The age of concertina playing is alive and well in Stanley Wisconsin.
Hosted Sunday at the Stanley Community Center by the Stanley Area Historical Society, the third annual “Reminiscing the Concertina” event from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. drew a large crowd.
Overlapping with a Packers game and taking place in Chapman Park, the event costing $5 to attend saw 75 to 80 people show up, with event proceeds put towards renovation of the D.R. Moon Memorial Library.
Present for veteran concertina players on Sunday were Tina Williams, Walter Wartolec, Alex Kulesa, and George Dums, better known as “Mr. Concertina.”
With lemonade, coffee, and cookies also available, the event to reminisce the concertina saw an appreciative crowd, including dancing.
So what’s a concertina? Glad you asked. The concertina is similar to an accordion, but also different in important ways.
A form of working class folk entertainment in the pre-radio age, the concertina derives from a region of the now German-Czech Republic border, in and about Chemitz and other cities in the German state of Saxony.
Often handmade, the instrument is comprised of two ends with buttons joined by a central air chamber, or “squeezebox.” Produced in different keys, the working class instrument lost out in Europe under communism but lived on among the generations of immigrants come from Europe to the United States.
With songs and melodies ranging form the somber and more reverent to jovial and party centered, the concertina provides a versatile music base from which to draw and learn.
Operated in principle by pressing buttons in conjunction with moving the squeezebox, the slightest change can produce extraordinarily different sounds, hence the name.
An instrument taking both skill and effort, those interested in taking concertina lessons may call Alex Kulesa at 715-613-3132.