Varied Levana concert with accordion
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At the beginning of the year, the school community at Levana School was once again able to look forward to a special event at the school. The entrance hall of the special school with a focus on holistic and motor development in the district of Ahrweiler was transformed into a concert hall with seating. After all the pupils and their teachers had taken their seats, they waited eagerly for the musician, who was announced by head teacher Gerd Jung, to present the 19th Levana concert: Accordion player Willi Elz. The amateur musician had brought two accordions with him and began his performance with the French musette waltz "Sous le ciel de Paris" on an electronic keyboard accordion. He briefly introduced the instrument and explained to his audience that electronics can also be used to imitate the sounds of other instruments. The melody of the Valse Musette is classically performed by an accordion and accompanied by an alto saxophone. The audience could clearly recognize this arrangement during his performance and experienced impressively that although the accordion is only a single instrument, it can produce the sound of an entire orchestra. In two subsequent pieces, Willi Elz had the students guess which instruments he had incorporated into his playing and some recognized the violin and clarinet.
With his varied program, the experienced accordion player showed how versatile the music is and made the differences clear to the pupils aged between 6 and 19 with his selection of pieces. Willi Elz played both atmospheric and solemn pieces that were either groovy and loud or rather calm and quiet. Everyone spontaneously clapped along enthusiastically to "Klang aus Oberkrain", which one pupil declared to be a bachelor song, while they listened intently to the waltz "Rosen aus dem Süden" by Johann Strauss or "Air" by Johann Sebastian Bach, for example, and let the sounds of the classical accordion take effect on them. The accordion player also presented an Argentinian tango and demonstrated with his hand-pulled instrument how the jerky playing emphasizes certain notes and thus produces the classical tango sound. He concluded his program with the most modern piece in his repertoire and the audience recognized "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi. The school community thanked Willi Elz with thunderous applause and it was clear that he would not get away without an encore. Lyrics were quickly handed out and everyone sang a Udo Jürgens medley together. But even after Headmaster Gerd Jung had expressed his thanks and presented a small gift on behalf of the school community, it wasn't over for a long time. Individual pupils and their teachers surrounded Willi Elz in the hall and asked if he could also play songs to set the mood, which the versatile amateur musician spontaneously proved and started a small "after-concert party" with "Et Spanienlied" or "I sing a Liad für di". He was very responsive to the pupils of the Levana School, who didn't want to let him go home and promised to come back next week for the proclamation of the student princess to accompany the supporting program with his accordion in a carnival style.
Once again, it became clear that the school's own concerts encourage pupils to enjoy music. They offer them the opportunity to get to know different styles and instruments and to get a taste of the concert atmosphere. The Levana School is happy to hear from committed musicians who are willing to present their music as part of an in-house concert. (Contact: Levana School 02641/36611).
More information about the school and the previous concerts can be found at www.levana-aw.de.
(M. Meyerhoff)
