I met Cody McSherry at an accordion festival when he was about eight years old. He sounded quite good on the piano accordion for his young age and definitely enjoyed performing as much as the audience enjoyed watching him perform. Cody subsequently learned to play the diatonic button box (Steirische Harmonika) and formed his own polka band by the age of eleven.
He picked up additional instruments along the way including the piano, organ, harp, hammered dulcimer, saxophone, and guitar, just to name a few. In June of 2017, while trying out piano accordions in Seattle for the purpose of renting one for the Leavenworth International Accordion Celebration, he spotted a C system chromatic button accordion on a shelf.
Though he had never touched one before, he asked to try it, and within about 30 minutes, he was playing a Balkan piece of music with its odd rhythms almost flawlessly . . . with basses!
Cody, who had fallen in love with Balkan music earlier decided that he also wanted to dance to Balkan music, not just play it. He joined Kolo Club Marian, a Croatian folk dance group in Steelton, Pennsylvania, and was soon dancing to the music and playing the accordion to accompany the dancing.
While excelling in school, playing the various instruments, performing for Kolo Club Marian, and doing paying gigs individually and with his polka band, Cody somehow also found time to take voice lessons. He took top honors in his region in the National Association of Teachers of Singing several years in a row.
When he was quite young Cody had seen the Tamburitzans perform their energetic show of Eastern and Western European folk music and dance. The Tamburitzans, formerly the Duquesne University Tamburitzans, is an ensemble that has performed a wide variety of folk dance and music representing international cultures for over 80 years in the United States and internationally.
After the whirling folk costumes left the stage, Cody announced that in the future he wanted to join the Tamburitzans. When he was a high school senior, it was time to audition for the Tamburitzans, but because of the Covid pandemic, live auditions were not possible. The Tamburitzans had to switch to auditions by video. The requirement was to submit a one-take, CONTINUOUS, 15-minute video, not a set of videos that added up to 15 minutes. Cody submitted his video in which he sang, danced, and played three different accordions – his Titano piano accordion, Titano C-system accordion and Strasser Steirische Harmonika.
The Tamburitzans were only accepting three new members to the troupe in 2020, and Cody was one of them. I don’t know how many people auditioned, but I do know that he was candidate number 111!
Cody is now a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh with a double major in Classical Studies with an emphasis in Ancient Greek and French, and an additional certificate in Russian and in Slavic Studies, in addition to traveling the country with the Tamburitzans. Check out the Tamburitzans’ schedule at https://www.thetamburitzans.org/events/tickets. They will be performing in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kansas, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Florida, and New Jersey over the next seven months with other locations being added periodically.
Take the opportunity to see the Tamburitzans . . . and Cody McSherry!
