ATG President Betty Jo Simon welcomes everyone to the 74th Annual ATG Festival which will be held in San Francisco at the Crowne Plaza International Airport Hotel from July 23-26, 2014. Betty Jo is pictured above as a member of the UMKC Quartet, where she is joined by former ATG Presidents Joan C. Sommers and Kevin Friedrich, and former ATG Champion Samantha Jarquio-Wagner.

They will perform as part of the Friday evening concert on July 25th, which is being dedicated to the memory of long term ATG Executive Officer, Board of Director and more recently Board Member Emeritus, the late Faithe Deffner.

Among the featured artists this year will be Stas Venglevski, the Frank Petrilli Quartet, Xia Gang (China), Antonio Spaccarotella (Italy), Jeff Lisenby and the Peter Di Bono Trio. The popular ATG Festival Orchestra will be conducted by both Joan C. Sommers and Jeff Lisenby.

Among the three International guests this year are Xia Gang, a well known Chinese Bayanist who has many international titles, Antonio Spaccarotella, a young Italian accordionist who has won international competitions and who teaches modern and classical accordion at the Nuove Armonie Musical Institute in Italy and popular Scottish accordionist Gary Blair, who will lead a welcome “Jam Session”, perform in concert and present a workshop.

Also appearing are Jana Maas, Steve Albini, Café Vienna Trio, Jamie Maschler, Michael Zampiceni, The Great Morgani, AbsolutAccord and Reno Di Bono.

This year, workshops will include: Bass Workshop by Reno Di Bono, Behind The Bellows by Steve Mobia, The Improvising Accordionist by Jeff Lisenby, Brazilian Music by Jamie Maschler, Rhythms of Bulgarian Folk Music by Joan Grauman, Modern Tango by Antonio Spaccarotella, Orchestrating for Digital Accordion by Steve Albini, Things I Learned At Camp! by Jana Maas, Bellows Hiccups and Other Maladies by Michael Zampiceni and Tips and Tricks on playing Celtic Ceilidh Music by Gary Blair.

As ATG continues its efforts to encourage new composers for accordion, it will be featuring an original accordion composition concert on Friday afternoon. Included will be several guest artists, ensembles and the winners of the original accordion composition category which was offered this year.

The festival will showcase students in competitions for solo, duet and ensemble categories with many offering cash prizes. All events open to the General Public who will find a diverse array of musical genres performed by a variety of accordionists. The ATG is offering something for everyone, and invite music lovers to come along and discover the magic and diversity of the accordion as presented by this year’s ATG Guest artists. For more information on registration and pre-purchased tickets, please visit the Festival Registration page on the ATG website, or guests are welcome to buy individual General Admission Tickets at the Door for each event, and the Hotel has generously discounted their normal parking fee down to $5.00 for visitors attending ATG events for the day/evening.

For more information on guest artists, the festival schedule, workshop clinicians and registration information, please visit the Accordionists and Teachers Guild, International (ATG) website.