Two of my favourite days each year are the (free) concert days of our Accordion Orchestra at Morley College - that's right, it's an orchestra made up of accordions only. Yesterday the audience didn't want to leave - we actually left them hungry for more! I started classes there 4 years ago and joined the Accordions at Morley club fairly soon after. Our musical director and conductor Ian Watson was very patient with us beginners. Anyone out there wanting to start learning; we need more beginners to secure the survival of the beginners class, it's on Mondays at 12.30- 2pm and Julie North is a great teacher. Adult Education colleges really are the seat of civilised life - they're full of people who choose to learn more. I'm learning Japanese there at the moment too and I've done Photoshop, welding and Portuguese in the past, all fantastic courses. The music department is particularly well developed and varied, many famous composers have worked there; Gustav Holst, Michael Tippett, Vaughn Williams.
Ian just contributed to a very interesting BBC radio 4 programme about the reputation of the accordion called The Big Squeeze, it's well worth a listen and you'll hear classical accordion playing not tinny folksy oom pahs!
