2023
Authors: Barbara Steinger & Mario Strebel, Accordion School Aarau
With a chair and a music stand, Barbara Steinger opened her Accordion School Aarau on 14 March 2015, on Milchgasse in Aarau. With the idea of running a somewhat different school, with as many hand-pulled instruments as possible, with an interesting and broad offer.
The school started with the accordion and the typical Swiss folk instrument, the Schwyzerörgeli. As more and more applications came in, she expanded her team with Magdalena Irmann, who teaches accordion. This gave Barbara Steinger a little more freedom and she was able to add another instrument to her range. She started with the licence training on the Styrian harmonica at Michlbauer in Reutte. As she has always been fascinated by the concertina, she bought an instrument and taught herself to play on this small Irish instrument by self-study. In the meantime, the concertina is already another important instrument at her school and her first book "Swiss & German Folksongs for Anglo Concertina" is on the market.
Mario Strebel
With the addition of Mario Strebel to the team, the idea arose to include the bandoneon in the programme.
Trained as an accordionist, Mario Strebel always had the dream of being able to play the wistful melodies of the tango and the great music of Astor Piazzolla on the bandoneon.
Through the Aarau Accordion School, contact was made with the Bandonion4Friends.eV association, which revived the AA instruments in Klingental. Mario Strebel is allowed to play one of these top instruments. After a visit by Anja Rockstroh in Switzerland, she arranged the teacher Yvonne Hahn, with whom he is now in training for the Rhenish bandoneon. Yvonne Hahn is not only an excellent concert bandoneon player, but also a teacher who is constantly developing new methods for learning the bandoneon in a playful and structured way. Yvonne Hahn is the author of the new training method "Bandoneon - Exercises and Games for Beginners", of which two volumes are already available.
With our start into the 8th business year, the Accordion School is now offering new bandoneon lessons. Our first workshop is planned for Saturday 29 April 23 and the first registrations have already been received. We are very much looking forward to taking the beautiful musical world of the bandoneon from Aarau to Switzerland with the support of the Bandonion4Friends.eV association. We would like to inspire not only adults but also children for this great instrument.
The start has already been a great success.