AWW sadly reports the passing of Guy Klucevsek on May 22, 2025 due to pancreatic cancer. He was born February 26, 1947 in New York city. Guy was considered to be one of the world’s most versatile and highly-respected accordionists. This outstanding composer, accordion virtuoso, and improvisor was a major contributor to the accordion renaissance of the last 25 years.
On Saturday, June 21, 2025 from 2-6:PM, there will be a memorial visitation at the Harmon Funeral Home on Staten Island, New York at 571 Forest Avenue.
Guy’s music reverberates with sounds of the ballroom, the beer garden and the concert hall, fusing elements of regional accordion styles with jazz and avant-garde music.
Klucevsek was born in New York City, and raised outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Guy studied the accordion with Walter Grabowski, New Kensington, Pennsylvania from 1955 to 1965. He obtained his B.A. degree in Music Theory/Composition from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1969; his M.A. degree in Music Theory/Composition from the University of Pittsburgh in 1971.
His Post Graduate Independent Study was California Institute of the Arts in 1971-1972. Among his composition teachers were Morton Subotnick, Gerald Shapiro, and Robert Bernat. He then attended the California Institute of the Arts where he was a pupil of Robert Bernat, Harold Budd, Gerald Shapiro, Morton Subotnick, and James Tenney.
In 1972 Klucevsek joined the faculty of Glassboro State College now (Rowan University) where he taught through 1976. He was a member of Relâche, a chamber ensemble based in Philadelphia, from 1980 through 1990. He moved to Manhattan where he was involved in the free improvisation music scene.
Guy Klucevsek at his finest before a stellar audience of famous US accordion dignatories
at the 2009 AAA Lifetime Achievement Award for Faithe Deffner.
Klucevsek has released 20+ albums as a solo or co-leader and has recorded or performed with Dave Douglas, John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Laurie Anderson and others. He is also a founding member of the international group Accordion Tribe. In 2010, Klucevsek won a United States Artists Fellow award.
Guy Klucevsek created a unique repertoire for accordion through his own composing and by commissioning over 50 works from composers including John Zorn, Aaron Jay Kernis, Lois V Vierk, Fred Frith, Alvin Lucier, Mary Ellen Childs, William Duckworth, Jerome Kitzke, Stephen Montague and Somei Satoh. His music/theatre pieces include Squeezeplay — collaborations with Mary Ellen Childs, David Dorfman and Dan Froot, Dan Hurlin, Victoria Marks and Claire Porter — which The Village Voice called “delicious”; Hard Coal, with The Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Chinoiserie, with Ping Chong and Company, which was featured on the 1995 Next Wave Festival at BAM, and Cirque Lili (2000), with French circus artist Jerome Thomas, a piece which has been performed over 250 times world-wide, always with live music. Excerpts from “All About Jazz” website.
Dan Grauman wrote: “I was saddened to hear of Guy’s passing. Here’s my video of him performing his composition “Three Tributes” at the 2016 AAA Festival in Buffalo, NY.“
“Three Tributes”, composed and performed by accordionist, Guy Klucevsek
This piece was commissioned by the American Accordionists’ Association (AAA). The World Premiere was performed by the composer, Guy Klucevsek on July 8, 2016 at The Tralf Music Hall in Buffalo, New York during the 2016 AAA Festival. Guy would like to thank the Headlands Center for the Arts, who provided him with a residency during which most of the writing was done.
“Three Tributes” is dedicated to the memory of three individuals who each made a significant contribution to the enrichment of accordion culture.
“Evan-essence” is dedicated to Evan Harlan, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Evan was a beautiful accordionist, pianist, composer, and arranger. His versatility was demonstrated in his ability to play in seemingly any genre or style, and OWN it, including his stunning adaptations of Shostakovich for a band of accordion, violin, banjo/guitar, drums. One of his longest-running gigs was as pianist for the von Trapp Family Singers, which is alluded to with a twisted Alpine waltz at one point.
“Ballad of Faithe” is dedicated to Faithe Deffner, a business woman whose company made the Titano accordion which Guy plays. She spent her entire adult life tirelessly advocating for and promoting the accordion, through her work with national and international accordion organizations.
“Sir Walter’s Main Squeeze Rag” is dedicated to Walter Kuehr. Twenty years ago he opened Main Squeeze Accordions on Essex Street in Manhattan, and turned it into a beehive of accordion activity, including lessons, sales, repairs, and as the leader of two bands, The Main Squeeze Accordion Orchestra, and The Last of the International Playboys. Besides the accordion, Walter’s great passion was for motorcycles. The piece begins with Walter kick-starting his bike, then taking off for a wild ride, with a 16 measure gig with The Last of the International Playboys along the way.
