YouTube is blooming with accordion entertainment and the world is watching! It’s time for flowers, sunshine and great music events.  We exit winter with an explosion of festivals, concerts and shows celebrating the accordion. Be sure to plan your participation in at least a few to stay connected with friends, accordionists (amateur and professional) and to network in our field.Along with plans for all sorts of events, the AAA is implementing lots of new things – including our NEW AAA YouTube ChannelThe channel is blooming with performers from our recent events and will continue to grow each month.  Stay tuned and by all means send your “likes” to all your friends.  Let’s spread the accordion word.A large part of the AAA Spring focus is on our young people – not only those who already play – but those we want to bring into our bouquet of flowering Accordionists. We are instituting a new program to introduce the accordion to young people through school programs.  As our pilot program is built up and fine tuned, we plan to help ALL our members set up and execute programs like these by sharing our methods, what works and what doesn’t.Celebrating the youth already in the accordion world is imperative for our future.  The Governing Board is working hard at involving young performers in every arena and venue. The summer’s SqueezeFest in Buffalo is a great example.  We have young artists from New Zealand, Rhode Island, Texas and Canada coming in for the event.  Workshops, concerts, Orchestras, competitions . . . we will have it all. The Youth Involvement Program jazz ensemble and Junior Festival Orchestra have become annual favorites of attendees, and have produced amazing results – the Conductor of this year’s Youth Involvement Program is a product of past programs. Mitch Guido is an amazing saxophonist who graduated from Macaulay Honors College of Queens College and the Aaron Copeland School of Music with a degree in Music Education with a concentration in composition.  He currently is an educator at Westlake Middle School in Westchester, NY and will join us in Buffalo to “lead” the Youth Involvement Program jazz ensemble.  Amazing, isn’t it?  And it is exactly what the program was designed to accomplish – getting non-accordionists to appreciate all the accordion has to offer.The Junior Festival Orchestra conducted by Mary Tokarski has enticed participation from young accordionists from around the nation – and internationally from New Zealand, Canada and Russia. In celebration of Elsie M. Bennett’s lifetime of work to commission new works for accordion, the AAA is sponsoring a Composition Competition for aspiring composers.  Details and requirements are available on the AAA website. Have a wonderful Spring!  Hope to see YOU at the Buffalo SqueezeFest July 6-10, 2016. For more information: www.ameraccord.com