Young Musicians of America — Accordion School Recordings

Description

Young Musicians of America — Accordion School Recordings

These recordings come from the Young Musicians of America (YMA), an accordion school in Pueblo, Colorado, founded and led by concert accordionist Mike Aman. The tapes were preserved by Marvin F. Steward (1944–2021), who was both a student and the director of the YMA Junior Band in Pueblo. They were acquired from his estate and digitized as part of this archive. The collection includes the annual Winter Concert, practice sessions, student solos, and ensemble rehearsals captured on reel-to-reel tape — a rare window into the daily life of a working accordion studio in the early 1960s.

Mike Aman studied at Pueblo Junior College and the Eastman School of Music, and trained under Charles Magnante, one of the most celebrated accordionists of the twentieth century and an NBC staff musician. Aman became known for performing classical repertoire on the accordion — including Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 — at a time when the instrument was rarely taken seriously as a concert solo voice. His biography in the 1963 program argues that audiences who heard him play were "amazed at the capabilities of the Accordion as a solo instrument" and calls for its recognition "as a legitimate concert instrument."

The YMA school operated multiple bands organized by level and location, each with its own director. The 1963 Winter Concert program lists a T.V. & Kinder Club directed by Aman himself, Junior and Intermediate Bands in Pueblo, a Concert Band, a Symphony Band, and a Park Band based in Denver. Other instructors included Nick De Marco and John De France. The school had dozens of active students performing solos and ensemble pieces ranging from "White Christmas" and "Winter Wonderland" to Handel's Messiah and classical overtures.

In 1976, Aman purchased the Monarch Accordion Company, originally founded in Denver in 1946, and relocated YMA to Colorado Springs. Under his direction, his student orchestras won first place at every major U.S. accordion competition — the American Accordionists' Association, Accordion Teachers' Guild, Accordion Federation of North America, and Rocky Mountain Accordion Society. In 1984, one of his students became a national solo champion. He and his wife Margie continue to teach, and he serves on the board of the American Accordionists' Association.

These tapes date from the tail end of what historians call America's "Golden Age of the Accordion." From the 1930s through the early 1960s, accordions outsold guitars, with over 100,000 sold annually. Thousands of studios like YMA operated across the country, offering lessons to children and organizing student orchestras, recitals, and competitions. The rise of rock and roll triggered a sharp decline, making recordings like these — from a thriving school with an active student body and a classically trained director pushing the instrument's boundaries — a snapshot of a musical culture that was about to disappear.

The original printed program from the December 22, 1963 Winter Concert at Memorial Hall in Pueblo survives and is included in the images for this entry.