From Monday November 26 and all week, the aptly named Venise du Gâtinais hosts the world accordion championships. Long associated with the outdated image of the “queen of musette balls” who died in 2018, the instrument is attracting more and more young people.
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For a week, Montargis will become the world capital of the accordion. More than 300 musicians and their delegations, a good thousand people, are expected at the village hall and the Tivoli for concerts, demonstrations and…confrontations.
“This is the first time in four years that we have organized the competition in a country. Until now, we had to be content to do it online. So we are obviously very happy to be able to come to Montargis”underlines Frédéric Deschamps, president of the World Accordion Confederation, himself a resident of La Selle-sur-le-Bied, a few kilometers away.
A high proportion of Chinese, Ukrainians, Serbs, Czechs and of course French are expected, including Michel Pruvot, the “Johnny Hallyday of the accordion”, or the young Vladyslav Hrytsun, junior world champion in 2023 who fled the war in Ukraine and found refuge in Gâtinais.
Accordionists will challenge each other in around forty categories :”We have a lot of musical styles, from bal musette to classical to jazz”specifies Frédéric Deschamps.
These world championships will also include very young talents, from 7 years old, and will welcome CM1-CM2 classes. “We managed to get away from the image of Yvette Horner who played with Jacques Martin, it’s no longer our grandparents’ instrument”underlines Frédéric Deschamps, also counting on the concerts, planned every evening, to attract a large audience.
For the first time, the winner of the classic seniors category will be offered a world tour, with concerts and master classes.
