by Lee Knight, ICA member in Australia
“The future of the ICA is international and online” said Paul McCann, when he was ICA chair.
We certainly saw this played out this year while celebrating World Concertina Day with our latest fabulous ICA-sponsored zoom. Out of 64 registrations, 43 people attended from approximately 11 countries including England, Scotland, Wales, the US, Australia, Japan, Germany, France, Austria, Spain and the Åland Islands in Finland. The chat thread reflected the global nature of the event with conversations occurring in English, German, and French. The ICA is immensely pleased and proud to be supporting such an international and diverse group of players.
During the zoom we heard performances from at least 16 of the attendees on English concertinas of different sizes, Anglo concertinas in different keys, duet concertinas, a miniature concertina, and even a Carlsfelder concertina – a rare treat. A range of music was played – folk, morris tunes, classical, popular, sung songs, some pieces written or arranged by the players, and a couple of Brandon Faulkner arrangements. It was a wonderful celebration of the versatility of the concertina and each player’s individual journey in learning it, ranging from people with no formal musical training learning folk music by ear to trained multi-instrumentalists who are drawn to both the simplicity and challenge of a highly portable instrument that can, literally, play anything.
The ICA thanks everyone for their performances, for being an enthusiastic audience, for willingly sharing resources with other players, and for their impeccable zoom etiquette. We hope you will join us again in September for our next zoom session, and that you will share a tune or two with us, especially if you’re new to performing. Music is for sharing, not perfection.
Let’s finish with a quote from US attendee Randy Stein, via concertina.net: “Yesterday’s Zoom Call with players from around the world was definitely one of the coolest things one could experience. I arrived a bit late and had to leave too early but the experience of seeing and hearing players from countries expanding the globe was wonderful. Everyone who contributed their tunes were outstanding and joyful.”
