Pictured with her accordion, her American Accordionists’ Association (AAA) archival display boards, logos she has designed for the Coupe Mondiale and the AAA, and some of her SqueezinArt t-shirt designs, is Joan Grauman who is AAA historian, co-owner of “SqueezinArt”, co-director of the Frank Marocco Accordion Event, vice-president of the Washington Metropolitan Accordion Society (WMAS), and conductor of the Potomac Accordion Ensemble.
Never in a million years would Joan have predicted that, in her mid-50s, her life would center around her father’s musical instrument, the piano accordion. As a child, she delighted in the beautiful melodies her father played each evening on the instrument that won him many awards in his childhood.
Joan’s young life centered around her artwork, her piano, and performing and choreographing international folk dances. It was her love for the dance melodies of the Balkan countries that redirected her life toward the accordion. The rest is history. The accordion led her to play all over the country, first with her Balkan band, BAMCO, with Klezmer groups, and then with her accordion duet partner, Stella Allison. Joan met her husband, Dan, at an accordion event. Together they created the company, “SqueezinArt”, that features her artwork on “everything accordion”. SqueezinArt led her to the AAA, and then to its governing board, where she was asked to be its historian. A born “local historian”, Joan then redirected this interest to the history of the AAA. She loves researching and writing about the accordion greats (look for her article on Dr. Carmelo Pino in the 2009 AAA Festival Journal).
Joan’s most recent design for the AAA is the new sterling silver logo necklace (see article in this month’s www.accordionusa.com). Joan and friends, Karen Malan-Uribe, president of WMAS, and celebrated accordionist, Mary Tokarski, are finishing up a book and CD they have collaborated on about – you guessed it – the accordion!
Joan hopes to see everyone at the AAA Festival in Memphis where she will be giving a workshop on the AAA Archives, and playing French Musette waltzes in Bernard Metais’ workshop on the history of French Musette (both on Saturday, July 18).
For further info: joangrauman@comcast.net
