The weekend before his 11th birthday, Los Gatos resident Colin Kennedy was honored with a $500 scholarship at the Cotati Accordion Festival.
He also got to perform at the North Bay event Sunday.
“It was pretty nerve wracking,” he said, explaining what it felt like to play “Echoes of Vienna” by Joseph Zampiceni. “That is the first crowd I’ve actually played in front of, as matter of fact.”
Kennedy’s journey to this initial burst of success has involved plenty of practice, as well as a little inspiration.
It started when his mom, Natalya Lyukevich, born in Belarus, met local artist Paul Tumason at a show and bonded over a love of Russian culture.
Having grown up in a Lithuanian-Czechoslovakian family, Tumason was aware of the beauty of Eastern-European and Western-Asian musical strains.
“I played the accordion ‘bayan music’ to show her what I loved about Russian music, and the Cossack Choir,” he said. “Some of the great accordionists in the world are Russian.”
Kennedy had been taking piano lessons, but he enjoyed listening to the accordion sounds Tumason showed him.
When his mom suggested he try learning the instrument, he figured, why not?
But it wasn’t so easy to find a teacher, Lyukevich says.
“First I Googled ‘accordion lessons,’ and the first one that popped up was in Oakland, and I was like, I’m not gonna drive to Oakland for accordion lessons,” she said. “Then, I posted on Next Door. I said, ‘Is there someone in the area who could teach an 8-year-old the accordion?’ And for two weeks, nothing—crickets.”
But then, someone replied to Lyukevich, saying her husband could give Kennedy some pointers to get him started.
That’s how Kennedy started learning accordion from Kevin Fernandez, the president of The Mad Woodchuck.
He went in with an open mind about the instrument.
“I mean, I found it interesting, but not much besides that,” Kennedy said. “I didn’t think anything bad about it. I didn’t think anything good.”
Kennedy raced through the fundamentals and quickly outgrew a “12 bass” accordion.
Kennedy and his mom went shopping for a “120 bass” and met Valdet Jakubovic, an accordion restorer in San Jose. He suggested Kennedy get in contact with Mike Zampiceni, an accomplished instructor.
Zampiceni took Kennedy’s playing to new heights.
To learn the accordion, you have to put your mind to it, Kennedy says.
“Anyone can find a sense of flow with any instrument,” he said. “It’s just a matter of practicing.”
His mom says sometimes he likes to practice on the porch.
“When he does, actually people do stop by and give him compliments,” she said. “So, he’s kind of famous in the neighborhood now, but in a good way. We haven’t been hearing any complaints.”
She was pleased to hear how much he took to the instrument.
“Colin said, ‘Mom, this is so easy for me.’ I just remember, because this is an overly complicated instrument,” she said. “You play treble here; you play bass here. You have to work the bellows. It’s just lots going on.”
Kennedy ended up getting a scholarship from the San Francisco Accordion Club. And his mom took him to the 2019 Cotati Accordion Festival. That’s where he saw Cory Pesaturo, Gary Blair and Great Morgani perform.
The festival wasn’t held in 2020 due to the pandemic, but this year Kennedy decided to apply to its eighth annual student scholarship program. He was up against contestants in a category of youth up to 18 years of age, as each sent in footage of them playing their best pieces.
“My strategy was to play it as well as I can,” he explained.
Kennedy ended up winning the first prize, the $500 Anthony and Mary Facciuto Scholarship.
His mom says returning to the festival was an amazing experience for her son.
“It was a wonderful festival,” she said. “He got a lot of positive feedback and encouragement.”
Kennedy says he enjoyed meeting all the interesting people and trying tasty eats from the food trucks.
While he’s busked downtown Santa Cruz before, he’d never been a scheduled performer anywhere.
His mom says he even had a few “celebrity moments” where people recognized him from the program while wandering around.
Kennedy made sure to practice Saturday night before his Sunday performance.
Being on stage was a unique feeling, he remembers.
“I felt like an elephant doing a tap dance,” he said, adding it was an amazing experience. “I’m looking forward to playing next year.”
The experience taught him a lot about the performance aspect of playing accordion, he says.
“You can be nervous, but it’s not good to show that you’re nervous,” he said. “It’s what I figured out after the performance.”
His mom could barely contain her own nerves—and excitement.
“I wanted him to do well, and he did,” she said. “I was so proud of him.”
[…] when Primon picked up the Sept. 29 issue of the Los Gatan and read the story of Colin Kennedy, the 11-year-old local boy who was recently honored with a scholarship by the prestigious Cotati […]