941. My adventures, escapades, and visits in the last 2 weeks!

Well, I'm back!  After a very fun, exciting, and memorable time!  

I have been home for just over 3 days, and been busy catching up on my Family History Mission, (a V-ROC mission -- Virtual Records Operations Center mission -- at home on my own computer).  I committed to a minimum of 8 hours a week, and the week before I left on October 23, I did over 16 hours, to make up for the week I would be gone, and then I needed to do my 8 hours for this week!

My son Wayne, and his wife Julie and I left the Monday morning of October 23, at precisely 15 to 8 a.m.  (Wayne has this thing about time -- he likes to plan ahead, and be precise about times!  It's helped keep Julie and me on our toes!)  We arrived at the Gold Coast Hotel in Las Vegas that evening in time for a lovely dinner and concert provided by the Accordion Convention.  The first night Pat Debenham came and sat at our table, and from then on he was our fast friend, always sitting at our table.  He is a retired Modern Dance Professor at BYU, and choreographed 27 BYU musicals over his time there -- so we had an immediate rapport with him!  I found him on Google, and he has done amazing things.  "In 1997, Debenham received the Alumni Association's Teacher of the Year Award. He also was the director of the Contemporary Dance Theatre group, formerly known as The Dancers' Company."  He plays the accordion too -- that is why he was there!  (As a side note -- I was so entranced by it all that we plan to get a medium sized accordion, and have my son Wayne teach me!)

Pat Debenham on the left, Wayne, Julie, and me on the right.

I want to give you readers a chance to watch some of those world-class accordionists, so here is a first link to Cory Pesaturo -- He was the first American to win a World Accordion Championship for 25 years.  You can hear him if you copy and paste the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV-Hi44GHXA

Here is a link to Stas Venglevski -- Came from Moldova, near Ukraine, in 1992, after having received his Master's Degree there.  He plays classical as well as more modern music on the accordion!  He plays the Chromatic Accordion, so you don't see the piano keyboard.  It is amazing to watch him.  You can find other performances by each of these accordionists.  I have chosen only one of each.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k7R8Xd-_zo

And Grayson Masefield, from New Zealand, who recently got his Master's Degree from a university in Switzerland.  We heard him play the Revolutionary Etude by Chopin on his accordion!  I had no idea the accordion could be played like that!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OarDnOGU2SU

I found many other performances available for each of the above, and if you are interested you can find them.  

There were quite a few other featured performers, and needless to say, I sat enthralled at each evening performance and also concerts daily at lunch!

Another performer whose music I love, and who played for the open dancing on Wednesday night was Gordon Kohl.  You couldn't listen to his music without tapping your toes, and there was an amazing drummer that played with most of them!  So there you have the Las Vegas International Accordion Convention, created by Paul Pasquali, who has an accordion store right here in Salt Lake City.

The last night we heard about 40 of the accordionists play several wonderful numbers, sounding like a symphony orchestra, led by Professor Joan Sommers.  She had conducted the Las Vegas International Accordion Orchestra for 10 years, and has been honored many times for her technic, arrangements, etc.  I had a visit with her, and hope to become well acquainted with her and her abilities.  I enjoyed a class in which she taught how to teach a beginning accordionist, and that is what helped me decide I want to learn how to play one!  There were many fascinating classes, and many I could relate to with piano playing.

After Las Vegas, we stopped in St. George, where my brother-in-law Dr. Andrew Barnum, now 93 years old, was honored, as a former professor in Science at Dixie State University.  He was married many years ago to my older half-sister Delsy, who passed away 3 weeks before their first child would have been born, with toxemia.  He later married a lovely woman and had 4 daughters.

This is the link that tells all about him and that honor:

  http://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2017/10/28/jmr-longtime-dixie-state-biology-professor-barnum-honored-with-bronze-statue/#.Wf87GWhSyUk

I have visited him often, and I need to write a blog about that!

This is all for today, as I need to get ready for Church!  But I will get back to writing more often!  

I also had a wonderful visit with my son Jeremy, and his wife, Danielle, and their darling grandchildren, and then my sister Vina!  I'll tell more about that later.