CIA Secretary General Kimmo Mattila led the expert lecture – recital concert. This was a talk about the history of the accordion and its development in many countries along with example performances.

The venue was at the exclusive Shanghai No. 3 Girls School which has beautiful grounds and historic buildings within the central city of Shanghai. This magnificent school has a historic school hall with excellent acoustics which was available today because this was during school holidays.

The hall was also equipped with a huge screen at the back of the stage, excellent sound equipment and technical operators.

Tickets to the event were very popular and were made available to accordion teachers, students and parents from Shanghai plus a number of teachers from more distant Chinese cities like Beijing, Chengdu, Tianjin and the Yangtze River Delta region.

The history covered pictures of the development of the Sheng, its origin in China and that the Cheng was the ancestor of Free Reed instruments including the accordion, with the first patent of the accordion registered in Austria (1829) by Cyrill Demian.

Intermixed with the ‘World Music Journey’ talk and slides was musical performances.

As the history moved to the countries of Scandinavia, the next performance was Peer Gynt Fantasy for Accordion composed by Paavo Korpijaakko (Finland – 1997) and performed by Leonid Florin Muravjov of Sweden. Leonid was the 2024 Coupe Mondiale Masters category competition winner.

The next part of history was to Western Europe, Spain and a popular musical transcription, Asturias composed by Issac Albeniz was demonstrated by Jin Chengxi. Video:

Next came Italy and particularly Castelfidardo, Ancona area and its important place in the history of the accordion. On stage came Pietro Adragna, 2011 Coupe Mondiale Virtuoso Entertainment winner and 2011 Coupe Mondiale Digital Accordion winner, in Shanghai, China.

Next the history moved to the USA and American music including Jazz and the important international influence of famous early American accordionists and Jazz music. Video: A musical demonstration was performed by Pan Zhiyue.

The seminar ‘World Music Journey’, of the history of the accordion came to an end with a large Thank you! on the screen. The audience showed their appreciation to Kimmo Mattila and Julia with extended applause.

Event Organizers and Sponsors
Advisers: 
Confédération Internationale des Accordéonistes (CIA)
China Accordion Association
Organizers:
Shanghai Musicians Association
Propaganda Department of Shanghai Changning District Committee of the Communist Party of China
Shanghai Changning District Culture and Tourism Bureau
Shanghai Changning District Federation of Literary and Art Circles
Co-organisers: 
Shanghai Changning District Culture and Tourism Management Affairs Center
Accordion Professional Committee of Shanghai Musicians Association
Shanghai Garment (Group) Co., Ltd.