If you thought only polka rhythms could be squeezed from an accordion, local virtuoso Nina Slyusar-Wegmann's Saturday concert will change your mind.
By JOHN FLEMING
Published August 14, 2003
[Times photo: Ken Helle]
Accordionist Nina Slyusar-Wegmann, who began studying the instrument at age 9 and achieved musical success as part of a duo in her native Russia, now is in charge of the music program at Tampa’s Jesuit High School.
Nina Slyusar-Wegmann is like a prophet without honor in her own land - or, at least, her adopted land. The Russian-born Slyusar-Wegmann, who lives in Tampa, is a virtuoso accordionist, but classical music lovers in the United States have little appreciation for her instrument.
"People only know it as a polka instrument," she says. "When I say that I play accordion, people smile, which is a good thing - it's good to smile - but it's not a clown instrument. I'm not a circus performer."
Slyusar-Wegmann, 35, breezes through a Haydn sonata one afternoon last week in the band room of Jesuit High School, where she is the music teacher. She draws a rich, almost organlike sonority from the keyboard, bellows, register stops and other features of her Bugari accordion, an Italian instrument she purchased on a recent visit to Moscow.
"This is the best brand in the world right now," she says. "It has many sound colors: bassoon, clarinet, oboe, concertina, flute, organ, bandoneon. In the left hand, I can play oom-pah-pah or I can play chromatically, giving me the ability to use both hands, like a pianist. This is the difference between an accordionist in contemporary music and a classically trained accordionist."
Saturday, Slyusar-Wegmann shares the bill with pianist Rena Massey at the Tarpon Springs Cultural Center, a cozy venue that seats just 84. The accordionist's program ranges from Slavic folk music to a tango by Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla.
Slyusar-Wegmann started playing accordion at age 9 in her hometown of Vitebsk, Belarus, then a Soviet republic and now independent. In Russia, the accordion has an honored tradition and occupies a position in the instrumental hierarchy akin to the piano or violin. Her parents encouraged her to take it up.
"My older sister already played piano," she says. "The accordion was the most common instrument for singing and dancing at family gatherings. It is a very portable, very convenient instrument for all those occasions, so it's good to have a child who plays this instrument."
She took the accordion and ran with it, going on to study at conservatories in Minsk and Moscow and earning the equivalent of a doctorate in music. She and a schoolmate, Lena Zybo, also a top-level accordionist, formed a duo (Nina & Lena) that won international competitions and toured Russia and Europe.
Then she met a Tampa musician, bass player Robert Wegmann, while he was visiting a mutual friend in Moscow. Over the next couple of years, they corresponded, fell in love and were married in Moscow. She moved with him to Tampa in 1996.
Slyusar-Wegmann speaks English well now, but learning the language was an adventure, with help from her patient husband and working the cash register at Green Shift, an alternative music and comics store in Tampa.
Over the past five years, she has worked her way into a full-time post at Jesuit, responsible for all things musical at the school from band to music appreciation.
"Band was familiar, even though I am not a wind or brass player, but when I started teaching music appreciation, it was difficult," she says. "All of a sudden I had 20, 25 teenagers in class who don't care about music. I had to learn so many new terms. Even composers' names I had to learn how to pronounce correctly in English. It's a totally different thing from Russian. I lived with the dictionary."
While she was making her way as a classroom teacher, Slyusar-Wegmann continued to perform. She and Zybo recorded two CDs on Wegmann's label, Fumiko Records (www.fumikorecords.com) and she has played in various of her husband's prog rock projects. She returns to Russia often for concerts with Zybo, who lives in Moscow, but being apart is hard on the partnership.
"This is the biggest problem in our life because we live on opposite sides of the planet," she says. "It is difficult because we have to practice apart and then when we get together have to spend time to blend our sounds. We were big stars, and now we kind of struggle for existence."
In the Tampa Bay area, Slyusar-Wegmann has had her share of notable performances. At 6-foot-1, with long red hair, she was a striking presence in the premiere of Anton Coppola's opera Sacco & Vanzetti, playing during a party scene. She was a soloist with the Florida Orchestra in Dominick Argento's Valentino Dances.
In concerts, she likes to show off the range of her instrument. "It's always interesting for people because they do not realize that you can play classical music, for example, on accordion," she says, citing transcriptions of Bach, Rachmaninoff and Mendelssohn that she plays. "I try to do that because I'm propaganding my instrument in a good way."
Nor is she above playing to the stereotypes of the instrument, such as her performance of theStar-Spangled Banner for a Polish-American celebration at a Devil Rays game at Tropicana Field.
"I've never played in front of such a huge audience, so many thousands of people," she says. "I was very nervous because you're not allowed to make one mistake. It was an amazing experience."
The accordion is no longer the square instrument of Lawrence Welk and wheezing renditions of Lady of Spain. Thanks to its use in zydeco and klezmer and other world music styles, the instrument is enjoying something of a vogue.
Contrary to popular belief, a good repertoire for classical accordion exists, including works by contemporary Russian composers such as Vladislav Zolotaryov and Sofia Gubaidulina. Some important American composers wrote for the instrument, including Roy Harris, Henry Cowell and Alan Hovhaness. Carmine Coppola (Anton's late brother) wrote a concerto for accordion and orchestra.
No composer did more for the instrument than Piazzolla, who revolutionized the tango by melding it with classical and jazz forms. Slyusar-Wegmann's dream is to play a Piazzolla piece with the Florida Orchestra. There are a number of good arrangements of his music for accordion and orchestra.
"The tango is natural for the instrument," she says. "It is the soul of tango music. The accordion speaks of love and life and death and passion; everything is there. It's a wonderful opportunity for an accordionist to play with an orchestra."
PREVIEW
Accordionist Nina Slyusar-Wegmann and pianist Rena Massey perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Tarpon Springs Cultural Center, 101 S Pinellas Ave., Tarpon Springs. Tickets: $10, $12. (727) 942-5605.
