Video: Dr. Henry Doktorski III presents “The Life and Music of the Brothers Deiro” at A World of Accordions Museum, September 2019

Accordionist Dr. Henry Doktorski III has just accepted an invitation to perform a one-hour solo accordion recital for the Manzanita Concert Series at Mission Trails Church in San Diego at 4:PM Sunday November 14, 2021. Please come and support your local accordionist! Henry will play classical transcriptions, a few popular folk tunes, and classic works by the two early 20th-century piano-accordion pioneers: Pietro and Guido Deiro.

Henry Doktorski will also be the accordionist for the Simpson College, Iowa production of “The Enchanted Pig” October 22-24, 2021. Music by Jonathan Dove and Lyrics by Alasdair Middleton. Plot Summary: The Book of Fate announces Princess Flora must wed a Pig from the North. Drawing on Romanian and Norwegian folk tales with their origins in the myth of Cupid and Psyche, The Enchanted Pig is a fantastical musical story that is funny and tender, miraculous and ridiculous.

Henry is very versatile as an Organist, Pianist, Accordionist, Composer, Conductor, Author, Educator, and Chess Instructor. He shares, “No rest for the wicked, nor the foolish, such as Yours Truly. As if I didn’t have enough to do, what with Sundays and Wednesdays at House of Prayer, and teaching Chess4Kidz classes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I accepted an invitation to play accordion and piano for the performances of Jonathan Dove’s opera, “The Enchanted Pig,” at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa the third week in October. The plot is based on a Romanian fairy tale. I’m already kicking myself, as I have to learn 142 pages of music on accordion and piano in the next four weeks. And some of it looks darn difficult. Yikes! And now to find a substitute teacher for my classes.

Especially for my accordionist friends, and those who love Swedish folk music: I am happy to report that Archeophone Records’ latest release, “Swede Home Chicago,” is available, and that I served as one of the consultants for this double CD compilation. A few months ago, Richard Martin, owner and producer for Archeophone Records asked me to listen to seven different tracks which featured accordion, to check to see if remastering was done properly. The original records were recorded from 1923-1927. The double CD features Swedish folk music including accordion, violin, piano, handbells, plus vocal soloists and choir singing in Swedish.

This is the third project I’ve had the pleasure of working on with Richard. Our first collaboration was the four-CD series, “The Complete Recorded Works of Guido Deiro (1911-1928)” in which I served as the writer of the CD booklet notes. More recently, I also served as consultant for Archeophone’s 2018 release: “Alpine Dreaming (1920-1924),” which also included tracks with accordion.”

Henry Doktorski became a professional accordionist at the age of twelve when he played his first paying gig: a birthday party in Menlo Park, New Jersey (1968). He was the first-place winner in the American Accordion Musicological Society Virtuoso Solo Competition (1990: King of Prussia, Pennsylvania) and has performed with dozens of orchestras including the Pittsburgh, Detroit, Fairbanks Alaska symphonies, and the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra. For more, see http://henrydoktorski.com

For further information:
Henry Doktorski, M.Mus., C.A.G.O.
Phone: 951-435-9209 Email: henrydoktorski@gmail.com