History of the Association
The idea of a meeting of accordionists in Prekmurje was born among accordion teachers in Prekmurje sometime in 2003 and 2004, as accordionists from this part of Slovenia had been participating in such events at home and abroad (Croatia, Italy, Austria) for many years. The official foundation of the association took place on 8 December 2004. On 27 May 2005, the 1st International Accordionists’ Meeting was realised, which took place in Moravske Toplice.
In addition to the competitions, where the number of participants has grown year on year, each year we have organised concerts of serious music and jazz, lectures, presentations of new accordion sheet music, presentations by leading instrument manufacturers, and a closing concert with a prize-giving ceremony. The meeting has become the main event of its kind in Slovenia, as it is actively attended primarily by music school students who have had no other opportunity to participate in an international competition in Slovenia for many years.
The meeting is also attended by accordion teachers at music schools in Slovenia and abroad. Lectures are given by renowned European pedagogues and concert masters. The main specificity of the meeting is the equal representation of all genres of music. The competition is open to chamber music with accordion and soloists who compete in playing classical, popular and folk-entertainment music on accordion and diatonic accordion. In this way, the competition encourages participants to respect different genres of music and to bring together musicians from many European countries and beyond.
The juries of the previous editions have included renowned European artists and pedagogues from Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovakia and Ukraine. In addition to local participants, previous participants have come from Italy, Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro.