Guenadiy Lazarov will perform at the Festival in the Borough on Saturday, September 17. Scheduled for 1 p.m. at the Broad Street Stage, the well-known accordionist and master repair technician will break out his Balkan rhythms and whatever else may move his audience.

By Cathy Miller

All accordions have a soul, or a combination of all the souls of everybody who worked on them. Guenadiy Lazarov’s mission has been to bring back to life as many accordions as possible – don’t keep them in storage, have them restored and played. He said, “You see something that doesn’t play, you put it together so that it plays. It gives people joy for many years.”

Lazarov grew up in Bulgaria, where the accordion maintains a special respect in the culture, although they’re popular all over Europe.

Lazarov shared, “In Debeletz, the village where I grew up, there were several wedding bands. Both my parents were accomplished dancers and rather social people so they were invited to all these good parties where I’d listen to the musicians. It was fascinating. That’s where I first became interested in accordion. My father plays harmonica, both parents sing, but they’re not really musicians.”

He desperately wanted an accordion, but it wasn’t easy to procure one, being such a wildly popular instrument. He had to wait almost a year.

His first accordion was a small Weltmeister 40 bass instrument (accordions are sized according to the number of bass buttons, 12 bass, 48 bass, 72 bass, 120 bass) built in eastern Germany.

The school year had already begun when the accordion arrived so he couldn’t begin lessons right away. Instead, over the summer he taught himself a few songs using only the right side (the keys). Come September, he commenced taking lessons from a local teacher who taught him how to play the bass buttons.

“I would wake up early so I could practice before school,” he laughed. Didn’t that wake the neighbors? “Not really, they would come out and smile at you. It was a small town, everybody knew each other, so I’d play out on the deck and people would actually stop by.”

In the evening, his father’s friends would come over to relax, socialize and have a drink or two. This was the best time to learn new songs. The next day he’d ask his father for help writing out the lyrics to the songs they played the previous night.

He took accordion lessons for one year from a trumpet teacher, but admits to not learning much from the experience, After that, his friends told him to go to Veliko Tarnovo, the former capital of Bulgaria, where he met a teacher who stated he’d first have to learn music theory. He said not to even bring an accordion for the next few months as he’d be studying music theory. That didn’t satisfy Lazarov’s yearning to play.

“I thought it was a waste of my time. I wanted to play the songs that people sing when they get together.” And with that, he began playing by ear.

In 10th grade, he discovered a teacher, a retired musician, who admired Lazarov’s enthusiasm. The pairing was a good fit and he studied with him for four months.

He smiled and said, “I think this is why I finally learned how to feel the beat of the tango. The teacher said, ‘Something’s missing here. Do you have a girlfriend?’ I blushed and said not really. The teacher said, ‘That’s your problem. To play tango you’ve got to be in love, you’ve got to know what it feels like.’ I really wanted to learn to play tango.”

A few months later, Lazarov was drafted into the army. Upon discharge, he attended Sofia University to study physics, a decision he made while in 5th grade. “I also wanted to play accordion in restaurants to earn extra money, but first I had to become a member of the musician’s union there. That’s the only way I’d be allowed to play in restaurants with a band,” he explained, continuing, “They told me I’d have to pass some exams. There’s some music theory, but mostly you just have to play.”

Music theory?

Lazarov phoned his teacher from high school. It was time to learn music theory. “He invited me over and asked if there was anything I remembered from what he taught me. I said yes, I’m going to play some tangos for you. Afterwards, the teacher remarked ‘I think you got it almost right. You sound different. You’ve got a girlfriend!’ I did, and she’s my wife now, Krassi Lazarov a.”

The first three years at Sofia University, even while studying to be a physicist, Lazarov would perform in restaurants – his wife and his sister would sing, he’d play accordion, and he had a band. “It was a lot of fun. We’d interact with people at all the tables, playing various styles of music from different regions of Bulgaria,” he reminisced. They played for tips.

He and his family moved to the US in 1995 and he completed his studies at Temple University.

Lazarov suggested, “When you see a musician, even if they don’t seem very good, give them some tips please. Then they’ll play their best, and maybe they’ll play your favorite song!”

Nowadays, he’ll perform four to five times a year. He enjoys it, thriving on the interaction.

Lazarov, a physicist by trade (Ph.D.) and an accordionist by heart, notes his education and engineering experience have helped in understanding the internal mechanisms of the accordion.

In 2007, he left his physics career (developing and maintaining technology that employed lasers to measure the thickness of the individual layers – thinner than a strand of hair – of a microchip) and opened his repair shop, The Accordion Gallery in Flemington.

Lazarov is one of three or four accordion technicians who truly know the “art of tuning,” where craft meets art. There are many skilled people offering accordion repairs – fixing a sticky key or a reed, patching a leaky bellows. This is the craft part of accordion service.

Voicing the reeds so they respond to the slightest pressure, don’t choke with more pressure, and are in tune – this is the art, he said. As accordions regain popularity, he pointed out, “There’s about four people in the US who know the art of tuning. That’s not enough, we need more people to do this.”

