The ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic continued to present challenges, to us all this year. Activities for the latter part of the year were significantly hampered due to the nationwide lockdown which came into effect in August 2021, resulting in scheduled activities having to be cancelled.

In October 2021, the 74th Coupe Mondiale championships were held in Munich, Germany. Unfortunately, given border restrictions, no one could travel to the event from New Zealand. However, Alison Worthington was able to travel there from the UK and represent the NZAA as our delegate. Alison also assisted Harley Jones by videoing the event. These videos were immediately uploaded to Kevin Friedrich in New York and Harley Jones and Grayson Masefield in New Zealand, to create a report of the event. The 2022 winter congress was due to be held in Sweden. Instead, the general assembly was convened via Zoom which a number of us attended from New Zealand, in the early hours of the morning.

Whilst Kevin Friedrich had travelled from New York to New Zealand and completed his two weeks quarantine, his Christmas concert in support of the Dargaville Museum, had to be cancelled due to Covid restrictions.

In May 2022, I graduated with a Graduate Diploma in Music from the University of Auckland. This was the culmination of a number of years of part-time study for me which was an enjoyable and enriching experience.

World Accordion Day was celebrated on 6 May. We contributed by releasing on YouTube, the North Shore Accordion Orchestra 50 years reunion project. This online performance featured past and present players of the orchestra from all around the world, performing Swinging Safari to the original recording in the background. This was the signature tune of the past New Zealand touring orchestras. Thank you to Gary Daverne for his arrangement and sound engineer Grayson Masefield.

The Canterbury Accordion Association, despite several cancellations, was able to hold two of their Sunday afternoon variety concerts featuring the Christchurch Accordion Orchestra, local entertainers and choirs.

Sadly, NZAA life member Meg Fidler of Motueka passed away in May. Meg was a constant and dedicated presence in the Canterbury accordion scene. She was the conductor of the Christchurch Accordion Orchestra and patron of the Canterbury Accordion Association for many years. Meg regularly travelled to Auckland for our annual competitions bringing her students, orchestra and worked as an adjudicator.

After enjoying 40 years of Vice-Regal patronage, this has unfortunately not been extended to the NZAA on the arrival of the new Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro, who began her five-year term in September 2021.

Our annual competitions and festival were held over Queen’s Birthday weekend. The event was staged at the Takapuna War Memorial Hall. Competitions were held on Saturday with the concert on Sunday.

The concert featured performances from championship winners, Lorraine Parnell, Grayson Masefield and two orchestras. The NZAA massed orchestra was conducted by Heather Masefield and Gary Daverne and the NSAO was conducted by Lian Jones and Heather Masefield.

The weekend was completed with a dinner at Aubergine restaurant in Takapuna. Thank you to Maurice Jones, Steve Cope, Finlay McDermid and Andre Samotoi for entertaining us.

South Pacific championship winners for 2022 were;

In June, Grayson Masefield performed two concerts with his new tango group Aotango. The group features other top New Zealand musicians. The concerts were part of the In the Neighbourhood Series, staged by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. The concerts were performed to sold out audiences and standing ovations in St Heliers and Titirangi.

Although, our competitions and festival this year constituted a smaller event, we have been fortunate to be the only accordion organisation in the world that we are aware of, who have been able to stage an annual event in person since the pandemic began. Thank you to everyone who has assisted, to continue to make this happen. Hopefully, as the world and New Zealand open up, we can look forward to more activities and a larger international event next year.

Sonja Palinich
President
New Zealand Accordion Association