the category was created during the first meeting between the CpM team
and Roland at the Alexandria Virginia Coupe when Akira came to see what
we were doing and how the introduction of the new fr7 and fr3 were being
recieved in this old world event setting
He was so pleased with the buzz we created that he made financial commitments to
partner with future events. This made the category possible, and CP, who
first touched a Roland at this event, then won the first competition at the Australia CpM.
it carried on for awhile, but everyone from those days is gone from roland,
the company has gone private actually, much of the direction has shifted,
so i would assume the Roland Sponsorship and financial support have ended..
after Roland Europe closed i never heard from Akira again..
while the FR7 had been out for about a year, it had some dealers and 2 of them
were at Alexandria with the product, but this was the first time Roland directly
participated at this international event and it paid off big time,
really putting the new digital accordions on everyones radar and garnering
interest worldwide. The head official overseing the Chinese accordion orchestra
and delegation couldn't stay away from my corner of the event. The
Roland's held their own day after day with the acoustics to the amazement
of everyone. a favourite memory is Frank Busso Senior strolling the room
where i held court and we traded Songs for an hour or so, almost like
an old fashioned battle of the bands, but in a friendly manner that probably made
everyone hungry for Veal Parmegan and Gnocci. that guy knows how
to stroll and has a great smile and perfect tiiming and touch on the keys..
i remember playing Petit Waltz on the Roland and Stanley Darrow from
ACME school was so delighted.. he was a great guy and did a lot for the Accordion
the only break i got the whole event was when Cory started going to town
on my white FR3, and i could see this was gonna be awhile so i just said
"don't stop till i get back" and wandered around a bit
it was fun too, when i spotted Faithe in the hallway one morning on my way to
the display area, i did a quick capriccio Italienne with the Violin on
high note priority.. she came out of the String's side of Music originally
and that was her first love, but she came to love the Accordion world just as much
