Silicon Valley Accordion Society meetings held first Sunday of each month at Christ Episco-pal Church, 1040 Border Road, Los Altos, CA 94024. Doors open at 1:00, Music begins at 1:30 pm, (Meeting currently suspended,) door fee $5 for members and $ 10.00 for non mem-bers 16 yearsand under are free. - JOIN THE CLUB:

Annual Memberships: Regular $ 35.00, Gold $ 125.00, Platinum $ 200.00

FIRST CLASS POSTAGE ♫

P.O. Box 1513

Los Altos, CA

94023

Newsletter of the

Cotati Accordion Festival Lady of Spain-a-Ring on Zoom, August 2020. Look closely and you will find many of our very own SVAS

members participating. So very proud of us!!!

SILICON VALLEY ACCORDION SOCIETY OCTOBER 2020 Page 2

Colette Ogata President

Presidents Message: PRESIDENT LETTER FOR OCTOBER 2020

Hello SVAS Friends!

We have had some really big changes this month in the SVAS.

SVAS kicked off our first Zoom virtual meeting together with SFAC in September featuring Alicia Straka. It was a wonderful event and it was great to see San Jose members on Zoom! It has been a while. Alicia’s intentions are to spread joy. It was a happy hour with happy music.

I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the SFAC, Ken Schwartz and his Board Members, for having SVAS as a guest in sharing in the joyful Zoom event with Alicia. Ken, we appreciate your kindness, help and support, especially during these hard times we all have been facing this year.

We then ventured out on our own and had a Zoom concert October 4th featuring Monterey International. WOW - what a great perfor-mance!!! Mike Marotta on Accordion, Dave Dally on Violin, Orazio Ai-ello Tenor, Dave Marzetti (crooner) and Joe Gough on Drums. We had 48 participants who enjoyed the Virtual meeting. I have to say, thank you, Pam Kawashima for making arrangements to have them perform for us.

Monterey International was an excellent choice to start our virtual meetings. They had really beautiful song choices, the two vocalists were top notch and a fantastic addition to the group!

For the month of November, Ron Borelli will be playing for us on Zoom Sunday, November 1, 2020 at 3:30pm. It is very important that we see support in these virtual meetings in order for us to be able to continue sending beautiful ac-cordion themed music through Zoom in the future. Please join us if you are able. More to come for Ron Borelli – stay tuned.

We have had some changes in the board:

Bill Tapogna has been appointed Vice President! Yes folks... he is still hanging around here, and I for one am very appreciative of his advice and many years of exper-tise. Besides, every club needs a little HAM for the club. Thank you, Bill for accepting VP. It is with great pleasure that I share with you all that Bernie Coullahan has kindly accepted the Secretary position for SVAS in a temporary manner. While we all would love for him to join us permanently, we very much appreciate his willingness to help us move forward in the interim. Bernie will serve as Secretary until sometime around March 2021. Thank you, Bernie and welcome to the SVAS Board!

Looking forward to someday returning to our happy club with the goal of having a safe, peaceful, comfortable and fun place for us all to enjoy. Thank you,

Colette Ogata

Thank you SVAS Newsletter Reporters. With-out you we would not have the “Real” Stories that we all need to read.

Georgia Sutherland Marcia Coullahan Sue Douglas Marybarbara Zorio

Silicon Valley Accordion Society OCTOBER 2020 Page 3

19503 56th Ave W #B, Lynnwood,WA 98036

SILICON VALLEY ACCORDION SOCIETY OCTOBER 2020 Page 4

New Member: James Shoemaker from Sacramento, CA—We are so glad you stopped by our October Zoom meeting. Welcome to SVAS and we will see you soon on ZOOM!

MEMBERSHIP DUES

Please send in your Membership dues with the enclosed form. We all need to keep our Club fund-ed to get us through this Virus fiasco. The Board has decided to start the new 2021 membership on Jan 1, 2021, including those who have already paid. We thank you all for your support.

Alicia Jo Straka

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the land-scape for music performances throughout the world. Not to be deterred, SVAS has responded by moving our meetings and concerts to the internet. 2020 has been a year of virus, fires, division, and disaster. BUT! Just as we may have been ready to give up on 2020, on September 20 we joined in with the San Francisco club to hear and meet Alicia Jo Straka, super-talented accordionist, vocalist, composer, and arranger. Alicia treated us to an extraordinary hour filled with the joyful sounds of her voice and Roland accordi-on. Zoom provided the technology for enabling us to not only view Alicia but to also view the reactions of the 72 members who attended this month’s meeting! Did you notice some in the audience swaying to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” or singing along to “A Wink and a Smile?” What fun to meet Alicia’s parents as well as her grand-parents who were also in the audience. Providing a much needed mental health break during quarantine, Alicia’s repertoire spanned a wide variety of mu-sical genres, including; jazz, pop, french musettes, and, of course, a couple of polkas. You can learn more about Alicia by visiting her website: aliciajostraka.com for her recordings and to learn more about this talented and de-lightful artist. Alicia mentioned that although she now resides in Denver she was raised in Oregon and began playing accordion at age 6. If Alicia’s goal is to spread joy through her music she succeeded admirably in Sunday’s concert. This is an important between-time for SVAS, and even though we aren’t all sitting in folding chairs nibbling donat-ed treats we are still in this together, and any live music that we can experience is a helpful reminder of that. Clini-cal evidence shows high levels of stress can weaken immune systems. Relax! Until some date in the future when we can return to real, live performances, continue to join us from the comfort of your living room. By- MaryBarbara Zorio

To all of our friends around the world. We hope that you all stay healthy and keep playing your Accordions.

