Present Joys

It’s been a wild couple of weeks since I graduated college. I’ll fill you in on more details soon, I’m sure—but for now, I want to share some pictures from a very exciting accordion-buying expedition I went on this week!

For a long time, I’d been planning to buy myself a new accordion after I graduated college—a brand-new, expensive, serious accordion. My teacher recommended I visit Castiglione, a shop near Detroit, Michigan, one of the few accordion stores in the country. And relatively close at only about four hours away!

So Dempsey and I drove up there on thursday afternoon. We spent the rest of the day with some good friends and spent the night at their house. Friday morning, D and I headed a few miles further north to visit Castiglione—a bland, unassuming building housing a true accordion mecca! There were shelves and shelves of both new and used accordions, ranging from $500 to over $10,000. There were also stacks and stacks of old accordion cases in every sort of color and style imaginable. It really was a feast for the eyes.

I listened to a bunch of different things and tried a bunch of different things and ended up on this one—a Castiglione-branded Scandalli accordion, dry-tuned, with 13 treble switches and 9 bass switches. It’s heavier than my old accordion at 25 lbs., but worth it! It’s smooth.

This new accordion isn’t as ostentatious as my old one, and I was a little sad about that—but I still ended up with a lot of rhinestones. And the spectacular sound makes up for the unassuming exterior. So—I’ve finally got a really serious accordion. It’s going to take some time to get used to the extra size and extra weight, but it will be a pleasure. I’m completely thrilled to continue learning and improving with this beautiful instrument.