Dr. William Schimmel – moderator and curator

It was our 17th year at The Tenri Cultural Institute of New York and it was better than ever. We had a wonderful turnout with a group of participants that have committed themselves from the very first year like Micki Goodman choreographer, dancer, lecturer, video artist and fitness specialist; Paul Stein accordionist, lecturer and politcal satirist; Dr. Robert Young Mc Mahan accordionist, composer and lecturer; Lee McClure, composer and digital flutist and others who were with us for many years: King of Ragtime, Dr. Mark Birnbaum, concert artist Mary Tokarski, Jazz artist Will Holshouser.

Others who joined us along the way: Rock artists Benjamin Ickies, John Foti and Carl Riehl, concert accordionist Rita Davidson, performance artists Marni Rice and Brian Dewan, composer and reed player (clarinet/bass clarinet) Ted Nash, saxophonist Dr. Paul Cohen, guitarist and laptop artist David First, Bayan players Dr. Rocco Jerry and Anthony Grieco, Gagaku artists Sadahiro Kakitani (bamboo flute) and Youchi Fukui (sho), composer/arranger Bob Goldberg along with accordionists Mark Nathanson and Melissa Elledge and Carl Riehl, site composer, Joseph Bertolozzi, pianists Dr. Hugo Goldenzweig and Ken Laufer, vocalist Mary Spencer Knapp, concert accordionist composers Doug Makofka and Michael Century, jazz accordionist/composer Art Bailey, composers Peter Gilmore, David Stoler and Dave Soldier and writer Dr. Ronald Sarno.

Participating in the master classes were Erica Mancini, Suzana Bietes and Mayumi Mihaoka, who performed at all three afternoon sessions. We commend them for bravery as well as their gracious acceptance of fine comments given to them. They received constructive criticism, advice, tips and encouragement from the participants, the audience and myself.

Certificates of participation were given to them at the end of the weekend. Doug Makofka, John Foti and Dragica Banic-Curcic also performed at the Master Classes – as did I.

Presenters included Dr. Mc Mahan, Micki Goodman, Paul Stein, Benjamin Ickies, Joseph Bertolozzi, Rocco Jerry and Anthony Grieco.

The weekend had a royal theme – Walton the Imperial: Crowned! Since we believe in the non-competiveness of The Seminars, we gave the Imperial Crown to William Walton, the deceased British composer who has composed music for Royal events (sure enough, at the Royal wedding this year, his music was featured in the grand march down the isle). Everyone at the Seminars was considered to be Royalty and were treated as such.

The concerts were divided into three areas: Friday night concentrated on music of a more classic variety in any style. Saturday night was more theatrical and text oriented. Sunday evening was more in the experimental vein. Almost all of the pieces on all of the concerts were either world premieres or local premieres. The Sunday concert began with a tribute to my own mentor, Dr. Jacob C. Neupauer, which I performed lying down. CDS, books and DVDS were sold in the lobby. A new installation, King Vidor, was on display.

The Seminars were started with three purposes in mind:
1. To introduce the accordion and all of its facets to the New York Artistic community 2. and to anyone else interested
3. That they would about the presentation and nurturing of ideas – not personalities and stars – there would only be one star – The Accordion.

The Seminars are presented in an intimate setting at the Tenri Cultural Institute, a Japanese cultural center, art gallery, performance space and school located in heart of the Chelsea section of Manhattan – a center of great artistic vitality – on the same block as The New School and close by is The Parsons School of Design and within walking distance, New York University.

In the past three years we had the honor of incorporating Gagaku into our presentations utilizing the accordion with ancient Japanese instruments such as the Sho (the Japanese version of the Chinese Cheng) and the Classic bamboo flute in traditional and current settings. We look forward to more of those kinds of collaborations.

The Seminars are about learning. There is never the feeling of – we’ll show you how it’s done , or – here is the right way – or that’s the wrong way. Instead we try to present a series of possibilities that open the way to new ways of thinking and new ways of playing.

We look forward to next year and we hope that our viewpoints contribute to New York Cultural life and the Cultural life in International settings. We started the Seminars with local people and now we have participants from Norway, China, Croatia, Japan, Belgium, Argentina and other parts of the US.

We hope to see you next year – bring your accordion if you wish – or simply attend and listen – what’s important is an open mind, warm fingers and a warm heart.

For further information: billschimmel@billschimmel.com