NZAA Presidents Report
June 2005
It is once again my pleasure to present to you my Annual
President’s Report. The many accordion activities, enthusiastically
promoted and supported by NZAA members throughout the country, as well
as the notable achievements by some of our extremely talented young
accordionists, have been well documented in our newsletters, so I do
not intend to repeat them here. However, the following is a brief summary
of the year’s highlights.
-
The Allan
William Jones Memorial Scholarship function was held on 12 September
last year at the Bruce Mason Centre conference rooms, another new
venue for the event, but most suitable for this type of programme.
This was the 24th memorial event that has been held in support of
the Scholarships. Scholarships were awarded to Campbell Thwaites
of Hawera for Grades 3 & 4, Stephanie Panzic of Red Beach for
Grades 5 & 6, and Gillian McNeil of Matamata for Grades 7 &
8. The Douglas Mews Rosebowl for the candidate receiving the highest
examination mark, was awarded to Christopher Thwaites. The Marie
Efford-Masefield Travel Assistance Grant of $600 was presented by
Alan and Annette Efford, jointly to Joanna Irving and Campbell Hill.
The 2004 Merit Ward was presJented to Campbell Bettridge for his
outstanding contribution to the accordion.
-
The NZAA,
in conjunction with “Accordion House” accepted an invitation
to exhibit at the Music Expo 04, held at the Sky City Convention
Centre in August. This represented the perfect opportunity to showcase
the accordion to the public attending and to those in the music
trade. Special thanks to Maurice,
Lian,
Heather,
Amber, Grayson, Lionel and all those who assisted with the display
and live demonstrations.
- The third Conducting Seminar convened by the NZAA was held on 25
July at the Takapuna War Memorial Hall, and facilitated by Gary
Daverne. Gary’s enormous experience and expertise in conducting
many symphony orchestras as well as accordion orchestras throughout
Europe and the USA, is invaluable to those wishing to hone their conducting
skills and to become more knowledgeable about their craft.
-
A student/teacher information meeting was held on
21 July last year. The purpose of this meeting was to convey to
teachers and students the possibility of a Coupe
Mondiale World Accordion Championship once again being held
in NZ and to explain the various classes now offered in this competition.
If NZ is successful in its bid to host the Coupe Mondiale, we need
to maximise the opportunities for players intending to compete at
this level! ! and do all we can to assist with suitable training
programmes for these students. Heather Masefield opened the meeting
and outlined its purpose, with Campbell Bettridge speaking of his
own experiences at the three Coupe Mondiale he has entered.
-
A special general meeting was held on 31 October
to discuss changes to the Competition rules. Numbers 1 through to
8 were passed unanimously. Number 9, relating to the precautions
of having Rule 38 and 39 in our Competition rules as a safeguard
was discussed, but was unanimously defeated as all present wished
these safeguards to remain in place. The Competition rules were
also to remain in the Constitution. The NZAA was delighted to offer
Master Classes by two outstanding accordionists. The first was on
23 December, with internationally acclaimed concert accordionist,
Fang Yuan, and other with Kevin
Friedrich, our most successful NZ accordionist and current CIA
President, on 14 February this year. Kevin spoke about the international
competitions available, repertoire and bellows technique. Both Master
Classes were all attended by enthusiastic groups of accordionists
eager to absorb the knowledge and information on offer.
-
It is with regret that I reiterate our condolences
to the McCullough family on the death of Eddie McCullough, aged
87, on 18 February this year. Eddie started the Roskill Piano Accordion
School in 1968 and was its principal for over 30 years. He was a
Past President of the NZ Federation of Accordionists and past Secretary
of the Accordion Examination Board of NZ. Many of Eddie’s past
students participated in his funeral service.
-
The 2005 NZ and South Pacific Accordion Championships
and Festival was a huge success, with our exciting new venue, the
Raye Freedman Performing Arts Centre, a new addition to the extensive
facilities at Epsom Girls Grammar School, living up to all its expectations.
This new auditorium and associated facilities, all under one roof,
are ideally suited to all our needs and we are most fortunate that
it is available to us. Our special guest artist this year was to
have been the Russian winner of last year’s Coupe Mondiale
International Piano Accordion Competition, Yevgeny Kochetov. Unfortunately,
at the eleventh hour we learned that Yevegeny was seriously ill
in hospital with pneumonia and would not be attending our Competition.
