President's Message

Fran Maddox

               The month of June was not only filled with the RCAC Accordion Camp but two weeks after that several of us took off for Astoria to attend the Scandinavian Festival. We’d been practicing with Coreen Bergholm for the Nordic Orchestra performance since January. The performance was Saturday afternoon, June 21. Coreen has done a marvelous job coordinating players from around the state. We had 3 zoom rehearsals and 2 in-person practices. It successfully came together for the public performance Saturday. Several members also played Sunday morning for the festival.  

                Three years ago, three members of the club were playing in the Beer Hall at the same festival. That started the tradition of “Beer Babes” — the emcee in the hall suggested the name….it grew to many more RCAC members joining!  

                Saturday, July 16 was our July club meeting. There were approximately 20 accordionists attending. The music circle started the afternoon at 12:15 with Jeff Nelson giving us a Master Class in playing “The Prayer”. The song was arranged by Joe Natoli, our RCAC camp comductor and played in the final concert at camp. Jeff volunteered to lead music circle for this meeting and decided to focus on just one song with three parts. Thank you Jeff for “thinking out of the box”. For those who had not attended an accordion camp, it gave them an idea of what we play while we’re there. For many it was a good review of this beautiful song.  

              The afternoon continued with the business meeting and individual playing by members. Many different genres of music were played during the individual playing time. How lucky we are hear such beautiful music. 

           Two new members were welcomed today: Rick Nunno and Elaine Noonan. We are happy to have you join our club. 

          The next meeting is the picnic on August 16. The picnic lunch will be catered by Buster’s BBQ. Delette Huffman is in charge of getting the food. Marlene Meissner will lead the meeting as I will be on vacation.

          A couple in Albany, Or. are selling 3 accordions. They recently contacted me with pictures and notes about them. You can see the information on page 4. 

The video of the final concert is available for all to watch. I will post it on the website also. Unfortunately putting it on YouTube is very complicated with copywrite laws.  

Here is the link:  https://vimeo.com/wfmcstudios/review/1101985409/f4e0e82df9. 

          Keep “squeezin” and enjoy the rest of the summer.