Join us live to help celebrate the 87th anniversary of the American Accordionists' Association! The AAA festival will return to the Marriott Philadelphia West in Conshohocken , PA, July 10-13, 2025.
The discounted room block deadline is June 29, 2025. The rate and room type can sell out prior to the deadline, so book your room early to secure the lowest rate.
The importance of reserving a hotel room at the AAA's official conference hotel, the Marriott Philadelphia West: The AAA makes every effort to keep your expenses at the conference as low as possible. We work hard to negotiate the best hotel rates and to keep conference registration fees as low as possible, even as expenses rise annually. The AAA is able to offer high-quality conferences in desirable locations because we reserve a significant number of hotel rooms. If you choose to stay at another property, the official hotel room block is smaller, making it more difficult for the AAA to gain favorable hotel space at reasonable prices for future meetings.
Link for reserving hotel rooms: ameraccord.com/hotel
Download: Rules and Required Composition List
Download: Competition Entry Form
The AAA Board has been busy making many exciting plans for this year’s festival, which will take place from July 10-13, 2025. This consolidated schedule will be packed with events, performers, workshops and food functions beginning with Thursday evening performances featuring the Accordion Pops Orchestra and the Busso Festival Orchestra, followed by an “After Hours Party” featuring our attendees.
The full registration package will include luncheons and dinners on Friday and Saturday with live music at each event. Other included food functions feature a reception after the Friday evening concert and a breakfast meeting on Sunday morning.
We are delighted to announce our incredible celebrated guest artists: the Dallas Vietty* Trio (jazz, gypsy jazz, French musette), Peter Stan*(Balkan, Klezmer), and Filipe Hostins*(Brazilian, jazz, classical). We will also feature a few of our very talented Board members: Mario Tacca, Don Gerundo, Ray Oreggia, Frank Busso, Jr. and Frank Busso, Sr. Exciting workshops will include “Playing for Oktoberfests”, presented by Dominic Karcic, assisted by Ray Oreggia and Beverly Roberts Curnow.
We are delighted to be featuring a special workshop/presentation called “Meet the Family” where Kevin Friedrich* will demonstrate 17 different accordions/free reed instruments from the collection of “A World of Accordions Museum” in Superior, Wisconsin. Kevin will showcase both historical elements as well a some of the oddities of accordion development over the years.
The festival will feature an orchestra for intermediate to advanced players under the baton of our very personable and talented guest conductor Mary Ann Covone*, plus a beginner adult orchestra led by Joanna Darrow*, and a youth orchestra led by Dee Langley*.
Please save the date and join us for this special event! Along with performances, orchestras and workshops, there will be competitions for students of all ages and proficiency levels. There will be performance opportunities for all attendees, plus vendors, exhibits and more!
The hotel in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania is lovely and suits our needs well! It is a short drive or train ride into the heart of Philadelphia where there are beautiful parks, museums, historic areas, waterfronts and small quaint towns nearby.
*See brief bios on our guest performers, workshop presenters and conductors below.
Hope to see you there!!
Mary Ann Covone holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accordion Performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music where she studied with Professor Joan Cochran Sommers. After graduating from the University, Mary Ann spent several years performing and teaching in the Chicago area before entering law school. After a thirty-plus year career as an attorney, four years ago, Mary Ann returned to the accordion and has embarked on a new journey in music performing, teaching and conducting.
In 2020, she founded the Chicagoland Accordion Academy in Western Springs, Illinois where students of all ages learn the foundation of good accordion technique applicable to any style of music they choose to play. Mary Ann conducts her Academy Accordion Orchestra, and they perform quite regularly in the Chicago area. She also travels to Kansas City, Missouri on a regular basis to play in the UMKC Community Accordion Ensemble under the direction of Joan Cochran Sommers. Mary Ann is the immediate past president of the Accordionists & Teachers Guild, International and an active member of Sigma Alpha Iota, an international professional sorority for women in the field of music.
DALLAS VIETTY
Dallas’ unique style comes from his background in the American jazz tradition, as well as study and immersion in the European swing tradition of Django Reinhardt (Gypsy Jazz) and with French accordionists including Frederic Deschamps, Jacques Mornet and Natalie Bouchiex.
Dallas remains very active teaching giving workshops and performing on the East Coast and in California. He has performed at festivals including Musikfest, TEDx Philly, the Djangoary Festival, on Broadway as the accordionist in Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, for Djangofest Northwest, Dizzy’s Club at NY’s Lincoln Center, in New Orleans, in France and two tours of Switzerland with Grammy winning clarinetist Linus Wyrsch. His pleasant style and excellent skills delight audiences everywhere!
FELIPE HOSTINS
Felipe Hostins, Brazilian composer, accordionist, multi-instrumentalist, fuses jazz, Brazilian folk and classical music to create a distinctive sound. He discovered his passion for music at age 3, influenced by his grandfather, and later moved to NYC to launch an international career.
Felipe’s versatility has led to collaborations with many renowned artists. His musical output includes featured composer and performer on the album CHAMA by Cyro Baptista, performer and co-composer of the album IMIGRA in partnership with Ian Ruas, among others. Felipe was a finalist in the 2nd Premio da Musica Instrumental competition in Brazil in 2024.
