The American Accordionists’ Association (AAA) held elections online on November 12, 2024 for the 2025-2027 AAA Executive Board. The new Executive Board was nominated unopposed and all were unanimously elected. The Governing Board thanked the retiring AAA President Frank Busso Jr and retiring AAA 1st Vice President Frank Busso Sr. The new Executive Board takes office late January 2025.
Elected were:
Don Gerundo – AAA President
Joan Grauman Morse – AAA 1st Vice President
Mike Silvia – AAA 2nd Vice President
Rita Davidson Barnea – AAA Secretary
Ray Oreggia – AAA Treasurer
Information about the 2025-2027 AAA Executive Board Members
Don Gerundo – AAA President
Don Gerundo is an active accordionist and pianist performing in the New York metropolitan area. He is a versatile keyboardist who plays various styles ranging from popular American Standards from the American Songbook, Jazz and Rock N Roll.
Don starting playing the accordion at age 5 with Dr. Sal Febbraio. He also studied with Tony Mecca and later studied piano with Johnny Morris. He also studied jazz improvisation with Adolph Sandole one of the Sandole brothers famous for teaching many great jazz artists in New York City.
Don performed club dates as a teenager with many of the local leaders in the New York metropolitan area as well as working at resorts in the New York Catskill area. He has worked with Latin Salsa bands, Blues bands as well as jazz groups. This “On the job” training helped him hone his improvising skills as well as build his repertoire. He continued to perform during his college years attending Ithaca College where he joined the national music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha as the first accordionist to be offered an invitation in that chapter.
For the last several years Don has focused on the Free Bass Accordion and exploring its use in the Pop and Jazz Idioms by utilizing its flexibility in chord voicings, bass lines and general accompaniment.
Don is also an experienced user of Finale (music notation software) and has used it since 1992 almost from its inception. He uses it to create arrangements, generate materials for students, create transcriptions as well as composition. He has given workshops and demonstrations using this music software.
Joan Grauman Morse – AAA 1st Vice President
Joan Grauman Morse began playing piano at the age of 6. She received a BA in Piano Performance and Music Education from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 1977. Joan began performing, teaching and choreographing international dances as a teenager. At the age of 23, she “borrowed” her father’s accordion to learn to play the (mainly Balkan) folk music she loved. At the age of 26 she also taught herself the Austrian diatonic accordion to play German and Austrian music for a local dance group.
“I never dreamed just how much of a role the accordion would end up playing in my life!”, Joan says with joy. She was the accordionist in the celebrated Balkan band BAMCO (1983-2001), as the solo musician for a Bavarian dance group (1979-1982), in a duo with award-winning wind musician Daniel Rozas (1990s), and she subbed in three Washington, DC area Klezmer bands.
In 1994, she created the mail-order accordion gift business “SqueezinArt” with her then husband Dan Grauman. The company featured Joan’s accordion art on clothing, and other gift items (1994-2019). In 2008, she illustrated a children’s book, “An Accordion! What is that?” written by Karen Malan Uribe with music and narration by Mary Tokarski.
In 2004 Joan founded and directed the Virginia-based Potomac Accordion Ensemble (2004-2018), and was the music director of the Washington Metropolitan Accordion Society (2003-2018). She founded and co-directed an accordion orchestra camp, the “Frank Marocco/Mesa Accordion Event (2007-2014)”.
Joan has performed, given workshops and played in festival accordion orchestras worldwide. She has been on the AAA Governing Board since 2006 and the AAA’s Historian since 2008.
Mike Silvia – AAA 2nd Vice President
Michael (Mike) Silvia is an e-commerce and digital experience design professional, who has served in various leadership positions for state government, the IRS, New Balance, and Mercer. He is currently a user experience design director in the insurance industry. Mike holds an M.S. in public affairs from the University of Massachusetts, and a B.A. in history and political science from Salve Regina University in Newport, RI. He studied the accordion under Anthony Imbriglio, Sr. for about 9 years.
Mike has the fondest memories of the AAA festivals that he attended—from 1979, when it was held in Miami, through 1983, when it was held in Hershey, PA. Shortly after the 1983 AAA festival, Mike put his accordion away for well over 30 years. However, he remained close with several of his accordion friends, and in 2017, a few of them competed as adults in Princeton at the AAA festival. They’ve been attending every year since then.
Mike has been a member of the Accordion Teachers Association if Massachusetts (ATAM) since 2018. He currently serves as the organization’s president and chairs its virtual competition. Mike was also responsible for implementing the AAA’s virtual competition during the pandemic. In 2023, Mike was elected to serve on the AAA Board.
Rita Davidson Barnea – AAA Secretary
Rita Davidson Barnea is an honors graduate of the University of Connecticut, having received a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education, and has been a member of the AAA board for many years. For over 14 years, Rita has served as the national editor of AccordionUSA.com, covering accordion artists, concerts, and other events taking place in North America.
Rita presents workshops and concerts on “The Life and Music of Eugene Ettore,” The Use of the Accordion in the Teaching of Music in School,” and “How to Organize a Children’s Birthday Party” centered around the use of the accordion. Rita has adjudicated for many accordion competitions over the years, and performed in concerts, workshops, and at accordion festivals throughout the USA.
Rita retired from a 30-year career as a public school music teacher in West Orange, New Jersey, where she used her accordion every day in the classroom and as an accompanist for concerts and programs. Rita is the creator and curator of the Eugene Ettore Memorial Website, which contains photos, articles, and other valuable information about Eugene Ettore, prominent.
