a major triumph for China.
Under the leadership of the China Accordion Association President Prof Li Cong (picture middle left), China in recent years has accelerated into the top echelon of international accordion competitions culminating in this latest success.
A count of Coupe Mondiale 1st places showed China, Russia and Serbia all first equal, with two Coupe Mondiale category wins each and Italy with one. A count of 1st, 2nd and 3rd placings by nation is: Russia 8, China 4, Serbia 3, France 2, Italy 2, Portugal 1 and Moldavia 1.
Full Results are at: 2012Results
DAILY REPORTS with extensive pictures, results and videos, compiled by Kevin Friedrich
The beautiful medieval town of Spoleto, located midway between Rome and Ancona complete with Castles, extremely narrow and steep tiny winding cobble stone streets and pathways linking the various squares and alley ways combined with the stunning venue of the Teatro Nuovo “Giancarlo Menotti” and the 17 September Hall at the Spoleto Opera House complete a sloping raked stage, made for an absolutely stunning setting for the 2012 Coupe Mondiale.
This years Coupe Mondiale was won by Chinese contestant Xiaonan Xu, with two Russian contestants and a Serbian narrowly taking 2nd, 3rd and 4th place. Amazingly, after three rounds of demanding International competition spread over a week, judged by a panel of nine International adjudicators, the final results saw less than one mark between the top four winners, ranging from 23.06 for 4th Place to 23.45 for 1st place! The results from all categories are:
65th Coupe Mondiale
1st. Xiaonan Xu – China
2nd. Vitaly Kondratenko – Russia
3rd. Alexander Veretennikov – Russia
Junior Coupe Mondiale
1st. Djordje Davidovic – Serbia
2nd. Tian Jianan – China
3rd. VladimirStupnikov – Russia
Virtuoso Entertainment Music
1st. Zhao Liu – China
2nd. Raffaele Crusco – Italy
3rd. Sergey Lobkov – Russia
Junior Virtuoso Entertainment Music
1st. Matteo Petronio – Italy
2nd. José Dias – Portugal
3rd. Jean-Baptiste Baudin – France
Masters Coupe Mondiale
1st. Dmitrii Kiselev – Russia
2nd. Dino Suljkovic – Serbia
3rd. Klavdiya Tarabrina – Russia
Ensemble Music Competition
1st. Esse-Quintet – Russia
K. Evseev & K. Evseeva (Accordion), M. Krylov & D. Chernykh (Balalayka), D. Gogolev (Domra)
2nd. Perfect Storm – China
Xiaonan Xu (Accordion) and Zujian Shang (Erhu)
3rd. Concertino – Moldova
E. Negruta, M. Grosu, C. Hioara & V. Leca (Accordion/percussion) & A. Hohotov (Bass)
Digital Accordion Competition
1st. Petar Maric – Serbia
2nd. Stanislav Malyshev – Russia
3rd. Guillaume Clerget – France
AAA Board of Directors Mary Tokarski and Kevin Friedrich and AAA member Joan Cochran Sommers were an integral part of the event. Tokarski served as an the USA-AAA Delegate at the 128th General Assembly of Delegates at the CIA Congress, as well as a member of the International Jury panel while Kevin Friedrich serves as the CIA Ambassador as well as webmaster for all the Coupe Mondiale related websites including the reports that have been published online highlighting the weeklong activities.
Joan Cochran Sommers, a Vice President of the CIA was also the delegate for the ATG at the Congress meetings and coordinated and directed the World Accordion Orchestra VI which performed at the prestigious Spoleto Opera House. Both Mary Tokarski and Kevin Friedrich performed in this orchestra during their acclaimed performances of the Paragon March by Anthony Galla-Rini and Joan’s blockbuster arrangement of E.T. by John Williams.
For a full report on the festival including all contestants pictures and programs, a complete set of results in .pdf including all adjudicators marks, the video of the top three winners in each category (being added in over the next couple of weeks) and pictures from throughout the festival, such as those of the magnificent World Accordion Orchestra, please visit www.coupemondiale.org and follow the links through to the Italy Coupe Mondiale.
Next years event will be held immediately following the AAA 75th Anniversary Celebrations in New York City when the Coupe Mondiale is staged in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Photo below: Mirco Patarini (Italy) accepting the enthusiastic thanks of CIA President Raymond Bodell and the Congress on behalf of the Italian Accordion Culture (IAC) for organizing the 2012 Coupe Mondiale at the 128th General Assembly Closing Congress. Left to right: CIA President Raymond Bodell, Frederic Deschamps, Harley Jones, Kevin Friedrich and Mirco Patarini.
