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It is not often that one’s presence is requested at a top UK Conservatoirein order to illustrate to students and teachers the technical aspects and traditional construction methodology of Italian accordion building. In this instance this coming march sees the hundred and fifty year-old tradition of the Stradella school od accordion building which hasproduced some excellent instruments.
The choice fell upon Claudio Beltrami, owner of a small workshop which produces top notch accordions in Stradella, and whose products have a respectable presence internationally. He himself was born into the sector; his father Giovanni was an excellent tuner who worked at the Fratelli Crosio factory in Stradella, as well as being a saxophonist, and passed down all his knowledge concerning reeds to the young Claudio according to local traditions. However, before being introduced to his father’s tuning tuition worked for a number of years in the carpentry department of the same Fratelli Crosio factory, where he gained an in depth knowledge reagrding the constructive aspect of the way the reed blocks and instrument casing affect sound, as well as using the appropriate type of wood in order to fulfil the various roles asked of it.
This important experience gained in the workshop was to become paramount when he finally decided to dedicate himself to the tuning of the accordion whose, secret ins and outs he now understood perfectly.
So the professor of accordion of the Royal Academy of Music, Owen Murray, was very pleased at the suggestion that our expert technician, introduced to him by accordionist and teacher Romano Viazzani, himself a student of Owen Murray should come to the RAM to enlighten his students.
London’s Royal Academy of Music was established in 1861; it has a very rich library of over 125.000 works, a part of which are some ancient manuscripts and printed music. Another department is responsible for the conservation of over 4,000 orchestral parts, costantly increasing in number by new aquisitions, some of which belonging to famous personalities, amongst whom are conductor Otto Klemperer. The library plays host to the archives of illustrious people, such as the famous violinist Yehudi Menhuin, where some precious manuscripts by great composers of the past are also kept such as: Henry Purcell, Vaughan Williams, Thomas Tallis, Handel amongst others.
This great British musical institution also has a Theatre and a Museum dedicated to musical instruments.
We are very proud that our countryman has been asked to fulfil this wonderful duty, evidently considered by the powers that beof the London conservatoire,to be a useful and functional conduit for musical formation and teaching. The idea is intelligently conceived and integrated within the course, esclusively for the use of the accordion students, who will no doubt learn to understand their instrument more in order to better utilise it.
Claudio Beltrami also took two master classes at the Conservatorio di Musica of Turin last year dedicated to improving ones knowledge of the technical aspects of the accordion, for the benefit of teachers and students of accordion.
Beltrami was recommended to the conservatoire by Massimo Pitzianti who knew well the constructor’s abilities, being himself a well-known concert artist currently part of Paolo Conte’s orchestra.
Stradella, 20th January 2009
Carlo Aguzzi
Director of the Civico Museo
della Fisarmonica di Stradella
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