Video: “Oblivion” (Piazzolla) on Digital Accordion – arranged for digital accordion by Michael Bridge
All sounds performed live. The sound combinations used in the video (UPGs) are available from Michael Bridge and can be installed on Roland FR-8X or Bugari Evo digital accordions.
Michael Bridge shares, “I invite you to meditate with me on Piazzolla’s “Oblivion”, in my new orchestration for solo *digital accordion. I played this with a little more dissonance and a little less ‘light’ than the norm. But after all, the title is Oblivion. It’s a serious but beautiful piece. Thank you to the Rebanks Fellowship @ the Glenn Gould School which enabled me to film this video.”
Michael is a very accomplished musician receiving his doctorate in performance from the University of Toronto studying accordion with Joseph Macerollo, with thesis supervisor Wallace Halladay and committee members Lorna MacDonald and Robin Elliott. His thesis is titled: “Expressive Virtuosity on Accordion: The Performance Techniques of Joseph Macerollo, O.C.,” featuring interviews about the innovative work of Joseph Macerollo, Geir Draugsvoll, and Claudio Jacomucci. It is available now via library systems worldwide.
Michael Bridge is a virtuoso performer on both acoustic accordion, and its 21st-century cousin, the digital accordion. He’s won a slew of competitions in Canada and offers lectures and masterclasses. He’s at home with jazz, folk and classical music.
Excerpts from his website: He’s premiered 53 new works. If pushed, he’ll say he likes Baroque music best because of its unforgiving demand for clarity of intent and execution. He began playing when he was 5 and growing up in Calgary. His mom bought an accordion at a garage sale for $5. A family friend started teaching him to play by ear. Formal lessons began at 7. He spent weekends at prairie accordion competitions, playing polkas and learning to dance. At 15 he attended the World Accordion Championships as a spectator. For the first time he heard classical accordion and fell in love with it. He started all over again, mastering a completely different kind of accordion and a whole new technique. He was soon offering a hundred community concerts a year.
As a soloist with orchestra or string quartet, with his two ensembles, he continues that pace, playing in concert halls all over the world. Bridge (along with his clarinet partner Kornel Wolak) performs on a digital accordion—essentially a computer housed in a conventional accordion case. This extraordinary piece of technological wizardry imitates the sound of just about any instrument you can imagine.
Michael has also mastered the more familiar acoustic accordion, a soulful, highly expressive instrument, essential to the music of Toronto-based Ladom Ensemble. Along with cello, piano and percussion, the Ladom quartet creates a sophisticated blend of everything from traditional Persian melodies, to Bach and Piazzolla, to Radiohead. Bridge also gives back through an online Music Mentorship Program. After performing hundreds of concerts in schools—usually in the less-than-ideal setting of a packed gymnasium with a tight time limit—Bridge & Wolak determined to build more meaningful relationships with musically inclined teens. With help from composers, tech people and producers, they introduce emerging artists to the wide world of professional music.
Michael Bridge maintains a busy schedule including both performances and arranging for the digital accordion plus more. For any interested accordionists, he has added the sheet music for 5 of his arrangements on his website:
Bach: “Invention in F Major”
Avetisyan: “Tsaghkats Baleni”
“Tarantella Napoletana”
Cohen: “Hallelujah”
Mancini: “Moon River”
Michael’s future performances include:
Amherst Island, ON
April 6, 2024: Bridge & Wolak @ BachHause Concerts
Sarnia, ON
April 17, 2024: Ladom Ensemble @ Imperial Theatre
Southwest Symphony, Hobbs, NM, USA
April 27, 2024: Bridge & Wolak
Lula Lounge, Toronto, ON
May 5, 2024: Bridge & Wolak
Rijeka, Croatia
June 15, 2024: Wirth Institute Presents BTW Trio (Michael Bridge, Guillaume Tardif, & Kornel Wolak)
When he’s not being a musical renaissance man, you’ll find Bridge salsa dancing, cooking vegan dishes and talking to smart people. He loves to travel and he’s trying to live a more minimal life – abandoning anything that isn’t essential to his life and work. But what really matters for Michael Bridge is making your world more bearable, beautiful and human – even if only for the length of a concert. He is grateful for the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Sylva Gelber Foundation, and the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto.
