The coronavirus may have put a temporary halt to all public gatherings in person, but that did not stop the Brooklyn Accordion Club from meeting on Sunday, April 12, 2020. The meeting was held online, using the Zoom platform, with all participants joining in from the safety of their homes. The meeting was co-hosted by Mayumi Miyaoka and Blythe Bonaffons, with Mayumi guiding the proceedings. It was a great success and was greatly enjoyed by all.
The online meeting was well attended. In addition to the usual suspects hailing from Brooklyn and the other four boroughs of New York City, the group had guests from towns and cities across the country and the world! Philadelphia, Boston, and a few “Upstate” NY locations were just some of those represented in the meeting.
Several members of the San Francisco Accordion Club attended! It truly was an international gathering as well as a national one, as the day’s performers all joined in from their respective countries: Jorge Arribas played for the BAC from Spain, Ladislav Horák from the Czech Republic, Gary Blair from Scotland, and the duo of Karolina Mikołajczyk (violin) and Iwo Jedynecki (accordion) from Poland.
Jorge kindly shared scores with the BAC of the pieces he performed. Karolina and Iwo provided the BAC with a game as part of their performance, when they played a medley of Hollywood movie themes and challenged the group to name the tunes as they appeared! This the audience did using the typed “chat” tool, so as not to interrupt the performance. Some members were mighty quick with their ID-ing ability.
The participants’ mics were muted whenever they were not speaking or playing, to minimize background noise and eliminate feedback. How, then, did they applaud the performances? Using Zoom’s tools, they were able to post emoji of clapping hands or a thumbs-up! And, of course, the performers could see the audience smiling and clapping on their screens.
Mark your calendar for BAC on Zoom on May 10, 2020 at 2:PM. Iwo and Karolina from Poland (accordion & violin duo) will be back for Hollywood Fantasy Part 2!
For more information on the Brooklyn Accordion Club: brooklynaccordionclub@gmail.com
Screenshots by Robert O. Duncan of Karolina Mikolajczyk & Iwo Jedynecki from Poland and Mayumi Miyaoka who co-hosted the meeting from her home.
