The 60th annual Coupe Mondiale accordion competition, held last week outside Washington, DC, was a huge success. In addition to the competition itself, there were nightly accordion concerts at the Kennedy Center, a one-of-a-kind massed accordion band performance of “The Stars and Stripes Forever” on the steps of the US Capitol (written up in the Washington Post), and countless opportunities for accordion lovers from around the world to hear amazing music and share the squeezebox love.
Here’s a list of this year’s winners by category:
- Alexander Sevastian (Canada)
- Coupe Mondiale
- Ruslan Osipov (Russia)
- Junior Coupe Mondiale
- Jérémie Buirette (France)
- International Competition for Virtuoso Entertainment Music
- Eric Allard-Jacquin (France)
- Junior International Competition for Virtuoso Entertainment Music
- Stanislav Jusufovic (Serbia)
- International Competition for Piano Accordion
- Art of Accordion Quintet (Germany)
- International Competition for Ensemble Music
- Betty Jo Simon (Overland Park, Kansas)
- Maddalena Belfiore Entertainment Competition for Female Accordionists
You can watch the winners concert online at the Kennedy Center: Millennium Stage website. The performances are (as you might expect) phenomenal.
Thanks to Mara Cherkasky of the Washington Metropolitan Accordion Society for keeping us up to date on all Coupe-related activities last week.