Video: Guy Klucevsek: “The C&M Waltz” (for Charlie and Marian Bartosh), Guy Klucevsek: Composer/Accordionist Camera: Ray Foley Editor: Elmo King Composed 2009.
Guy Klucevsek (excerpts from his website) is one of the world’s most versatile and highly-respected accordionists.This outstanding composer, accordion virtuoso, and improvisor has been a major contributor to the accordion renaissance of the last 25 years. His music reverberates with sounds of the ballroom, the beer garden and the concert hall, fusing elements of regional accordion styles with jazz and avant-garde music.
Guy shares, “To all my friends and fans: I am going to be taking an indefinite leave-of-absence from performing to focus on composing, recording, editing my scores for those who may be interested in performing the pieces now or in the future, and archiving my materials which will be included in the NYU Library/Fales Collection; oh, and to take some time to “smell the roses” with my lovely wife, Jan.
I may pop-up now-and-then to do something, as the spirit moves, but I no longer intend to focus on a career as a performer.
Thanks for all your support!
Best wishes,
Guy”
Guy has performed and/or recorded with Laurie Anderson, Bang On a Can, Brave Combo, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Coleman, Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, Rahim al Haj, Robin Holcomb, Kepa Junkera, the Kronos Quartet, Natalie Merchant, Present Music, Relâche, Zeitgeist, and John Zorn.
He is the recipient of a 2010 United States Artists Collins Fellowship, an unrestricted $50,000 award given annually to “America’s finest artists.”
He has premiered over 50 solo accordion pieces, including his own, as well as those he has commissioned from Mary Ellen Childs, William Duckworth, Fred Frith, Aaron Jay Kernis, Jerome Kitzke, Stephen Montague, Somei Satoh, Lois V Vierk, and John Zorn.
Performances include the Ten Days on the Island Festival (Tasmania), the Adelaide Festival (Australia), the Berlin Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center, Spoleto Festival/USA, BAM Next Wave Festival, Cotati Accordion Festival, San Antonio International Accordion Festival, Vienna International Accordion Festival, and the children’s television show “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
Klucevsek has released over 20 recordings as soloist/leader on Tzadik, Winter & Winter, innova, Starkland, Review, Intuition, CRI, and XI. Stereo Review cited his Starkland recording, Transylvanian Software, as a recording of special merit” (1995). He can also be heard on John Williams’s orchestral scores for the Steven Spielberg films, “The Terminal,” “Munich,” “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” and “The Adventures of Tin-Tin,” and on A. R. Rahman’s score for “People Like Us.”
