Dr. Robert Young McMahan will present his workshop, “Radio Days Accordion: A Sampling of Once Popular Accordionist Composers of the Past and an Examination of Their Music” at the AAA Festival July 6-10, 2016 in Buffalo, New York.

His workshop will present a look at the lives and accordion works of once prominent artist/composers of the middle third of the twentieth century.  Among these now under-represented figures of the past will be Fred Tedesco, Gene Von Hallen, Joe Biviano, John Gart, and Hugo Hermann.  Join us for some fun, and “don’t touch that dial!”

Dr. Robert Young McMahan is an award-winning, published, and recorded composer, classical accordionist, music research writer and educator. He holds B.M., M.M., and D.M.A. degrees from the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, where he studied composition with Stefan Grove and Robert Hall Lewis.  Dr. McMahan is presently Professor of Music at The College of New Jersey, where he is coordinator of Music Theory and Composition Studies, as well as instructor in Accordion.

Much of his career has been dedicated to furthering the accordion’s status in contemporary music through composing, performing, recording, writing, and commissioning composers. An officer on the Governing Board of the American Accordionists’ Association (AAA), he is Chair of the Composers Commissioning Committee and has commissioned and premiered a number of new works for, or including, accordion both inside and outside of the AAA.

His most recent commission is a work for Theremin and accordion, to be composed by New York composer/flutist/Thereminist, Elizabeth Brown, and premiered in the 2016 AAA Master Class and Concert Series.  In turn, Dr. McMahan will premiere a new work of his for Theremin and accordion, to be premiered by Dr. Brown and himself in the same series at Tenri this summer on August 9. (Dr. McMahan will be joined by cellist, Cecylia Barczyk.)

For further information: www.ameraccord.com

For further information on Dr. Robert Young McMahan:
grillmyr@gmail.com