The Sembrich Presents Music for the Great Outdoors with “Wizard of the Accordion” Michael Bridge
The Sembrich presents the must-see lakeside performance Music for the Great Outdoors with “wizard of the accordion” Michael Bridge on Saturday August 7 at 6:00 PM. The evening’s repertoire ranges from a technically demanding classic by J.S. Bach to popular gems, such as Csardas by Monti and Moon River by Henry Mancini, and works with a Spanish flair, including Andaluzia by Granados and Intoxicating, a tango composed by Bridge himself. Audience members will hear both an acoustic instrument and a more modern digital accordion and will delight in Bridge’s original arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s iconic 1812 Overture.
"One of the summertime experiences that we’re looking to replicate in our NATURE & MUSIC festival at The Sembrich is the pleasure of outdoor concerts in the park, typically presented by community bands or orchestras, often ending with a performance of Tchaikovsky’s stirring 1812 Overture," said The Sembrich’s Artistic Director Richard Wargo. "In our search for such a program we discovered Canadian virtuoso accordion player Michael Bridge. Michael, in fact, had successfully arranged the concert showpiece as a part of a competition he had entered to win the latest model digital accordion."
"As a finalist, they sent the accordion to me in the mail and I had three weeks to prepare for the competition," stated Michael Bridge. "Everyone except the winner would have to give their accordion back, so I was very motivated! I have always loved the 1812 Overture; my dad used to play a recording of it for me while I was building with Legos as a child. I knew the work inside out and backwards and ultimately arranged it by memory; I have never used the sheet music. Creating the accordion’s programming (the preset sound combinations that I trigger throughout the piece) took about ten days and there are over 50 instrument combinations used."
Michael Bridge is a 21st-century musical maverick, toppling popular expectations of what it is to be a professional accordionist. He is a virtuoso performer, a superstar on both acoustic and digital accordion. Each performance embraces a musical esthetic that is alternatively irreverent, deadly serious, meticulously prepared, and completely in-the-moment. Bridge has won numerous of competitions in Canada and abroad and offers lectures and masterclasses around the world.
Bridge began playing when he was five years old and growing up in Calgary. His mother bought an accordion at a garage sale for $5. A family friend began teaching him to play by ear and his formal lessons began at the age of seven. He spent weekends at prairie accordion competitions, playing polkas and learning to dance. Then at fifteen, Bridge attended the World Accordion Championship as a spectator. For the first time he heard classical accordion and fell in love with it. He started all over again, mastering a completely different kind of accordion and a whole new technique.
He was soon offering nearly a hundred community concerts a year. As a soloist with orchestra or string quartet, with his two ensembles, he continues that pace, playing in concert halls all over the world. Michael is a Rebanks Fellows at the Glenn Gould School and is completing his Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Toronto.
Tickets are $40 and are available online at TheSembrich.org/festival or by calling The Sembrich office at (518) 644-2431. The performance will take place under a performance tent on The Sembrich’s lakeside grounds. This event has a rain date scheduled on Sunday, August 8, 6:00 PM. If needed, we will announce the use of this rain date by 11 AM on the day of the performance.
This performance is sponsored by Betty Spinelli and Joe Stanek and media sponsor North Country Public Radio.