Dear Friends,
Well, the holidays are over for another year and things should slowly return to normal for a while. I hope that all of you had a wonderful holiday season. Speaking of a wonderful holiday season we all had a great time at our annual Christmas Dinner Dance last month. The food and wine were excellent and we had a very good turnout considering the weather. The dance music by Steve Balich and his band was great as usual. To top it all off we actually earned a few dollars for our treasury this year. I had a great time playing with Steve Jr., Scottie our drummer and vocalist Kris Nelson before dinner. Thanks to all of the volunteers who made this event possible and thank all of you who attended and those of you who supported the raffle.
I am looking forward to seeing all of you at our January meeting on Monday the 21st. We’re kicking off the year with a pasta feed before the meeting, so come early and have a good meal and visit with your friends while you eat and stay to listen to some good music.
This month we are lucky to have Aldo Garibaldi, an excellent pianist who has played for us before to rave reviews. Aldo plays with such mastery and intensity that it’s always a pleasure to listen to him. Come and hear some of your favorite standard tunes played by this excellent musician. It shouldn’t be long now before we have our new ACR website up and running. I will have more on this for those of you who have computers and those of you whose friends and relatives have computers in upcoming messages. It will help to spread the word about what a great club we have.
Also we are working with the leadership of Hermann Sons Hall on sponsoring a concert performance by an excellent German Accordion Band which will be touring the US this year. The concert will take place at Hermann Sons Hall in October and I will also have more information about this in upcoming messages to you.
Finally, I have the sad task of informing you that Leo Tastsides departed from us on December 20, 2012 at the age of eighty-five. Leo always had a smile for everyone and was a true accordion and polka booster and an accomplished player. He was also a ham radio operator and a member of the Grammy winning Frank Yankevich Polka Band organization.
Our sincere condolences go out to Marcella, his wife of sixty-one years, his son Michael and all of his other friends and family members. Good-bye Leo, you will be missed.
Tony Mustaro
President
Accordion Club of the Redwoods
