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Italiano When the dream becomes reality
Marco Graziola tells us how the accordion of Val di Fiemme red spruce was born
Is it more difficult to give the soul to a new idea or see a dream come true? The question seems created by Marzullo.
The answer is a difficult solution, though at times, conciliating the two things for some strange alchemy, the dream can become a reality. And that’s what happened to Marco Graziola, a young and well-prepared accordion teacher who shares the passion for teaching between Rovereto and Val di Fiemme.
We are at the foot of the Dolomites. Stunning scenarios that captured in the late 17th century even the highly refined liuther Antonio Stradivari who used for his “creations” just that precious wood that grows in Val di Fiemme.
Why should Graziola have thought during one lesson and the other of his over ninety students (about fifty only in these valleys), if that wood made hundreds of string instruments vibrate, nobody ever thought about building an accordion?
The passion for the reed instrument, the real one, has done the rest. Night insomnia to define the technical details and then the proposal, almost as a challenge, made to one of the historic companies of Castelfidardo, Giustozzi.
A few months later, the red spruce of Val di Fiemme Accordion, which is, no coincidence, called “Dolomiti by Graziola”, is a very versatile 96-bass instrument with a typical Tyrolean design.
His inventor has to point out to that the most important feature is “the better sound, also because there are no plastic parts”. Another speciality is the very limited production of just 12 instruments a year. Among the features of the instrument the scale ranges from F to F, like the Austrian models, and not from G to G. Among the other technical notes, the excellent quality of its bemolle that recall the wind instruments.
Someone did not randomly call it a true musical revolution.
You must know that we, Trentino people, have the cult of the woods and the mountains - proudly tells us Graziola – We can admire every day a gorgeous mountain range like the Dolomites. In these areas and in the forests of the valley of Fiemme we can find the spruce, a resonance wood used by luthiers around the world for centuries. Together with Giampiero Giustozzi, who has given me a dream, we have made an accordion designed for a particular genre: the Oberkrainer music, a genre played and danced in all Tirol and still representing our cultural tradition”.
Graziola approached the eight-year accordion studio with Armando Anselmi. He has participated in numerous competitions as a soloist, graduating in double bass at the Monteverdi Conservatory of Bolzano under the guidance of Tullio Sergi. He teaches at the School of Music “Pentagram” in Tesero (TN).
Can you tell us how your passion for the accordion was born?
I must be sincere. It is not easy to tell my professional life. I started studying the accordion from a young age under the guidance of great master Anselmi. After 40 years, I can also reveal that I was not so convinced … indeed, my head was projected, like so many young people, to football. I was driven by the unbridled passion for my father’s accordion and helped by the dedication of my mother, who was daily pushing me and insisted on studying (I hope that my students will not read my confidences). I can not say that I was in the early days a model student, rather the opposite, very unwilling and scholarly.
Soon the “betrayal” for another instrument, after having triumphed in the various competitions.
As often happens, every now and then you slip a spring inside of you, find motivation, find pleasure, and above all, the sweet sound of the reeds excites you, touch the sky with your finger and say to yourself: I’m playing the most beautiful instrument of world. I have passed my adolescence between national and international competitions, always bringing good results and good prizes, but I think this interests a few, maybe none of those who read us.
And here the conversion to double bass …
Yes. My music education is enlarged by enrolling at the “Monteverdi” Conservatory of Bolzano, well heard, with a totally different instrument, exactly the double bass. From a solo instrument, such as an accordion, to a harmonic orchestral instrument, certainly not very virtuous and brilliant though fundamental.
Then still a shotgun …
After finishing the Conservatory in the best way comes the time of the choice, which for a long time I left pending. So, in 1991 I renounced the orchestral career to return to my first love: the accordion.
From that time, years in service to the instrument and many young people.
The first step is teaching at the “The Pentagram” Musical School in Tesero (TN) in which I work today. My sole purpose is to make young and younger music enthusiasts, trying to support their musical taste and especially to love music and beautiful instrument. Subsequently, my passion for everything that concerns music even makes me become conductor band at the “Musica Cittadina R. Zandonai” in Rovereto, an activity in duo with the clarinet colleague Gianni Muraro, with whom I created the “Carlos Gardel Trio” (we play typically Argentine program). My nature makes me never content myself, in 2008, with Aldo Versini, we founded the first accordion orchestra in Trentino with an adjoining school,with which I recorded a CD “Melodies under the castle” and participated in the international amateur competition in Castelfidardo in 2013.
From the youth crisis to a visceral love for the accordion in short. More enriched by the creation of the “Dolomiti by Graziola”. It seems to me that your life path is just mentioned …
It’s in my mind. Since two years I have been organizing, in collaboration with Daniele Girardi, a former student who has become a fellow, the Fiemme-Fassa accordion festival. We have included artists such as Gianluca Campi, Aleksey Asenov and Fabio Rossato. Given the success achieved I can anticipate that in July 2017 will be held the third edition with important novelties … concerts, master classes and seminars. For everyone who is interested, please follow the Facebook page: Festival della Fisarmonica di Fiemme e Fassa.
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