Cyrill Demian
With his sons, filed the 1829 Accordion patent that documents an early bellows-instrument design.
View profile →English
PEOPLE DIRECTORY / 01
People Directory
Fifty-six musicians, makers and researchers, grouped by region, with their work and selected sources.
Meet the players and other people behind this music. Maybe you'll find a new favorite!
Western, Central & Southern Europe
Paolo Soprani
Maker who developed a home workshop into a factory and helped establish Castelfidardo's accordion industry.
View profile →Mariano Dallapè
Founded the Stradella workshop and factory that helped establish the town as an accordion-making centre.
View profile →Guido Deiro
Italian-born vaudeville star whose performances and recordings helped popularize the piano accordion in the United States.
View profile →Silvio Scandalli
Grew the Scandalli workshop into a factory, co-founded FARFISA and led development of the Super VI.
View profile →Tony Muréna
Italian-born accordionist who brought jazz phrasing into Parisian musette and swing.
View profile →Gus Viseur
Brought a jazz feel to musette waltzes through guitar-led interplay, as preserved in his wartime recordings.
View profile →Jo Privat
Joined Parisian dance-hall musette with manouche guitar in recordings that preserve his swing-inflected waltzes.
View profile →André Verchuren
Carried postwar French musette from dance halls into theatres, radio and records, reaching a wider public.
View profile →Yvette Horner
Brought French accordion to a national audience through concert recordings and eleven Tour de France caravans.
View profile →Pierre Monichon
Recorded the accordion's construction and history in books that preserve evidence of its makers and performers.
View profile →Marcel Azzola
Moved between chanson accompaniment and small-group jazz, expanding the accordion's roles in French recordings.
View profile →Slavko Avsenik
With his brother Vilko, developed the Oberkrainer ensemble sound and brought Slovenian folk-pop across Europe.
View profile →Daniel Colin
Recorded Parisian musette in song accompaniment and with Argentine accordionist Raúl Barboza.
View profile →Richard Galliano
Joined musette and jazz in New Musette, making the accordion a vehicle for renewed improvisation.
View profile →Noel Hill
Passes on County Clare's concertina tradition through recordings and schools in Ireland and the United States.
View profile →Stefan Hussong
Places Bach and John Cage in the accordion repertoire through recordings, performances and conservatory teaching.
View profile →Kepa Junkera
Basque trikitixa player who expanded the instrument's reach through improvisation and collaborations.
View profile →Sharon Shannon
Brought County Clare's button-accordion tradition into cross-genre collaborations and music education.
View profile →Northern Europe
Mogens Ellegaard
Danish accordionist and educator who advanced the instrument's modern concert repertoire and conservatory teaching.
View profile →Kimmo Pohjonen
Combines amplified accordion, sound processing and visual performance in projects that reach beyond folk and classical stages.
View profile →Maria Kalaniemi
Turns Finnish folk sources into accordion compositions and improvisations with chamber-music partners.
View profile →Mika Väyrynen
Expanded concert-accordion repertoire through a complete Goldberg Variations recording and performances of new concertos.
View profile →Frode Haltli
Norwegian accordionist working across contemporary composition, folk traditions, and improvisation.
View profile →Ksenija Sidorova
Expands classical accordion repertoire through commissioned concertos, orchestral appearances and recordings.
View profile →Eastern & Southeastern Europe
Vladimir Zubitsky
Wrote bayan suites and accordion concertos that place the instrument in both solo and large orchestral forms.
View profile →Petar Ralchev
Bulgarian accordionist and composer combining folk music with improvisation.
View profile →Alexander Hrustevich
Uses classical transcriptions and orchestral collaborations to show the bayan as both solo and concerto instrument.
View profile →Russia
Viktor Gridin
His bayan playing, arrangements and six-row instrument helped shape the sound of the Rossiya ensemble.
View profile →Friedrich Lips
Bayan soloist and Gnesin Academy educator who premiered new works and founded the Bayan and Bayanists festival.
View profile →Evgeny Derbenko
Turns Russian folk melodies into concert arrangements and school repertoire for bayan, garmon and accordion.
View profile →North America
Amédé Ardoin
Louisiana Creole musician whose early recordings and syncopated playing influenced Cajun music and zydeco.
View profile →Art Van Damme
American jazz accordionist who shaped a distinctive small-group sound with guitar and vibraphone.
View profile →Clifton Chenier
Louisiana Creole musician who blended local dance music with blues and R&B to shape zydeco.
View profile →Frank Marocco
Passed on jazz accordion practice through studio sessions, duo recordings and materials for learning improvisation.
View profile →Pauline Oliveros
Developed Deep Listening and used accordion bellows, voice and improvisation in experimental music.
View profile →Flaco Jiménez
San Antonio conjunto player who carried Tex-Mex button accordion music to audiences worldwide.
View profile →Marc Savoy
Cajun accordion maker and musician whose Acadian instruments and music centre sustain a regional tradition.
View profile →Ramón Ayala
A defining norteño accordionist, from Los Relámpagos del Norte to his long-running Bravos del Norte.
View profile →Alan Bern
Connects klezmer performance, composition and teaching through Yiddish Summer Weimar and the Other Music Academy.
View profile →"Weird Al" Yankovic
Keeps the accordion audible in American popular music through song parodies and polka medleys.
View profile →South America
Luiz Gonzaga
The “King of Baião,” who brought the accordion-led music of Brazil's northeast to a national audience.
View profile →Aníbal Troilo
Placed the bandoneon at the centre of his tango orchestra and left lasting work for both singers and instrumentalists.
View profile →Astor Piazzolla
Argentine bandoneonist and composer whose tango drew on jazz and classical music.
View profile →Andrés Landero
Made the accordion a central voice of Colombian cumbia through his compositions and recordings.
View profile →Dino Saluzzi
Argentine bandoneonist and composer connecting the music of Salta with tango, jazz and chamber music.
View profile →Raúl Barboza
Argentine accordionist and composer who brought chamamé to international audiences, working from France from 1987.
View profile →Dominguinhos
Luiz Gonzaga's musical heir who joined northeastern Brazilian forró with a wider range of popular styles.
View profile →Africa
René Lacaille
Carried Réunion's séga and maloya traditions through accordion performance into collaborations abroad.
View profile →Régis Gizavo
Malagasy accordionist who brought music rooted in Toliara traditions to international audiences.
View profile →Asia
Ryōzō Yokomori
Adapted his accordion accompaniment to singers on Japanese television, making the instrument familiar to generations of viewers.
View profile →Mie Miki
Broadened classical accordion repertoire through new works, chamber music and recordings of keyboard music.
View profile →coba
Moved the accordion from solo compositions into rap and jazz collaborations in Japanese recordings.
View profile →Yang Fan
Expanded accordion concerts, recordings and teaching in China and served as an international competition adjudicator.
View profile →Cao Xiaoqing
Accordionist and educator who founded the accordion program at Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music.
View profile →Ryota Komatsu
Links Argentine tango with Japanese song and screen music, widening the bandoneon's place in contemporary music.
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