Lloyd La Vaux: poet of the accordion

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Lloyd La Vaux
POET OF THE ACCORDION



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A young man with an engaging personality, a fine musical background and imagination, galvanized the audience by playing the accordion as possibly none had ever heard it played before.
Victoria Daily Times Victoria, British Columbia


Introducing a new kind of concert artist
Lloyd La Vaux has scored a sensation as an accordion soloist, playing the gamut from Bach to Gershwin and Richard Rodgers, on twenty-three triumphant coast-to-coast tours.

He was born in New York City, and began his musical studies at the age of five under his father who was then touring the United States and Canada on the Keith, Pantages and Loew Circuits.  After a short while, Lloyd became part of the theatre presentation until he returned to New York to pursue his studies.  He didn't dream that in just ten years he would be playing as a soloist in Carnegie Hall.…

One of the first graduates with honors from Mayor La Guardia's High School of Music and Art, Lloyd enrolled at Brooklyn College where he followed a major study of foreign languages and literature.  Concurrent with these studies was his intensive work in harmony and composition with the late Pietro Frosini and work in the drama with the American Theatre Wing came later.

With the advent of World War II, Lloyd wangled an under-age enlistment in the Allied Intelligence Service and, as an intelligence agent, accompanied the first wave of shock troops in the Normandy invasion.  He was decorated with the Silver Star for gallantry in action in Northern France.  In his own words: Toward September of 1944, I must have been a little less intelligent than my London mailing address indicated.  Volunteering for an intelligence mission alone in advance of Allied fighting lines, Lloyd ran into some difficulties and was, on September 7, 1944, arrested by German police forces.

After some of the most fabulous experiences on record, he landed in Stalag IIIC in Prussia from which he promptly escaped in January of 1945.  The return trip was made the hard way—through Eastern Germany, Poland, the Soviet Union to Odessa, then Istambul, Greece and Naples and finally back to Paris …

Since 1945, Lloyd has made twenty-three nation-wide tours of the United States and Canada.  Between concert tours, he devotes his time to arranging, composing (both musical and literary) and, according to him, probably the worst painting since the days of Charlemagne.—His own!

Among his published works are Three Poem Preludes; Concerto No. 1 in D Minor for solo accordion and symphony orchestra; Monody (an orchestral tone poem); Elégie for a Young Soldier; En Souvenir; Les Grands Cimetières sous la Lune (a song setting to a French poem celebrating the fallen American soldiers in Normandy; it has had numerous radio and concert performances in Europe); many poems in both English and French and a novel in English give one an idea of the creative activity of this young man …

Lloyd is the only solo accordionist whose tours are directed by the top concert bureaus in the United States.  His musicianship, artistry, technique, and engaging personality always win an ovation for his performances.  He is truly THE POET OF THE ACCORDION.

AUDIENCES FROM COAST - TO - COAST HAIL LLOYD LAVAUX …






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Some recent solo appearances of Lloyd La Vaux

NEW YORK CITY:

Carnegie Hall
Manhattan Center
Hotel Statler
Waldorf-Astoria
Hotel Astor



RADIO:
WOR, WABC, WHN, WHLI



TELEVISION:

National Broadcasting Co.
Dumont Television Network



CHICAGO:

8th Street Theater
Palmer House



DETROIT:

Masonic Temple
Music Hall
Hotel Statler



SALT LAKE CITY:
Tribune Auditorium



TULSA:
Convention Hall



DENVER:
Phipps Auditorium



CITY CONCERT SERIES:

Dow Chemical Symphony Series (Midland, Mich.)
Paris, Tennessee
Rupert, Idaho
Washington, Georgia
Indianola, Miss.
Yazoo City, Miss.
Cedar City, Utah
Jerome County, Idaho
Chowan County, North Carolina
Cheraw, South Carolina
Rainelle, West Virginia
Franklin, West Virginia
Richwood, West Virginia
Carollton, Georgia
General Electric Elex Series
Oglebay Institute Amphitheatre Series (Wheeling, West Va.)



COLLEGES:

Florida State University
University of North Carolina
Alabama Polytechnic Institute
Eastern Montana College
Colorado State College
University of British Columbia (Victoria)
Idaho State College
Virginia State College
Georgia Military Academy
Emory University (Oxford and Valdosta)
Arizona State College
Southern Missionary College
Randolph-Macon Academy
Maryland State Teachers' College
East Carolina College
Connecticut State Teachers' College
Abbot Academy
Union College (Kentucky)
Morris Harvey College (Charleston, W. Va.)
Florida A. & M. College (Tallahassee)
Milligan College (Tennessee)
State Teachers' Colleges, Milwaukee and Oshkosh
Central Michigan College
Dixie College (Utah)
Middle Tennessee State College
Eastern New Mexico University
Ricks College (Rexburg, Idaho)
Dunbar University (Little Rock, Arkansas)
Snow College (Utah)
Central Washington College
Eastern Washington College
Laredo College (Texas)
Davis and Elkins College
Tennessee Polytechnic Institute
Pueblo College (Colorado)
Alabama State Teachers College
Roberts Wesleyan College (Rochester, N. Y.)
St. Norbert's College (Green Bay, Wis.)
St. Joseph's College
Mount St. Mary's College
Cardinal Stritch College (Milwaukee)
Loretto Heights College (Denver)
St. Francis College (Ft. Wayne, Ind.)
Concord College
University of Corpus Christi
Morris Brown College (Atlanta)
Oklahoma City University



A FEW GLIMPSES BEHIND THE SCENES IN THE PREPARATION OF LA VAUX CONCERTS:


Exact manuscripts are carefully transcribed, fingered and edited from original sources by Mr. La Vaux.



Work in the allied fields of painting and literature contributes to the make up of the finished artist.



Conducting to demonstrate a fine point of interpretation in one of Mr. La Vaux' orchestral compositions.






All of the selections played by Mr. La Vaux have been arranged by him for the accordion IN THEIR ENTIRETY, and are performed on the La Vaux Model accordion—an instrument designed by the artist with which he commands a range of four-and-one-half octaves of single tones on the left-hand keyboard alone.  This innovation enables Mr. La Vaux to perform authentically the music of the masters—an act generally associated with concert artists, but seldom with accordionists.



TWO TYPICAL PROGRAMS

A.


Overture to The Messiah
Handel


Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (organ)
Bach


Sonata No. 15 in C Major (K 545)
Mozart


Impromptu, Op. 142, No. 2
Schubert


Prelude to Tristan und Isolde or
Wagner


Largo from New World Symphony
Dvorak


Italian Caprice or
Tschaikowsky


Tale of the Prince Kalender (Scheherezade)
Rimsky-Korsakoff


Three Poem Preludes (based on poems by Fred Portes)
La Vaux


Elégie for a Young Soldier
La Vaux


On the Trail (Grand Canyon Suite)
Grofé


Bear Dance
Bartók


A Tribute to George Gershwin
arr. La Vaux





B.


Prelude No. XVII (Well-Tempered Clavichord)
Bach


Variations in F Major
Mozart


Scotch Dances
Beethoven


Moments Musicaux, Op. 94, Nos. 3 and 5
Schubert


Vesti La Giubba (I Pagliacci)
Leoncavallo


Vienna Life
Strauss—La Vaux


Dance of the Hours (La Gioconda)
Ponchielli


En Souvenir
La Vaux


Clair de Lune
Debussy


Moments with Victor Herbert
arr. La Vaux


Malaguena (Andalucia)
Lecuona


The Music of Richard Rodgers
arr. La Vaux