‘Here, everyone understands’: 300 gather in King of Prussia to pay tribute to the accordion

With the school talent show approaching, Christina Busso did “the mom thing” and encouraged her kindergartener to perform. When he balked, she asked if he was nervous about taking the stage.

Oh, no, she recalled him replying, it was because “everyone’s going to bring their accordion.”

“I was like, ‘Oh. No. When do I tell him …?” said Busso, 41, of Alexandria, Va., who said she, too, once thought every household featured one, if not more, accordionists. “Growing up, I joked that you walked, you talked, you played the accordion. I didn’t know people who didn’t do this because everyone in my family did.”

For the Busso clan, playing the accordion is a family affair, which is why three generations of the family, ranging in age from 7 to 76, were at Valley Forge Casino Resort last weekend for the American Accordionists’ Association’s (AAA) 81st annual festival. They were among about 300 accordion enthusiasts from the U.S. and abroad who looked forward to four days of workshops, competitions, shopping, performances and, perhaps most importantly, community.

“What’s nice is coming here and being all together. … Sometimes, it feels like you’re floating out there alone, the only one who understands the accordion,” said Jeanne Velonis, 47, from Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. “Here, everyone understands the accordion.” Many have long misunderstood the accordion, associating it with an old-fashioned “oom-pah-pah” sound. But that’s changing, as the instrument is more prominently featured in music by performers, including Mumford & Sons and U2, and a younger generation is trying the instrument, said Christina’s father, Frank Busso, 76, a member of AAA’s governing board for more than 45 years.

“It used to be strictly ethnic: You play a polka, you play an Italian waltz, you play a Slovenian something or other,” said Busso, of Woodbridge, Va. “Now it’s more versatile and it’s popping up in rock, jazz, classical, all of it.”

The golden age of the accordion in America was in the 1950s and ’60s, when the nation’s most famous accordionist, Lawrence Welk, had a string of hits and hosted a weekly variety show that regularly featured fellow squeezebox enthusiasts, including Myron Floren, a.k.a. “the happy Norwegian.” and Frankie Yankovic, a.k.a. “America’s Polka King” (and no relation to “Weird Al,” Yankovic, who is also an accordion enthusiast).

One of the AAA’s goals is to reignite that enthusiasm and, if festival attendance is any indicator, it’s working, said Busso, who has noted higher numbers in recent years. The organization is doing outreach to schools, commissioning original works by contemporary composers, including William Grant Still. and offering thousands of dollars in annual scholarships to winners of its annual festival competitions.

“Why can’t kids be learning scales on smaller accordions? I think they still can. I think they still might,” said Alex Chudolij, 59, of Clifton, N.J., an AAA board member and owner of accordion specialty store Music Magic USA. “We need to get into the schools and the libraries, but we just don’t have the resources.”

Hearing the accordion on more mainstream radio stations has also helped drive interest.

“You’ll have kids in high school saying, ‘I’ve been hearing this song on the radio and I want to do that. What is that sound?’” said Frank Busso Jr., 39, an Air Force senior master sergeant who plays accordion in the military branch’s string band. “It’s still looked at as a novelty, but a well-accepted and well-respected one.”

Christina Busso said one reason she encourages her two children — Alexander Lammers, 11, the onetime kindergartner from her story, and Caroline Lammers, 7 — to practice every day is for brain power. Last year, research published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience documented how structured music lessons can significantly enhance children’s cognitive abilities.

Russell Williams, 73, of Bokeelia, Fla., said he believes lessons can also benefit older folks. While he learned the accordion as a child, he didn’t play more than once a year until about four years ago, when he retired and began taking regular lessons. Learning helped him deal with “chemo fog” when he underwent cancer treatment and continues to keep him sharp.

“I’m staving off Alzheimer’s,” he said. “At my age, I can still learn new songs, and that means a lot.”

The accordion is a difficult instrument to classify: It has reeds and uses a bellows to force air through them, like wind instruments. But most also have piano-style keyboards, and pianos are considered stringed or percussive instruments. Accordions comes in various sizes, starting with 12 bass buttons and gradually topping out at 160, and can be traditional brown or black, mother of pearl or totally blinged out with gemstones. It’s all about the player.

“The accordion is such a personal instrument. You literally hug the accordion. You move with it,” Busso Jr said. “No two are identical. No two folks are necessarily looking for the same instrument or same sound.”