Over the years, Virginia has nurtured a variety of arts and crafts - from beekeeping and quilting to making farm implements and mole sauce.
The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities wants to keep these traditions alive through an apprenticeship program pairing young people with old masters willing to share their skills.
“No, no. They’re below the finished or special export they call it now, but anyway they’re decent.”
Several times a day, Dale Wise is on the phone, talking with people from around the world about accordions. He’s been playing since the age of 11.
“When I was growing up, every kid on the block played so to speak. We go, in America, in 35-40-year cycles, whether it’s clothing, music, hairstyles, they come and they go. Thankfully, we’re on the upswing with the accordion and so it’s a very exciting time, and so this happening we need accordion repair people.”
He figures there are fewer than 200 people who can fix an accordion, an instrument that combines blocks of reeds with a bellows that blows air across them, controlled by a series of keys and buttons.
“And so if one would blow In the bottom of the reed block, it would sound like a harmonica. If we have four sets of reeds, and we have 41 keys, it could be viewed as a very large instrument in terms of what sounds it plays low to high. I don’t know if it would have the 88 key possibility of a piano, but this piano is portable, that’s for sure.”
The challenge, he says, is that reeds are held in place with a combination of bees wax and rosin - a mixture that dries out after 35 years or so.
“The big problem in repair is dealing with replacing the bees wax , which is a very artsy endeavor.”
Wise, who lives in rural Orange County with his wife and about 200 accordions, has played for six presidents and several celebrities including Sonny Bono and Charlton Heston. More importantly, he says, the instrument has also allowed him to earn a living.
“It’s been very good to me over the years, raised my family, have a nice home, and hope to keep it going as much as possible.”
Historians believe the accordion was invented in China 5,000 years ago - traveling to Europe across the old Silk Road. They’re still made in Asia, but Wise believes the best accordions come from Italy. At one time, he worked for an Italian company, designing accordions, and he’s traveled the world with his 22-pound instrument.
Over the years, He and his wife have offered free weekend seminars in accordion repair ,instructing folks from as far away as Russia and Australia.
Now, Wise looks forward to sharing his skills with Lori Sallade - an apprentice in the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Program. This year it will welcome six other newbies to old-time traditions, including blues and gospel singing, bluegrass fiddle, blacksmithing, salt making and the playing of mandolins and balalaikas.
