Accordion Festival 2015 comes to Vienna

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The accordion is very popular in Vienna. Traditional Viennese songs are unthinkable without this fascinating instrument, and it plays an important role in World Music too. The Accordion Festival presents accordion music in all its forms for a whole month in well-known Viennese venues from February 21. It’s amazing all the things you can listen to there.

The Accordion Festival in Vienna is already 16 years old now. Fans of theQuetschn (squeeze box), as it is known in Vienna, can look forward to music which keeps traditions alive and also to experimental sounds. One of the main focuses this year is on female accordionists, such as the Belgian Sophie Cavez, who will play during the opening gala on February 21 with her partner BaltazarMontanaro. The artistic figurehead of the Accordion Festival, Otto Lechner, will also be playing on this evening.

In Porgy & Bess, the band Cafe Schmalz will celebrate their revival, and Stephanie Nilles& Patrick Harison from the US will also be on the bill (22.2.). Radio Europa invites you on a musical tour of our continent in the Sargfabrik venue (25.2.). Krzysztof Dobrek and Aliosha Biz will accompany the actor Karl Markovics in Theater Akzent (27.2.). In the Kosmos Theater, the ladies from the group Karat Apart dedicate themselves to their program "Frauengold”, while Cathrin Pfeifer will provide World Music with some Southern warmth together with the percussionist TopoGioia (4.3.). In Metropol, the public has the opportunity of say au revoir to Bratsch, the World Music band from France, who are going on tour for the last time after 40 years on the stage (10.3.).

The incomparable ensemble Shmaltz is made up of six musicians who will perform with passion and rhythm, a bit of kitsch and a lot of feeling in Reigen (12.3.). The Finnish accordionist Maria Kalaniemi will feature with the pianist TimoAlakotila in Stadtsaal. Part of the evening will be taken up by the music of AtanasDinovski& Paul Schuberth (16.3.). Dobrek Bistro are back as well: They will give their traditional concert in the Orpheum (18.3.).

To accompany all this there will be a silent film matinee in the Filmcasino and a Magic Afternoon for children on Sundays, and a Swing Night on Wednesdays.