For generations of Italian immigrants, accordion music squeezed together old world memories with a growing new world community. The music and masters that made the accordion an icon of Italian American culture will be explored in an evening concert preceded by an afternoon symposium at the CUNY Graduate Center on Friday, March 23. The concert will take place from 7:30 to 9 p.m. and the symposium will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. "The Accordion as an Icon of Italian American Culture" will be held in The Graduate Center’s acoustically acclaimed Baisley Powell Elebash Recital Hall, at 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street. A $15 admission ($7.50 with CUNY or senior ID) covers both events. For further information call 1-212-817-8215.

The concert will feature performances by accordionists Henry Doktorski, Robert Young McMahan, and William Schimmel and include the music of four seminal Italian/Italian American accordionists: Pietro Deiro, Pietro Frosini, Charles Magnante, and Paul Creston.

One of the highlights of the symposium will be an appearance by Count Guido Roberto Deiro, son of Guido Deiro and nephew of Pietro Deiro, both great Italian accordionists. Count Deiro, whose title dates back to the 12th century, will donate the family archives of Guido Deiro memorabilia to The Graduate Center’s Center for the Study of Free Reed Instruments. (The accordion is a free reed instrument.) Featured presenters at the symposium include Peter Muir, speaking on "The Deiro Recordings: Italo-American Issues, 1910-1933"; William Schimmel, whose talk on a leading accordion manufacturer is titled "Excelsior! The Best and Nothing But the Best"; and James J. Periconi, who will explore: "Vergogna e Risorgimento: The Secret Life of an Italian American Accordionist."

In addition to the Center for the Study of Free Reed Instruments, "The Accordion as an Icon of Italian American Culture" is being presented by The Graduate Center’s Office of Continuing Education and Public Programs and The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute at Queens College. Additional cosponsors include the The Graduate Center’s Center for the Humanities, the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation, and the Ph.D.-D.M.A. Program in Music. The latter ranks fourth among all Ph.D. programs in the country, and is first in New York City and State.

The Graduate Center is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York, the largest urban university in the U.S. The only consortium of its kind in the nation, The Graduate Center draws its faculty of more than 1,600 members mainly from the CUNY senior colleges and cultural and scientific institutions throughout New York City.

Established in 1961, The Graduate Center has grown to an enrollment of nearly 4,000 students in 32 doctoral programs and seven master's degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The Graduate Center also houses 28 research centers and institutes and administers the CUNY Baccalaureate Program.

According to a recent National Research Council report, more than a third of The Graduate Center's rated programs rank among the nation's top 20 at public and private institutions, nearly a quarter are among the top ten when compared to publicly supported institutions alone, and more than half are among the top five programs at publicly supported institutions in the northeast.

Further information on The Graduate Center's programs and activities can be found on its Web site at: www.gc.cuny.edu.

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