He tries to learn something from every musician and customer he meets. Over the years he’s earned the respect, trust and friendship of many accordionists – from professionals to rookies to hobbyists – completing delicate repairs, maintenance, personalized tuning, precise reed work, and other services on their prized instruments.

Siwa & Figli, a family business founded by Ivan Stanojlovic, opened in 1985 in Belgrade (Yugoslavia). They immigrated to Italy in 1999 where Stanojlovic reopened his company in Castelfidardo, “the accordion capital of the world.” They handcraft 50 accordions a year – all professional grade instruments. Something of a boutique shop, they design custom made accordions as well.

Lazarov began collaborating with Siwa & Figli in 2007. “I do sales, maintenance and service of their accordions in the US. For the first four or five years, I did their marketing too,” adding, “It’s not easy getting started when you have a new brand, even if it’s a great accordion. I know many musicians, my customers, they trust me, so when I make a recommendation, they go with it. They’re the best ambassadors.” Of the Siwa & Figli accordions, he said, “They’re lovely to look at, and more lovely to listen to,” noting his well-stocked display cases. His long relationship with Siwa & Figli is deeper than just business, they are also friends.

Between repairs, maintenance and restorations, does Lazarov build accordions? He offered a simple answer to a complex process, “I cannot build an accordion from scratch.”

Lazarov spoke at length about the science of music and the accordion. This writer was lucky enough to experience a few live demonstrations when he broke out a black Siwa & Figli Champion compact accordion.

Balkan music, Italian, French, Polish, Cajun – there’s no lack of diversity. Whatever the style, it can be played on the same accordion, based on the adjustments Lazarov makes to deliver the sound the musician wants. It’s a matter of reconfiguration, how he tunes reeds so they can be in unison for jazz, balkan, or concert music. Or introduce a bit of out-of-phase pitch for a musette or vibrato effect. Cajun is a different flavor, so the recesses on the boxes are square making a sharper sound. He explained, “The sound of an accordion is a combination of how I tune and how the musicians play.” The reeds are the heart and soul of the accordion.

“We all respond to different melodic patterns, rhythmic structures and chord progressions, oftentimes these trigger memories from childhood,” he continued. “The art of folk music is to give people a little time to assimilate what they’re hearing, break it down into that rhythmic structure, then offer a variety of styles to keep it interesting.”

Lazarov then played a series of snippets from different songs, demonstrating a progression of musical styles to effect mood and movement.

So music evokes childhood memories? Accordions drift in and out of fashion. Their golden years in the US, were the 1940s, 50s and early 60s, when they began to fall out of favor.

The baby boomer generation grew up with accordions, many played them. But then they joined the workforce, they started a family. After retirement they rediscovered the accordion and they make the call to Guenadiy Lazarov to have it repaired. He calls this their chance at “redemption.” They can pass their enjoyment on to the grandkids. He points out, “We can listen to many types of music, but we cannot run from ourselves. The music we heard as kids is still in some hidden sacred place.”

“We’re experiencing an accordion revival and hopefully accordionists will respond to this revival by offering music lessons,” he suggested.

Lazarov lamented, “Not only do we need accordion technicians, but we need accordion teachers and schools. The only active school, Acme Accordion School, is in Pitman, NJ. Run by Joanna Darrow, a world renowned professional musician, she teaches students of all ages and levels.

Proudest achievement? Lazarov answered, “In retrospect, with my wife Krassi, we raised two boys who are young men now, 30 and 22. We are proud of them. When the youngest was born I kind of grew up in my own eyes. I thought, I’m publishing papers and doing all this research, but that’s nothing compared to having a child.

“Moving my family from one country across the ocean to another one and finding a home was a major achievement. Yes, there have been some challenges!

“The other big thing was being able to put my personal ambitions aside. When I came here I wanted to prove to the world how good a physicist I was. But I wasn’t prepared to pay the price. It was not the life for me or my family. In walking away from physics, I had to accept that I might miss the opportunity for a Nobel Prize. I realized I didn’t need to prove anything to anyone.

“In accordion restoration I have an opportunity to implement my ideas, to be part of research and development in making all these accordions. I was lucky to partner with Siwa & Figli. I saw what makes an instrument exceptional and what makes it different. That company sells some of the best accordions built today, that can compete with the accordions from the 50s and 60s. This is hugely satisfying because I know, in this particular area, I could probably be among the best.”

When asked about his spare time, he said there’s so many interesting things to do. He has books to read. He wants to learn new music, saying, “If I could learn a song a week, that would be a dream.” He wants to bring his playing up to the next level.

Come hear Guenadiy Lazarov perform at the Festival in the Borough on Saturday, September 17. He’ll appear on the Broad Street Stage at 1 p.m. with a Siwa & Figli full size Champion accordion. The Festival runs from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. with three stages and plenty of vendors throughout downtown Washington.

For more information on The Accordion Gallery, visit www.AccordionGallery.com
For an appointment to meet with Guenadiy Lazarov, call 973-770-6877