On Sunday 13th January 40 teachers and several well-wishers packed the Henry Wood Room at the Royal Academy of Music in London in a serious attempt to form the first association for accordion teachers in the UK. They came from all over the UK, as far as Scotland in the north to the south coast and from Exeter in the west to East Anglia. The atmosphere was one of enthusiasm and positivity and much was achieved in discussing a constitution and a way forward. Already the meeting, which was chaired by Romano and Janet Viazzani, saw the eager new members working hard and five hours of debating were broken only for a tea and coffee break and a short musical interlude given by Bartosz Glowacki and Xian Gao, two of the students at the RAM, as a respite to the teachers debating and brainstorming.

The minutes will soon be collated and it is hoped that the next meeting will be held in the next 6-7 months where an executive committee will be elected and a constitution signed. It is hoped that the association will enable teachers to refresh their skills through training programmes as well as provide a voice for teachers as a pressure group for achieving its goals in the wider musical spectrum.

Here is a list of attendees, as well as supporters who were unable to attend.

Romano Viazzani

Janet Viazzani

Owen Murray

Shona Holmes

Nigel Waterhouse

Adrienne Griffiths

Milos Milivojevic

Yi Yao

Claudio Allodi

Karen Tweed

John Romero

Ian Watson

Julie North

Lisa Lee Leslie

Karen Street

Maureen Penfold

Bert Santilly

Eva Goskina

Douglas Ward

Eddie Hession

Dawn Loombe

Gary Blair

Sheila Cooper

Shirley Verenne

Peter Watson

Ingrid Gould

Roland Williams

Djordje Gajic

Trevani

Sue Trevani

Martynas Levickis

Zivorad Nikolic

Ben De Sousa

John Leslie

Martina Schwarz

Sue Bennett

Craig Bradley

MurrayGrainger

Harry Haigh

Sabina Gardner

 

Apologies

Daniel Gott

Mark Bousie

Tony Compton

Heather Hawthorn

Roy Hendrie

Nikoli Ryszkov

Pearl Adriano

Phuong Nguyen

Paul Chamberlain

Gillian Sharpe

ClydeJohnston

Peter Hodkinson

Colin Burrows

Rene Mairis

Angie Lukins

Yura Chubarenko

Kevin Street

Stefan Andrusyschin