Sigma Alpha Iota

14 Spring 2023 • sai-national.org Musical Outreach In the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, the accordion was a very popular instrument in Chicago. There were accordion schools in every section of the city with hundreds of students at each school taking lessons and participating in "accordion band." When the students were very young and novices at the accordion, they played in the "beginner band" at their school. As the young accordionists developed skills, they would progress moving up to the intermediate band and ultimately to the senior level "accordion orchestra." My personal experience with this process began in 1968 at Monti's Music Center in Berkeley, IL, toward the tail-end of the "heyday" of the accordion. I could not wait to be promoted to the larger and more advanced accordion band or orchestra. I practiced diligently each day and was thrilled to advance to the accordion orchestra in short order, where we learned actual orchestral works arranged for the accordion group. This same process was happening in other areas of the country, especially in Kansas City and in the Northeast (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island to name a few states). At that time, it seemed that almost everyone had an accordion or knew someone who played the accordion. There were two major accordion organizations in the United States, the Accordionists & Teachers Guild, International (ATG) and the American Accordionists Association (AAA). Each organization sponsored solo and accordion orchestra competitions at all levels in various parts of the country. At the highest level, solo accordionists competed for the opportunity to represent the United States in the Coupe Mondiale (World Competition) sponsored by the Confédération Internationale des Accordéonistes (CIA). As a young student, I participated in competitions and festivals sponsored by both organizations. In the summer of 1975, when I was a senior in high school, I had the good fortune of attending an ATG event held in Chicago where I heard the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) Accordion Orchestra, conducted by Joan Cochran Sommers (an SAI member and world-renowned accordion teacher and orchestra The Accordion Is Making A Comeback In Chicagoland

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