Music is the unspoken language of Love and Peace.

SILICON VALLEY ACCORDION SOCIETY OCTOBER 2020 Page 5

Go to FACEBOOK to make comments and upload your photos.

Monterey International It was a pleasure to participate in our second successful Zoom meeting. We had forty eight participants. Monterey International featured Mike Marotta Jr. accordionist, and Dave Dally violinist. Mike and Dave are the core and have played together for many years. For this per-formance they were accompanied by Joe Gough on drums, Orazio Aiello, a tenor, and Dave Marzetti a crooner. It certainly was a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon listening to Dave Marzetti sing “More,” “I Have But One Heart,” and “How High The Moon.” Dave has a voice that makes a person think of the great crooner, D--- M-----. Orazio took center and sang, “ Tico Ti Tico Te,” and “O Marie.” We would love to visit Pa-lermo Bakery where he often sings while baking bread. Just think, “What a treat to hear his fine tenor voice, smell his bread, and think about what you want to take home.” Dave and Orazio sang a duet “Non Ti Scordar Di Me.” Their voices blended so well. Then we were treated to some beautiful instrumental by Dave and Mike. It is so obvious that these two have played together for an age. Mike Marotta Senior often commented on how of-ten Dave came to the door with violin in hand and was always so welcome. Dave Marzetti then sang “Summer Wind,” “Volare,” and a medley from “The Godfather,” fol-lowed by Orazio with two more songs closing with "Funiculi, Funicula,” which left us all with that tune in our heads. I failed to mention Joe Gough only because he blends in so well. Joe brings everything together and we enjoyed his solo. This group is delightful and we look for-ward to their next visit with us. Mike has offered to share some of his late father's music with anyone interested. You can con-tact Mike and he will meet you at his family home. Thank you Mike, that is a generous offer.

By– Marcia Coullahan

ACCORDION CLUB MEETING SCHEDULES IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA In person Meetings Temporarily Suspended

Accordion Club of the Redwoods (ACR) meets on the third Monday of every other month. Herman & Sons Hall, 860 Western Avenue, Petaluma CA 94952. Contact: (707) 795-4060. Golden State Accordion Club (GSAC) has three divisions: The Golden State Accordion Club, 2044 Airport Road, Napa, CA, meets the second Thursday of the month at 6:30pm, The Humbolt Accordion Club meets on the third Tuesday, 7:00pm, Humboldt Swiss Club, 5403 Tompkins Hill Road, Loleta, CA 95551. The Sacramento Club meets on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 6:30pm at the Elks Lodge No.6-6446 Riverside Blvd, Sacramento, CA. Contact for all the GSAC: Carole Enneking (707) 864-2359. Good Time Accordion Club (GTAC) meets on the second Wednesday of the month at 7:00pm, Escalon Community Center, 1055 Escalon Ave., Escalon, CA 95320. Contact Ed Sciarini (209) 545-3603. Northern California Accordion Society (NCAS) meets on the first Wednesday of the month 6:30pm, 6365 Douglas Blvd., Lutheran Church Social Hall, Granite Bay, CA 95746. San Francisco Accordion Club (SFAC) meets on the third Sunday of the month 2:00pm, Chetcuti Community Room, Civic Center Plaza, 450 Poplar Ave., Milbrae, CA 94030 Silicon Valley Accordion Society (SVAS) meets on the first Sunday of the month 1:30pm. Christ Episcopal Church, 1040 Border Road, Los Altos, CA 94024

♫ Who’s Playing??? ♫

William DeMichelis—Music with an accent, 408-375-0001, accordionist.sanjose@comcast.net Reno di Bono—Ourhike@aol.com Joe Domitrowich/AlpinersUSA—see www.alpinersusa.com or www.capricious-accordion.com or call 408-255-1259 Happy Days Band— Schedule Concerts with Ken Caple (408) 892-2760 Due Zighi Baci—Schedule Performances with Sheri Mignano at sherimignano@gmail.com Ernie Beran— Reeds@baymoon.com Mike Zampiceni—Mikezamp.com

