NAO Piano Accordion Accordion Category.

The NAO hosted the first Piano Accordion Category, which has now been accepted by the CIA Congress into the regular curriculum of the Coupe Mondiale Festival. The required program elements for the contestants were as follows:

Own choice program consisting of at least three pieces of different styles and character and composer.

Competitors must present themselves as artists to an audience; presentation, dress and stagecraft all being important.

Playing time: 15 minutes minimum and 20 minutes maximum.

Pictured here is Rebekah Grieg representing Australia at the competition venue - St. Johns Church in Harrow.

Contestants from as far afield as New Zealand and Australia to Russia and Europe contested this contest which offered as First Prize, a free trip to New Zealand and Australia to perform at their national festivals in 2002. In 2003, in addition to the trip to New Zealand and Australia, the Prize will offer a second trip to the United States to perform at the American Accordionists Association Festival.

Contestants in the Piano Accordion Class were:

NADEJDA BOUSEVA
BRANKO DZINKOVIC - YUGOSLAVIA
REBEKAH GREIG - AUSTRALIA
DMITRI RESHETNIKOV - RUSSIA
YRUI CHUBARENKO - UKRAINE
CAMPBELL BETTRIDGE - NEW ZEALAND
PAULA HARRIS - NEW ZEALAND (pictured above right)
ZORAN KIRJAKOVSKI - MACEDONIA
SILVIA DI BONI - ITALY
KOSTO TODOROVSKI - MACEDONIA
KATERINA TSHERNOGOUBOVA - RUSSIA
SARAH DIGGENS - UNITED KINGDOM .
LINDA ACHMETOVA - RUSSIA

COUPE MONDIAL FINAL

The five finalists performed their own choice program to a capacity audience at St. Johns Church. Contestants were required to present an own choice program consisting of three (3) or more pieces of different styles and characters. Playing time: min. 20 minutes to max. 30 minutes. The final five were:

• Milos Milivojevic, Yugoslavia

• Aidar Gainullin, Russia

• Vladimir Loukitchev, Russia

• Mathilde Royet, France

• Sergeij Tchirkov, Russia

The International Congress held its second session which at which the Piano Accordion Class was officially incorporated into the CIA Coupe Mondiale Festival.

CIA Merit Awards
CIA Merit Awards are voted upon by the congress to recognize internationally those who have contributed to the International Accordion Movement. This year two CIA Merit Awards were approved.
(1) UMKC Accordion Orchestra - Joan Cochran Sommers, Director USA
The UMKC Accordion Orchestra is celebrating 40 years of activity including world wide concert tours, premier performances, University activities and recordings.

(2) Ove Hahn - Sweden
The CIA awarded the CIA Merit Award to Ove Hahn in honor of his 20 years of President of the CIA.

New Category for 2002 - Copenhagen, Denmark.
The CIA will be incorporating a Chamber Music Competition into the 2002 Festival. Initially this will be for accordion and one or two other instruments. Full details of the program requirements will be available on this site soon.

Election of new CIA President
The CIA President Ove Hahn officially finished his 20 year term at the Congress, and the international delegates unanimously elected Kevin Friedrich to the office of President.

A CIA Vice President for 8 years, Kevin is a citizen of New Zealand although he has resided in New York City, USA for many years. He has been a long time supporter of the CIA both as a contestant in former years to his administrative role in latter years. Since the forming of the CIA in 1935, this is the first time a person outside of Europe has held the office of President.

Pictured left to right are: newly elected CIA President Kevin Friedrich, Secretary General - Walter Maurer and outgoing President Ove Hahn during the presentation of the CIA Merit Award.

The Prizegiving Concert was opened by the St Johns Accordion Orchestra from Northern Ireland (pictured left). Performing two works, they also premiered a new work written for the CIA concert.

Visiting Russian bayan artist Oleg Sharov performed a series of works. Celebrating a long career as a concert artist, Oleg has performed over 2000 concerts.

The NAO Chairperson Ray Bodell offered his welcome to the Prize Giving Concert, followed by the official welcome from the new CIA President Kevin Friedrich. Kevin's first official duty was to present four CIA Merit Awards recognizing outstanding contribution to the International Accordion Movement. Awards were presented to:

Faithe Deffner - Immediate Past President of the American Accordionists Association

Jack Emblow - Honorary President of the National Accordion Organization of the United Kingdom

UMKC Accordion Orchestra, Joan Sommers - Director 

Ove Hahn for his 20 years of service as CIA President.

Each of the contestats was presented with a certificate of participation. In addition to this, trophies and prize money were awarded for First, Second and Third place getters in each of the categories.

To conclude the concert, each of the prize winners was invited to perform.