I am pleased to present to you the 2017 annual president’s report. Our newsletters, website and Facebook page have detailed the numerous performances and other achievements of many of our accordionists both in New Zealand and overseas. Thank you all for the ongoing support and contribution you give to the promotion of the accordion in our communities. It is impossible to mention every event featuring an accordion so the following is a summary of the major accordion activities that our members have been involved in during the past year.

In September 2016, the 69th Coupe Mondiale championships were held in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. This year, the official New Zealand delegation consisted of myself, Harley Jones, Grayson Masefield and Heather Masefield. Harley Jones also attended in his capacity as CIA Public Relations officer along with Grayson Masefield in his capacity as a CIA music committee member and member of the international jury together with Heather Masefield. Kevin Friedrich was appointed director of the World Accordion Museum Alliance which is a newly established global initiative. Lionel Reekie represented New Zealand in the opening concert with a performance of Pokarekare Ana and Grayson Masefield also performed as a past champion. A special mention needs to be made to our only competitor, Alexandra Reekie who did us proud by competing in the Junior Virtuoso Entertainment class with a fine performance achieving an 8th place.

Grayson Masefield returned to New Zealand in December 2016. During his time here, he held a masterclass and lessons for our members, performed as a guest artist at the Auckland Accordion Symphonietta’s concert and performed as a soloist for the recording of Gary Daverne’s Second Rhapsody for Accordion and Orchestra with Lionel Reekie conducting. This recording marked the end of a project commissioned by the NZAA which had spanned a number of years. Thank you to everyone who contributed their time and energy towards the realisation of this project especially to committee members Jessica Chen and George Xu who obtained funding from Foundation North Trust.

Grayson has continued to perform internationally in the United States, Russia, Canada and Switzerland. He produced a CD of Seminov’s works and completed his Master of Arts in Switzerland. A new work was composed for Grayson with orchestra and was premiered in Lausanne, Switzerland with a further performance taking place in the composer’s hometown in Skoplje, Macedonia to mark World Accordion Day on 6 May.

In January 2017, we honoured visiting President of the Chinese Accordion Association, Professor Li Cong with the NZAA Merit award for his services to the development of the accordion in New Zealand. Professor Cong is only the third person to receive this award.

Kevin Friedrich returned to New Zealand to hold his 10th annual concert in Dargaville in April 2017. The Auckland Accordion Symphonietta premiered their performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with piano soloist Alexandra Reekie. Auckland was well represented at the concert with additional performances by Lionel Reekie, Maurice Jones, Alanah Jones and the Reekie family. Kevin was presented with an Honorary Citizen award by the Mayor of Dargaville.

Sadly this year, we lost two of our life members. Dorothy Taylor passed away in September 2016. Dorothy worked tirelessly at our competitions over many years. Frank Vilich passed away in May 2017. Frank was a professional entertainer and band leader.

It was very pleasing to see overseas visitors attending this year. Our guest artist, Jiachen Xue who lives in Melbourne wowed the audience over two days with his virtuoso entertainment style programme. We also had competitors and performers from Australia and China.

The farewell concert featured the South Pacific and New Zealand solo accordion championship winners, other memorable performances from the weekend and the Auckland Accordion Symphonietta. Past President John Statham was presented with his CIA Honoured Friend award. The NZAA awarded a life membership to Maurice Jones for his outstanding contribution to the accordion movement in New Zealand.

The weekend was completed with a dinner at Aubergine restaurant in Takapuna. We thank our wonderful entertainers for the night, Steve Cope, Ben Pattinson, Sven Balvan and Lionel Reekie for adding that extra touch to the evening to make it memorable. Thank you to everyone for your contribution towards making this event a success and an enjoyable experience for all.

At the dinner, trophies and prize monies were presented to the following winners of the South Pacific championship classes:

• 12 years and under – Maia Perry;
• 15 years and under – Angela Chen;
• Junior Virtuoso Entertainment– Owen Fan;
• Accordion Virtuoso Entertainment – Zeyuan Niu;
• Open Trio/Ensemble - Shen Rongjia, Zeyuan Niu, Chen Yang, Mengyang Li;
• Accordion Solo – Shen Rongjia.

• Samantha Rutherford Memorial Trophy – Alexandra Reekie;
• Cecil Smith Trophy – Accordions Alfresco;
• Cocurullo Family Trophy – Catherine Giorza;
• Doreen and Ben Emmett Memorial Rose Bowl – Catrina Lin for her performance of Sonatina in E flat major;
• Emmett Family Classical Ensemble Trophy – Ave Accordeon for their performance of Ave Cello;
• Ben Emmett Accordion Orchestra Commendation Trophy – Auckland Accordion Symphonietta for their performance of Rhapsody in Blue.

The following week, the Australian Accordion Teachers’ Association’s competitions and festival were held in Sydney. Lionel Reekie attended as an adjudicator, guest artist and presented a workshop on playing with others.

Committee member Dennis Lovatt has decided to step down from his role on the committee. In recent years, Dennis has acted as the competitions coordinator during our competitions weekend. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dennis for his service and contributions to the NZAA committee over the last few years.

As I reflect on our year, I appreciate how active our membership is both in New Zealand and internationally. For a small membership and an instrument which does not have such a strong cultural heritage as it does in other parts of the world, in my view, our achievements are something we can all be proud of.

Sonja Palinich
President
New Zealand Accordion Association