The Polish Arts Festival welcomes accordion artists from throughout Europe for the Accordion Marathon. The ‘Marathon’ will celebrate the role of the accordion in traditional, classical, and Polish contemporary contexts, but also it’s intercultural significance across the European Union. Starting at noon, four accordion artists appear each day, one after the other. They perform a concert of approximately 75 minutes each.
Austrian musician Stefan Heckel, who has previously performed in London with his project Mélange Oriental, is opening the Accordion Marathon Saturday 1 September.
Stefan Heckel was born in Graz/Austria in 1969. He studied jazz piano at the Kunstuniversität Graz and composition at the Royal Academy of Music London. As a composer and band leader he recorded four albums with his ensemble, the Stefan Heckel Group. He performed and recorded with improvising musicians Julian Argüelles, Sainkho Namtchylak, John Edwards, Frank Gratkowski, Annette Giesriegl, Angela Tröndle’s Mosaik, Irina Karamarkovic’ Songs From Kosovo, Nenad Vasilic Balkan Band and Mélange Oriental. Compositions include music for the Vienna/London/Berlin film festival, Graz EU Cultural Capital 2003, Vienna Accordion Festival, Bach Festival Riga, Missa Pater Noster and projects with Italian painter Giulio Camagni. He won the Austrian jazz price „Harry Pepl Preis“ in 2010. Stefan Heckel lives and works in Vienna and Graz and has two children, Flora and Gabriel. He teaches at the jazz institute of Kunstuniversität Graz.
More information on his projects is available at: http://www.ohmsk.net/
Accordion Marathon event details:
Saturday 1 & Sunday 2 September
City Beach Stage, Corner Southchurch Avenue & Eastern Esplanade, Southend
The performers are:
Saturday
Stefan Heckel (Austria)
– 12:00 (starting time)
Anne Niepold (Belgium) – 13:30
Sebastien Bertrand (France) – 15:00
Marko Hatlak (Slovenia) – 16:30
Sunday
Vacily Ivanciu (Romania) – 12:00
Paweł Zaganczyk (Poland) – 13:30
Rafal Łuc (Poland) – 15:00
Maurizio Minardi (Italy)
– 16:30
For further information visit: http://www.polishartsfestival.co.uk/festival-2012/
