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Gospel according to the accordion

August 13, 2007 12:35 am

BY ROBIN KNEPPER

The joyful sound of traditional music performed by a concert band of nearly three dozen accordionists (and one tuba player) drifted through the Orange County countryside.

Dale and DeAnn Wise counted 78 guests at their Burr Hill home on the recent summer day. All of them were connected in some way to the accordion and its timeless music.

After lunch and talks by the musicians on the importance of their work, the accordionists (and one tuba player) were rehearsed by Dale Wise in his basement studio and then moved to the yard for the concert.

A few days later, Dale Wise referred to the annual picnic as an accordion celebration. Bringing accordionists together and getting the instrument and its music restored to popularity are his missions.

When the 66-year-old Wise, an accordion player since childhood and a school music teacher for 17 years, moved to suburban Washington in 1971, he found that accordion players were "idle, in the woodwork, unbeknownst to each other."

To address that lack of community, he went to work--teaching, performing, designing and selling accordions and proselytizing for his art and instrument.

"The accordion is the only portable, complete band you can carry in your arms," he said with a smile.

"Back then, there were only a handful of pros performing on the circuit," he said. "But something's really happened. Now we help each other, we play in groups. It's a collective, synergistic thing. We reach one and teach one."

Today, there are accordion clubs in Maryland and Virginia, he said. And the musical community solicits new members through the Washington Metropolitan Accordion Society and the Maryland Accordion Club.

"This time is so exciting," Wise said. "I want to see the accordion restored to the popularity it had when we were children, when it was such a joy and we shared with everyone."

The accordion celebration earlier this month demonstrated the sharing and love of the instrument. The music was spirited and the players and audience loved it.

One of Wise's students, 16-year-old Reed Beverstock, danced the tango with another guest as the band played.

Reed, who lives in Aquia Harbour in North Stafford, was Wise's first pupil when he started the Accordion for Kids/U.S.A. programs in this area several years ago.

Now Reed is learning how to repair accordions, too, following a tradition that is threatened as the craftsmen of old die off.

Concerned about the dearth of accordion-repair people, Wise offers free seminars several times a year at his home.

"They are a two-day effort and I try to pack as much understanding as I can into the instruction," Wise said. "We disassemble and reassemble the accordions and clear up problems. I'm trying to educate people so some of their problems won't happen again.

"Participants are mostly curious about their own instrument," he added, "but a handful has gone into the business of accordion repair."

Students, who range in age from 10 to 70, have come from as far away as Alaska and Australia.

Students, many of whom are home-schooled, are still coming into the Accordions for Kids program, as well.

And Wise still sees some from Northern Virginia that he taught for many years there.

"For me, the children are a top priority," he said. "It's that simple--or that difficult. Kids are fine with the accordion, but parents' perceptions of the accordion can be negative.

"I want to leave people with positive thinking about the accordion, but I don't want to be thought of as a fanatic or something."

He laughed, then continued: "But I'm thinking this is mighty serious business. I want to save the world and time's a-wasting."