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Accordions |
Excelsior Accordion
Established in New York in 1924, the Excelsior Company has long been serving the market with great accordions. The company considered expansion of their production and sales in 1948 and since then, excellent sound, quality and fine look of the Excelsior accordions have been appreciated all over the world. It was in fact noted in one of the resources that the greatest popularity of Excelsior accordions was reached after the Second World War as they became a “must” for any big orchestra with Charles Magnante and Art Van Damme as a few among the many popular accordionists who prefer Excelsior.
As commonly claimed, all of the professional models of Excelsior accordions are very prestigious instruments. The selection ranges from the top-quality 960 (922 in button), highlighting tone chamber or cassoto and five sets of reeds that appear both in treble and bass, to the lighter 911 with 610 in button that is recommended to folk and modern music players. Aside from that, there was the glorious AC, popularly known as “Continental”, which has long been deemed as the one of the best accordions ever made in all times. Specifically, this model boasts its hand made sets of reeds in treble and six in bass, tone chamber, and lightest keyboard. It is these features which sets the Excelsior Continental the most appreciated by jazz and classic music lovers.
On the semi-professional side of Excelsior accordions, it is worth noting that all of the Excelsior accordions under this category are deigned and crafted according to the same quality standards applied to professional accordion manufacturing. It also covers a wide range of models which generally offered matches to any requirement that the forthgoing students or experienced amateur may have.
Just recently, Excelsior proudly introduced their new Conservatory series that is composed of six new mid priced convertor accordions. This particular series of Excelsior accordion was actually produced after many years of cooperation with teachers and professionals as well as by using only the quality materials and skilled craftsmen. This series is now well-known for its superb tonal quality and elegance that are coupled with its reasonable price.
The Excelsior accordion company today goes ahead in its tradition of quality and prestige, but all of their products are still crafted with selected materials and in accordance to the best traditional craftsmanship approaches as well. As you may know, to own an Excelsior accordion these days is like owning a prestigious instrument and following the path of the best accordion players of the past and present.
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Accordion Music Memories
It's every kid's dream to play the accordion in a local talent show, right? OK, well, maybe not so much a dream as something that seems like fun at the time, but a memory that will make you cringe in horror years later when you look back at the pictures.
This story is a memory and tip / warning for accordion players everywhere. Actually, it is a valuable tip for anyone playing a musical instrument on stage where a spotlight will be in use during the show.
We started having meetings and rehearsals for the local talent show about a month and a half before the scheduled date of the show. The organization putting on the talent show had to rent the spotlight so they planned to only get it in time for the dress rehearsal, which was the day before the actual show. Therefore, during all the other rehearsals, we only had the regular fluorscent lighting in the room and the general stage lighting.
On the night of the final dress rehearsal, the person in charge of operating the spotlight could not get it to work so we went through the rehearsal without it. I had been practicing my accordion faithfully and played a medley of several songs flawlessly during the rehearsal.
The next day, on the night of the actual talent show, the spotlight was working properly. When it was my turn to perform, the audience applauded as I walked out on to the stage with my accordion strapped to my chest carrying my accordion sheet music. I sat down and placed the sheet music on the stand. The general house lights dimmed and the spotlight came on.
That's when I realized it was time to panic. Stage fright, you think? Not at all, I loved being on the stage with an audience of hundreds. The reason for panic was because the spotlight was so strong that it shone right through the sheet music! I couldn't see any of the notes on the pages.
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