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20 Years Shanghai Accordion History

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On the occasion of the 8th Shanghai Spring International Accordion Arts Festival, the organisers were delighted to gather with accordion educators from all over the country to explore the future of accordion education together. This well attended Forum had prominent international and Chinese accordion educators speaking about various topics as listed below.

• Grayson Masefield spoke about the video channel framework for accordion talent cultivation from an international perspective.

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• Kimmo Mattila focussed on the integration of folk music inheritance and musical instrument performance skills to deliver rich musical performance results.

Keynote Speech by Kimmo Mattila – Shanghai 5 April 2026
Summary: Developing Instrumental Technique through Folk Music

This presentation explores how folk music and musical heritage serve as powerful tools for developing accordion technique, particularly at the elementary level. By moving beyond mechanical drills, students can achieve technical growth through emotionally resonant and culturally grounded music.

Key Insights:

• Beyond Mechanical Drills: While scales and etudes are essential, they often lack artistic connection for “normal” students. Folk music provides a “living framework” that emphasizes organic phrasing, rhythmic vitality, and stylistic nuance.
• The Power of Tradition: The speaker highlights successful pedagogical models:
  • Zoltán Kodály: Used traditional Hungarian melodies to create a universal, accessible teaching method.
  • Viktor Gridin: Created virtuosic accordion arrangements by infusing folk melodies with advanced technical “tricks.”
  • Lasse Pihlajamaa: A legendary Finnish composer whose work bridges the gap between folk roots and technically demanding masterpieces (e.g., “The Bewitched Accordion”).
• Practical Pedagogy: Simple traditional tunes like “Polka from Tuusula” or Pihlajamaa’s “Horse Jogging” serve as excellent technical exercises. They are easy to memorize, sound impressive to an audience, and keep young students motivated.
• The Teacher’s Role: Technique is a tool for music, not the goal itself. By choosing attractive arrangements from a student’s own local tradition, teachers can foster higher motivation and artistic vibrancy during the critical first years of study.

Conclusion: Utilizing one’s musical heritage allows for the development of advanced instrumental technique within a context that is artistically vibrant and culturally meaningful.

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• Forum Notes by Zhong Kai titled: Practice and Reflection on Cross-Instrument Cooperation of the Accordion – Also on Its Enlightenments for Teaching.
• Forum Paper by Xia Gang titled: ‘Starting with Performance, Ending with Creation, “Pull” Your Story into the Accordion‘ This finished with a very nice quote. “When the bellows are opened, what we play is not others’ notes, but our own stories.“
• Introduction of the next speaker. In recent years, Shanghai has been committed to the diversified and innovative development of the Shanghai style accordion. Minhang District has linked off-campus and on-campus art positions to create characteristic accordion activities and built an aesthetic education practice platform with campus popularization, parent-child participation and cross-border performances. Next let’s welcome Ms. Lu Yanqiu from Shanghai Minhang Experimental Primary School to share her accordion teaching experience.
• Confederation President Mirco Patarini was asked to deliver a speech about the forum.
• Former Shanghai Accordion President and Confederation Vice President Prof. Li Cong then gave very comprehensive “Closing Remarks”.

The Forum was an excellent presentation by all the teachers which held the interest and close attention of the teacher audience including a very nice morning tea/coffee.

Melodies of the Lanes: Accordion Street Open Mic

A lively scene unfolded in the school’s park area, where the “Melodies of the Lanes: Accordion Street Open Mic” event drew crowds throughout the afternoon. Dozens of youth accordion ensembles took turns performing, showcasing an impressive range of talent. The strong turnout of children’s groups highlighted the depth of accordion education across the greater Shanghai region, reflecting a growing local enthusiasm for the instrument. Pictures immediately below:

People pictures at the Open Mic event:

This was a most enjoyable and high standard concert of groups and orchestras from the Yangtze River Delta area & Nationwide. The event started with outstanding 10 year old Zhang Zhixi announcing flawlessly. Jesse Boere International Music Council President (NGO of UNESCO) spoke of the importance of music and then followed the high level group combinations of accordion only and accordion and other instruments.

The concert concluded with a dynamic exciting performance of Rejuvenation (Tan Jialiang) by a large accordion orchestra all playing from memory. This large orchestra was made up of players from the Shanghai Huangpu Youth Art Activity Center, China Welfare Association Youth Palace Children’s Art Troupe, Shanghai Normal University Accordion Orchestra, Shanghai Pudong New Area Youth Activity. Conductor was Li Hanyu. A large list of experienced and well known teachers were the instructors – see the program above where all the instructors of all the groups are listed.

After the performances, Crystal Wang and Alexander Selivanov presented awards to all these excellent groups.

Pictures of concert:

A selection of awards pictures and after concert pictures:

Festival Guiding Organization
Confédération Internationale des Accordéonistes (CIA), Member of the International Music Council (IMC), an official NGO partner of UNESCO
Festival Host Organizations
• Shanghai Musicians Association
• Shanghai Changning District Bureau of Culture and Tourism
• Shanghai Changning District Federation of Literary and Art Circles
Festival Organizers / Organized by
• Shanghai Changning District Cultural and Tourism Management Center
• Accordion Professional Committee, Shanghai Musicians Association