Felipe is co-creator of the musical duo Forropera with Chrystal E. Williams. Blending Brazilian folk and classical music, the duo aims to promote unity, peace and understanding through music. Forropera’s Carnegie Hall debut in March 2024 featured a world premiere composed for the duo by John Glover and Kelley Rourke.
PETER STAN
Well known as the accordionist in the celebrated bands “Slavic Soul Party”, “Yale Strom and Hot Pstromi”, and the “Eva Salina and Peter Stan Duo”, Peter Stan is truly delighted to be performing for and mingling with a group of accordionists at our AAA Festival!
Peter was born in Banat on the border of Serbia and Roumania into a family of Balkan musicians. He studied accordion with his father, and at the Queensboro Institute of Music. He continued his studies in the US with Jacob Neupauer and Stanley and Joanna Darrow.
Peter has performed with Harold Seletsky and Valerie Capers in a Jewish and Jazz Concert in Carnegie Hall, on Garrison Keillor’s radio show, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and in festivals in Europe. With his accordion he has toured the US, Africa, Serbia, Germany France, Hong Kong, Portugal and others. He has appeared in several movies playing his accordion including “On the QT”, starring James Earl Jones and Sam Ball
JOANNA ARNOLD DARROW
Joanna Arnold Darrow began studying the accordion at the age of 8 with Stanley Darrow. During her studies at Acme Accordion School, she covered a broad spectrum of musical training; specializing in music of the baroque period and chamber music. While Joanna is the personal protege of Stanley
Darrow, she also studied with Guy Klucevsek, Dr. Edwin Avril, and Betty Jo Simon."
She has concertized through Europe as soloist and duo partner of "Stanley Darrow. Performing in conjunction with bassoon, harp, harpsichord, strings, piano and organ, she has brought capabilities of the accordion to the attention of professional musicians. She perforn1ed with the Philadelphia Orchestra in performances of the David Argento Tango, and The Godfather" series.
"Joanna is on the Board of Directors of the American Accordionists Association (AAA), the Accordionists and Teachers Guild (ATG), and the A World of Accordions Museum (AWAM). She is Director of The American Accordion Musicological Society (AAMS), Acme Accordion School, and the Westmont Philharmonia Accordion Orchestra. Joanna is an adjunct accordion instructor for Rowan University. Joanna is dedicated to the furtherment of accordion education and original accordion literature.
DEE LANGLEY
Dee Langley specializes in both solo and ensemble works for the accordion having appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Guthrie Theater, Duluth Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Sinfonia, Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra, Nautilus Music Theater, Ethnic Dance Theatre, Dolina Polish Folk Dancers and Theater Latte Da.
Ms. Langley is winner of the 2012 Minnesota Emerging Composer Award (Orkestar Bez Ime - World Music), the 2011-2012 McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians. In 2019 Dee was honored at the American Accordion Musicological Society for her lifelong dedication and service to the accordion as a performer, educator, director and composer.
She was inducted into the American Accordion Hall of Fame in 2020. Founder and coordinator for the NE Accordion Festival, Ms. Langley is a former president of the Accordionists and Teachers Guild, International, and currently teaches accordion for Minneapolis College as well as privately in NE Minneapolis.
2024 AAA Color Journal (36 pages)
Friday July 12, Daily Report
Saturday July 13, Daily Report
Sunday July 14, Daily Report
July 12-16, 2023
2023 AAA Color Journal (47 pages)
Wednesday July 12, Daily Report
Thursday July 13, Daily Report
Friday July 14, Daily Report
Saturday July 15, Daily Report
Sunday July 16, Daily Report
Frank Busso, Sr. received the AAA Lifetime Achievement Award at 2023 AAA Festival
I am sure I speak for all when I say that accordionists cannot wait to get back together, in person, again SOON!! The members of the AAA Governing Board are no exception.
As we are enthusiastically planning the 2023 AAA Festival, we are very excited to announce that the AAA will be honoring long-time AAA Board member, Frank Busso, Sr., at this event with the 2023 AAA Lifetime Achievement Award.
Frank has faithfully served the AAA as Treasurer, Vice-President, President (1981, 1992-94), and has also chaired many committees including the annual national festivals, and the Young Artists Concert Series. He held the position of the Comptroller of the AAA for many years. For decades, Frank has been an educator, performer, conductor and all-around ambassador of the accordion.
View the feature article from the 2017 AAA Festival Journal now online at: “Spotlight on Frank Busso”. It is an enjoyable, heartwarming and enlightening biography of a man whose life revolved around his love of the accordion, the national accordion community, and his family.
You might ask, “What has happened since 2017?” One delightful bit of news: Frank’s twin granddaughters, Julianna and Francesca, are now studying the accordion with their father, Frank Busso, Jr. All of the Busso grandchildren are now accordionists! Let’s hope we can hear the “Busso Octet” perform for us at the 2023 AAA Festival!
L to R: Christina Busso Lammers, Alexander Lammers, Frank Busso, Sr., TV reporter from Washington, DC, Caroline Lammers, Frank Busso, Jr., and Nicholas Busso at the 2018 AAA Festival, Alexandria, VA.
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