First up was the younger of the Steffan brothers, Christopher, on his Giulietti accordion. Christopher did an outstanding job on some ethnic numbers: a Tarantella, Mexican Hat Dance, Little Brown Jug, and closed with America The Beautiful. He gets better each time we hear him play.
After his set, Christopher turned the Giulietti over to older brother William Marcus Steffan who gave us rousing renditions of Beer Barrel Polka (Rosamunda) and El Ranch Grande followed by a lovely treatment of Santa Lucia. William is a natural showman and always a crowd pleaser.
Performing after William was David Hayward who has been playing the accordion for five years. He plays a Silvertone accordion and he plays it very well. He performed two accordion classics Accordion Rhythm and Nola for his first two numbers and then went all Mozart on us with Rondo Alla Turca. David loves to play and the audience loves to hear him. Christopher, William and David will all be performing at Cotati this year at 10:30 AM on August 19th.
Our next performer of the evening was Olga Fensler who has been playing for about one and one-half years. Olga began lessons as an adult motivated by here love of accordion music which she tells us is very popular in Russia. She did an outstanding performance of three Russian folk songs. Keep us the good work Olga, and please come play for us again soon.
The last performers of the evening were Sheri Mignano, who was joined later in her set by John Covanelli. Sheri opened with a beautiful and sensitive rendition of Percy Faith’s theme from A Summer Place, followed by Vola Colomba and Le Retour des Hirondelles. John then joined her to duet with Tango Delle Rose to close out the first half of our program.
Our featured performer for the night was Joe Domitrowich. Joe began his set playing a wireless Petosa Milennium Reedless accordion as he moved around the room playing an Italian medley which included music from The Godfather, followed by Sunrise Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof, Just Because, Sentimental Journey and Comet Valse. He then put down his Petosa to pick up his Concerto and gave us Czardas, Habanera, Wien Du Stadt Meiner Traume, Moliendo Cafe, Jambalaya, In the Mood, a Medley of Standards, Mambo #5, Perez Prado’s Patricia, He Slavko, closing with Train Ride. It’s always fun to have Joe play his eclectic mix for us. We are looking forward to hearing him again.
Thank you Joe.