Joseph Natoli shares, “So saddened to hear of my dear friend’s passing yesterday. Although one knew it was imminent, it’s always hard to believe when it becomes reality. Guy and I were very close for years, ever since we had met when I was age 19…so 52 years ago. “
Guy Klucevsek CD cover Teetering on the Verge of Normalcy
“We consistently exchanged long letters via snail mail in the 1980s long before the internet had become real. We discussed our compositional careers, our compositions, and our aspirations for the accordion. We lost touch for a while in the early 2000’s, but then renewed our friendship in the last 15 years.“
“When I heard from Guy in 2017 that he was sick, I wanted to write something for him that symbolized our life-long friendship, something he could hear while he was still with us. So I wrote “Friendship” which you can hear just below. I played it at the 2018 American Accordionists Association (AAA) Festival and since Guy was too ill to attend, he was able to hear it via Facebook Live. I will miss you dear friend, especially your dry sense of humor. Here is your song to accompany you on the rest of your journey. RIP.”
“Friendship” (composed & performed by Joseph Natoli)
Guy Klucevsek awards include: New York Dance & Performance Award (BESSIE), for “Altered Landscapes,” a solo accordion score for David Dorfman Dances, “Hey” (1995); Publishers Weekly Listen Up Audiobook Awards: Best Original Score, “Accordion Crimes,” novel by E. Annie Proux, music by Guy Klucevsek (1996). New York Dance & Performance Award (BESSIE), jointly with Dan Hurlin, for the puppet/theatre piece Everyday Uses for Sight #7: The Heart of the Andes (2002). In 2010 he won the prestigious United States Artists Fellow award.
Solo performances include the Ten Days on the Island and Adelaide Festivals in Australia, the Berlin Jazz Festival, New Music America, Serious Fun! at Lincoln Center, Bang on a Can, Spoleto Festival/USA, and the children’s television show Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
He has also performed and/or recorded with Laurie Anderson, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Coleman, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, Robin Holcomb, the Kronos Quartet, Natalie Merchant, Pauline Oliveros, Present Music, Bobby Previte, Relâche, Jubilant Sykes, and John Zorn. Other artists who have recorded his compositions include Dave Douglas, Carol Emanuel, Relache, Aki Takahashi, Margaret Leng Tan, and Twisted Tutu.
He was an original member of Dave Douglas’s band, Charms of the Night Sky, with whom he recorded three albums and toured throughout North America and Europe. In 1987, Klucevsek commissioned Polka From the Fringe, a collection of 32 post-modern two-steps by such composers as Carl Finch, Fred Frith, Christian Marclay and Elliott Sharp, which he presented at the 1988 Next Wave Festival, and has performed around the world with his group, Ain’t Nothin’ But A Polka Band.
In 1996, Klucevsek formed The Accordion Tribe, an international line-up of composer/accordionists Maria Kalaniemi (Finland), Lars Hollmer (Sweden), Bratko Bibic (Slovenia), Otto Lechner (Austria), and Klucevsek (USA). They have released two recordings on the Intuition label, and are the subjects of the Stefan Schwietert documentary film, Accordion Tribe: Music Travels , which was released in theaters across Europe in 2004-2005, and featured at film festivals in North America.
This was the header picture of the Accordion USA News for Guy Klucevsek 70th.
His recordings as soloist/leader include Polka Dots & Laser Beams and Who Stole the Polka?, which were chosen as the best recordings of 1992 by John Schaefer on the nationally-syndicated radio program New Sounds, and Transylvanian Softwear, which was cited as a 1995 Recording of Special Merit in Stereo Review.
You can also hear him on John Williams’s scores for the Steven Spielberg films The Terminal and Munich. He has performed on Broadway in Fiddler on the Roof, Victor/Victoria and Piaf.
Guy leaves his devoted wife, Jan, and many relatives and friends. Guy Klucevsek was a uniquely gifted, gracious and kind person who will be greatly missed by all.
Please check back for further information on funeral arrangements. Read the June www.accordionusa.news for further information on Guy Klucevsek.
Henry Doktorski just contributed an article published originally by The Free Reed Journal which you can read at https://henrydoktorski.com/free-reed/essays/misdemeanors.html? Henry Doktorski writes: “In memory of Guy Klucevsek: here’s a short bio he wrote for The Classical Free Reed website (c. late 1990s) which contains a lot of important information about Guy Klucevsek.”
An article by AAA Historian Joan Grauman Morse: Guy Klucevsek, 2020, Just Released! “VIGNETTES, Short Pieces for Accordion” Delightful original compositi ons by Guy Klucevsek
Guy Klucevsek Vignettes
Guy Klucevsek Vignettes
Two other articles by AAA Historian Joan Grauman Morse are:
Guy Klucevsek and Cody McSherry – 2017, A Heartwarming Story of Coincidences
Guy Klucevsek, 2018, Accordionist and composer, Guy Klucevsek, has “an experience of a lifetime”
Jan Klucevsek shares, “This is Jan Klucevsek. As many of you know, my husband and best friend passed away on May 22, after having been admitted into home hospice care. He battled neuroendocrine cancer for nearly ten years yet always kept his sweetness and sense of humor. And he never stopped making music. Even at the end he was working on yet another music project. He was a great friend and colleague to many. A creative soul with a big heart. I miss him very much.“
