Accordion Heaven

At the staff meeting on Monday somebody mentioned there would be a concert that some of the students would go to on Thursday, but the details were a little hazy. Things cleared up as the week progressed; the whole school would go at 10:30, meaning I'd miss a 20th century history class (aw darn), and the concert would involve...accordions.

I actually really like hearing people play the accordion. Sometimes I can hear kids practicing from the music school behind us, and it always makes me smile. I was stoked for an accordion concert. The concert involved kids from the Tisovec music school, including beginners with tiny accordions (see right), and a group of about 30 musicians from the Základná umelecká škola (basic arts school) in Lipany, near Prešov. There were a few kinds of different accordions, and different colors, and one was even plugged into an amp. It was rad.

(Not played at this concert, but related, is kind of an old-school accordion with all buttons and no keys, called a heligónka in Slovak. Isn't that the best word ever? Heligónka!)

A sextet of accordionists, accompanied by a bassist, played a song written by a man named something that sounded like Tupac, because I said to Rob, "They're going to play a Tupac song?" and that might have been about Jánošík. I was going to ask one of my students, the girl on the left, what the song was called and who wrote it, but she wasn't at school on Friday.* I really liked this piece. I don't know why I was holding the camera kind of wonky, though; sorry about that.

And then they played "Final Countdown."

It was the best day ever.

*Hello from the future. The song is called "Dupák" and was written by Ján Cikker.