Photo above: Michael Bridge, Cody McSherry, Emmanuel Gasser, Cory Pesaturo

Emmanuel Gasser from Ontario, Canada recently competed and won first place in five categories in the 2018 Leavenworth International Accordion Festival held in the state of Washington, USA.

These are the categories and selections he performed in each:
LIAC Open: “Renaldo” by Willi Valotti, “Monsieur Ferrero” by Eric Bouvelle, “Tango Frio” by Emmanuel Gasser
Classical Open: “Sonata L. 104 in C major” by Domenico Scarlatti,
LIAC Old Time Open: “Hirven Hölkkää” by Petri Makkonen, “Lyle’s Polka” by Emmanuel Gasser
Variety 2: “Spitzbuebe-Schottisch” by Tony Huser, “Accordiana” by Charles Magnante
Accordion Duets (with Cody McSherry): “Gruss an Kerns” by Walter Grob, “Ruedi, dr Wildhüeter” by Hans Della Torre

Emmanuel shares his thoughts on his accomplishment at Leavenworth: “This years trip to Leavenworth was very gratifying. Not just because I won First Prize in every category that I entered in the competition but because I delivered my performances so well and met so many old friends, as well as made new friends.

To travel to Leavenworth I flew to Kelowna, BC, where I got I ride with an accordion friend to another accordion friends house and the three of us set out for Leavenworth the next day. The car we were in was full of accordions and suitcases, we barely had enough room for ourselves. In Leavenworth I could stay at a friend’s house out of town which made me feel more like at home. Every night I would go to the Andreas Keller Restaurant and jam with old and new friends. We had a lot fun playing music from all around the world; movie theme songs, national anthems, rock, pop, jazz, classical and ethnic music from all over Europe.

The overjoyed party crowd was all perked up when I started some Swiss yodeling. All of a sudden I felt like I was playing in front of a wall made of cell phones, ipads and other cameras. The cheering crowd complained that I never told them that I had this “special feature” in me as well.

When it was time for the awards ceremony on Sunday morning, the beautiful trophies and medals were finally revealed. There were special trophies made of crystal, for the LIAC Open category because it was the 25th anniversary festival. The medals for other categories also had the 25th anniversary logo of LIAC on them.

After the awards ceremony the festival was going to wrap up at the Gazebo. My dear friend, Cody McSherry, had a half hour time slot and invited me to accompany him. It was a blast ! After that came my own time slot and I invited Rod to finish up with me because I was sleepy after the long party of the previous night. Not that Rod had a lot of energy but two sleepy guys are funnier than one! What can you expect after only three hours of sleep anyway?!

The organizers, volunteers and sponsors did an absolutely outstanding job for the 25th Leavenworth Accordion Festival. They brought immense happiness and joy to all people from small kids up to oldtimers.
Long live the accordion !

For further information: emmanuel_gasser@yahoo.com