SVAS BOARD of Directors / Officers

PRESIDENT: Colette Ogata 510-789-9739

VICE PRESIDENT: Bill Tapogna 408 984-5290

SECRETARY: Bernard Coullahan becoul@yahoo.com

TREASURER: Rosemary Miceli rosemarymiceli@sbcglobal.net WEBMASTER: PAM KAWASHIMA pkawashima@outlook.com NEWSLETTER PRODUCER: (Ken Caple, temp.) looking for volunteer. NEWSLETTER REPORTERS: Marcia Coullahan Sue Douglas Marybarbara Zorio Georgia Sutherland COMMITTEE MEMBERS AT LARGE: Bob Stanfield Norma Parsons

Coming Events at SVAS: Sunday Live Meetings Temporarily Suspended

——————

Upcoming Zoom Virtual Performance:

Ron Borelli Sunday, November

1st @ 3:30 pm _____________

Contact Colette.ogata@gmail.com if you would like to receive

monthly invitations to our SVAS Zoom Meetings

Please note we are working on

2021 Performers

Silicon Valley Accordion Society OCTOBER 2020 Page 6

ACCORDION TEACHERS: Peter Di Bono: San Francisco (415) 699-8674 Reno Di Bono: Cupertino Senior center. Free Zoom lessons every Sunday from 11am to 11:30 am. E-mail Reno at ourhike@aol.com Lou Jacklich: San Lorenzo, CA (510) 317-9510 Marian Kelly: Cupertino, CA (650) 954-3711 Mike Zampiceni: Sunnyvale and Hayward (408) 569-2579 Mikezamp.com Ernie Beran: Aptos, CA (831) 238-4961 reeds@baymoon.com Pamela Tom: Davis, CA accordionpam@gmail.com

SILICON VALLEY ACCORDION SOCIETY OCTOBER 2020 Page 7

Happy Birthday, Lou Jacklich!!!! Lou just cele-

brated his 92nd birthday with his students at the

end of August. Pam Tom and Kaisu Lankinen

hosted a Zoom Birthday party with the help of

many of Lou’s students and 31 people were in

attendance.

One of the highlights of the party was that his

students gathered photos and consolidated them

into a beautiful PowerPoint presentation with a

lifetime of memories, which everyone viewed

while listening along with background music

from either his students or Lou’s album.

Some students took turns playing during the

Zoom party as well, and a designated person

went to Lou’s house and presented him with a

birthday cake with all social distancing precau-

tions in mind.

Happy birthday Lou!

Oktoberfest

Most Oktoberfests around the world have been cancelled including the one in Munich, Germany. All the parties will have to wait until a future year. Let’s hope the virus will be gone by next year at this time.

KEEP HEALTHY

NEWSLETTER OF THE

October 2020

Visit our Website at SVASociety.org Facebook: Silicon Valley Accordion Society

Videos: Accordionpam-YouTube

SVAS Next ZOOM Meeting Sunday, November 1st 3:30-4:30

Ron Borelli began his love for music and entertainment through his parents. His fa-ther played tenor sax professionally; his mother played stride piano. Other members of the Borelli family played instruments as well, including accordion, clarinet, mandolin and drums. As a young boy, Ron would attend engagements where his father’s popular band, the Al Borelli Orchestra, would be performing. Throughout San Francisco, the Peninsula and East Bay, the Al Borelli Orchestra was very much in demand for wed-dings, parties and social occasions. This influenced Ron to begin his study of music at 7 years of age. His professional music career began at 14 years of age, when he played his first solo engagement as an accordionist for a San Francisco New Years party. Ron continued to perform with the Al Borelli Orchestra while his sister, Carole, became vocalist for the band. At the same time, he formed his own trio at age 18. With an early interest in jazz pi-ano and accordion, Ron studied with the notable Don Haas and was influenced by pia-nists Oscar Peterson, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans and jazz accordionist

Art Van Damme. After exploring many of the jazz styles, an interest in classical music developed which led to studying with the renowned classic pianist/composer Julian White. Ron has played for hundreds of special occasions including at the San Francisco’s Bimbo’s 365 Club, the Fairmont and St. Francis Hotels, the Concord Pavilion, the Olympic and Pacific Union Clubs, University of San Francisco and for nu-merous small gatherings at private residences of Bay Area celebrities. His more prestigious performances on accordion include engagements for the San Francisco Opera, production of Wozzeck, the 1999 Three Tenors Concert, SF Opera production of Two Women and in 2017 John Adams Opera “Girls of the Golden West.” In 2018 Ron performed for the opening ceremonies of the SF Opera Gala playing the music of Astor Piazzolla. In 2015 Ron performed with the San Francisco Symphony soundtrack for the Godfather movie. He has also worked with the Diablo Ballet, Santa Rosa Sym-phony, Berkeley Symphony Theatre Works and Las Vegas International Accordion Convention. In addition to Ron’s dance band for dances and private events, Ron’s latest group of very talented musicians have created the Ron Borelli-Art Van Damme Tribute Band. This band plays the arrangements created by Art Van Damme as he recorded them, and they even have Art’s former vibraphone player! SVAS zoom concert will feature Ron performing the music of Duke Ellington, Astor Piazzolla, Richard Galliano, French Musette, Italian pieces and even a good old German Polka.