Accordions Festivals

The festival was established in 1976 to acquire an international status seven years later. Each year the number of contestants from around the world amounts to five hundred people. The festival presents a unique opportunity for the musicians to feel the drive of tough rivalry as well as to share invaluable experience! The framework of the event features world-class accordionists’ performances, such as Richard Galliano, Yasuhiro Kobayashi, Art Van Damm, Antonello Salis, Gilles Goldstein, Aleksandr Dmitriev, Vyacheslav Semyonov, etc. 

This annual festival was established in 1998. Within the fifteen years of its life, the festival has grown into a large-scale event going beyond the borders of concert halls, spreading over many entertainment facilities of Lille and the whole region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Accordionists from all over the world flock to the place attracting more than twenty-five thousand people!

The festival was established in 1990. It is one of the largest accordion festivals in the world. The concerts within the framework of the event are scattered across different Austrian towns rocking the crowds for four weeks on end. Thereafter, a colourful final unfolds in Vienna. The festival gathers together genuine stars from around the world delivering top classic and jazz performances on accordions. One more distinctive feature of the festival are the so-called combined international bands cooking up something special for this particular event. 

The town of Klingenthal hosts one of the largest and most prestigious accordionist competitions. The categories feature a wide range of musical genres: from classic to experimental. The competition is accompanied by concerts featuring the world’s accordion and bandoneón stars. For many a young artist this competition is a good start for a guaranteed successful career..

In 1975, The Basque Accordion Confederation (currently called Hauspoz) organized its first accordion competition with the intention to broaden the horizons for the instrument. Since then, with everybody's help and hard work, the competition organizers have managed to create a solid structure which projects in various directions: encouraging, motivating and acknowledging both the pupils and teachers, always according to our possibilities. It is an immensely gratifying experience both humanly and musically, which we've tried to make as enjoyable as possible for all its participants and collaborators.

The V-Accordion Festival is organized by the Roland Company. The V-Accordion Festival is an annual competition with two stages: the National and International finals. The national final will involve Countries from all over the world.

The winner of the 1st prize of each national final will join the International Final that will be held in Rome, at the prestigious Auditorium - Parco della Musica.

The National Final is open to accordionists that are resident in one of the countries joining the festival. They can be professional or amateur and can play any genre of music.

The festival has been held annually since 2009. Its goal is to show the cosmopolitan nature of the accordion. Isn’t it amazing that this instrument managed to penetrate into such dissimilar cultures each time acquiring a different sound? The festival is regularly attended by musicians from Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East. Servais Haanen is the founder and inspirer of the project.

Although the festival features several sections, devoted to different genres, it has traditionally been dominated by Scottish national music. The festival has adopted the format of a contest.

The festival is stormed by world-class stars and young talents alike. For many current legendary professionals this festival became a great launch pad. The choice of location is not accidental, for San Antonio is the birthplace of Tejano music, a blend of polka and Latin American folk styles, originating due to the arrival of Italian, French, and German immigrants to the US South and Mexico in the early 20th century. The festival’s atmosphere conveys the essence of the rich traditions, arising from a cultural melting pot with ingredients from different continents.

In 1991, the first festival was organized in California by the Italian accordionists Renzo Ruggieri, Vincenzo Abbracciante and Pietro Adragna. Since then, it is held annually, each time attracting more participants and visitors. The festival takes place on a wonderful concert venue, the meeting place for musicians of completely different styles, including zydeco, klezmer, tango, polka, latin, rock, and many others. The main feature of the Cotati Festival is that all of the money raised from the Festival goes towards the support and development of youth accordion bands.

This international accordion festival and seminar, practicum in Palanga has already become a tradition, held by the Lithuanian Accordionists Association (LAA) and the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA). During numerous master-classes, the world’s leading accordionists share the nuances of playing and teaching to play this wonderful and mysterious instrument.

The Lithuanian Accordion Association has been conducting this traditional event since 1994. The competition features standing participants from Russia, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, China, Vietnam, Poland, Ukraine, Slovenia, Italy, France, and, of course, from Lithuania. The goal of the competition is to give young artists a chance to receive their first recognition and an incentive for further professional advancement. 

This contest is aimed at academic as well as at concert pop and jazz performers. Organizer: Jan Tabachnyk’s Art Centre, entitled “I Have the Honour to Invite You”.

This festival is brought to you by the Academy of Music at the University of East Sarajevo and the Association for Fostering of Academic Music “New Sound”. The goal of the festival is to discover new talents. 

The festival was established in 1989.

Organizers: the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music and Friedrich Lips’s Charitable Foundation.

For many years, the festival has been gathering multitudes of bayan fans, pedagogues and students from around Russia, from abroad and in Moscow.

The credo of the festival remains the same: reputed masters and talented youth share one stage. The event features classic and modern musical pieces, pop, folk, and jazz.

This annual festival was established in 1984 by Aleksandr Dmitriev, Olga Sharova, and Viktor Dukaltetenko and has been held ever since in Saint Petersburg. The festival’s mission is to discover young talents and promote international-class professional bayan and accordion performance.