Fortunately we were able to secure a replacement at such short notice,
the 2002 winner, Alexander
Poeluev, also from Russia, who had visited NZ as our guest artist
in 2003.
-
Our Friday night mix ’n mingle function was
extended this year to include a free concert featuring Alexander
Pouleyev and the Accordion Society of Australia (ASA) Youth Orchestra.
During the evening we welcomed and introduced our overseas guests
and entrants as well as the NZ entrants in our premier solo class,
the NZ and South Pacific Solo Championship. This year we were delighted
to have seven entries in this class; six from NZ and one from Australia.
The draw for their playing order also took place at this time. The
Sunday afternoon concert was once again a major highlight of the
weekend. Alexander
Poeluev provided another virtuoso performance, confirming his
status as one of the world’s most exciting young musicians.
With numerous encores and standing ovations, this was a performance
none of us will ever forget. The concert also featured the ASA Youth
Orchestra and showcased selected NZ and South Pacific Class winners.
The Samantha Rutherford Memorial Award was presented to Callum Anderson
during the programme.The farewell dinner and prize-giving was again
held at the Fairway Lodge where trophies were presented to the South
Pacific Championship Class winners:
- Edward Giffney – 12 years and under
- Jessica Chen – 15 years and under
-
Ann-Elise Koerantjes – for the Premier Class
(Australia)
Special awards were also presented to this year’s recipients:
- The Cecil Smith trophy – North Shore Juniors
- The Cocurullo Family trophy – Wills family; Rien, Andrew, Abbey
and Jake
- The Doreen and Ben Emmett Memorial rosebowl – Kristine Panzic
- The Emmett Family Classical Ensemble trophy – the Anderson
Brothers;
- Angus, Callum and Hamish
The Ben Emmett Accordion Orchestra Commendation trophy – NSW State
Youth Ensemble – Elizabeth Jones. In my report last year, I described
the 2004 Competition event as “the best organised ever, but that
there must always be room for improvement”. Well, I have to say
that in my opinion the organisation of the 2005 event has superseded
it, despite the fact that it was our first time in a new, untried venue.
My sincere thanks and congratulations to Rien Wills, our Competition
co-ordinator, and all those who contributed to such a successful weekend.
As I have already alluded to earlier in this report, the NZAA Committee
has, with the guidance and encouragement of Harley
Jones, applied to the CIA for a date to host the Coupe Mondiale
World Accordion Championships in Auckland. At this stage we have been
allocated the year 2010, however our preference is 2009, which has already
been confirmed for Croatia.
At the moment, NZ has a group of fine young, emerging players who, with
the appropriate development plan, should be peaking and prepared for
international competition around this time. Any later and there is a
risk that these players, without the stimulus and motivation of preparing
for an International Competition, will lose focus and move on.
Another reason for us to push for 2009 is that it will be Kevin
Friedrich’s final year as President of the Confederation Internationale
des Accordionists. Kevin was, of course, a Coupe
Mondiale candidate when the Coupe Mondiale was last held in NZ in
1980, so it would be a wonderful opportunity to honour him “at
home” in NZ while he is still the CIA President.
Harley
Jones, on behalf of the NZAA, has formally approached the President
of the Croatian Accordion Teachers Association, requesting for the above
reasons, a swapping of dates. We are now awaiting a response before
we can proceed any further in this direction. With diminishing numbers
of entries in our Competitions over recent years (although numbers this
year remained about the same as last year), I would like to briefly
reiterate comments I made in last September’s newsletter.
Although entry number comparisons with previous years are a little disappointing,
realistically they reflect a world-wide trend towards various forms
of electronic entertainment, at the expense of more formal musical instrument
tuition. In NZ we have some excellent Accordion teachers and some fine
student talent emerging. We have developed a superb competition structure
rivalling the best anywhere in the world which provides the necessary
training ground for those students wishing to progress to the international
competition stage. What we really do need is your help in both the recruitment
of new Accordion students and with encouraging more students to enter
our competitions and gain the extremely valuable experience that this
offers.
Finally, I would like to thank my hard-working committee for their continuing
support and commitment during the past year. Thank you for the effort
you always put in, especially during those hectic weeks leading up to
our Championships and during the event itself. Your willingness to give
so much of your time, so freely, is greatly appreciated.
John Statham
President
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