A&E

Accordion workshop Nov. 8

by Anna Purdy

The Center for Cultural and Eco Tourism continues its "In Your Own Backyard" series with an accordion workshop at Vermilionville at 6:30 p.m. today.

The Center for Cultural and Eco Tourism continues its "In Your Own Backyard" series with an accordion workshop today, Nov. 8.

Historical Vermilionville hosts this series as a means of educating the Acadiana public about its legacy. This workshop will be led by four speakers, all of whom build accordions and play them. The speakers will discuss the history of the accordion, how it is built and the differing musical styles. It begins at 6:30 p.m.

Randy Falcon, inventor and patent owner of the dual-pitch Falcon Accordion, will be lecturing. He has been building acccordions for nearly four decades.

Jude Moreau is currently working on building his 100th accordion. Proving that, to paraphrase Frank Zappa, necessity truly is the mother of invention, Moreau used to have to travel a long way from his home in Texas to Lake Charles to get his accordion fixed. After enough miles and money spent on gas he figured he'd try it himself and a profession was born. Bryan Lafleur is from L'anse Grise and has been making accordions for about 10 years. The fourth speaker is Rusty Sanner of Heritage Accordions who has been building the instrument for 20 years.

All in all, it's a workshop packed full of people who know and love the squeezebox.

Invented in Germany in the early 1800s, the accordion made its way into South Louisiana in the late 19th century. Later modifications were made to suit the Cajun or zydeco music styles. Accordions for Acadiana are most often single-row diatonic as opposed to multiple rows and each key on a Cajun or zydeco squeezebox has multiple reeds and stops, or knobs.

Call 482-1320 with any questions.