Festival Wrap-Up, Guest Blogger Nathan Koci

Nathan Koci

Nathan Koci is MATA's Operations and Development Manager, in addition to being a freelance hornist and accordionist in NYC. Due to volcanic travel matters, Koci performed on the closing night of the festival with L'arsenale, filling in for the Italian accordionist Luca Piovesan. :::::I have had the good fortune to be part of the MATA team for the past 8 or so months as Operations Manager, and - more recently - Development Manager as well. 2010 was my inaugural Festival, and I couldn't have been happier to be involved. Of course, up until a few days prior to the festival, I assumed my duties that week would be purely operational and logistical in nature. Make copies here, update website there, 6 black coffees and a non-fat latte for the band, if you will.Volcanoes change everything.I was actually at an artists' retreat center in the upstate of South Carolina the weekend before the Festival began. Surrounded by mountainous beauty and creative types, I admittedly had not been keeping up with the news of the world. So when MATA Executive Director Missy Mazzoli telephoned me over the weekend, telling me of an Icelandic volcano that was wreaking havoc on the travel plans of our guest Italian ensemble, L'arsenale, I couldn't help but assume a bemused tone, jokingly asking her if she wanted me to fill in with my solo accordion set of French Waltzes and American Country Songs."Well, kind of..." was her response.And with that, my logistical duties at MATA were appended with the really fantastic opportunity to pinch hit on the accordion for L'arsenale's Luca Piovesan, who, because of the volcanic ash, was stuck in Europe along with most of the rest of the ensemble. And while we were all truly disappointed that the full ensemble was unable to perform on the festival as planned, I was fortunate to get a little lemonade out of the situation, with a chance to make some really beautiful music with some great new friends.My love for the accordion has grown deeper and deeper since I began playing the instrument roughly 6 years ago. The European style of playing, particularly in the contemporary music world, is something that is not oft seen on this side of the pond, and getting the chance to play new works by Filippo Perocco and Lorenzo Tomio certainly opened my eyes to the possibilities the instrument can have in a chamber ensemble. Quiet and sparse, but rife with textures and glimmers of color, both pieces were challenging in the pianississimo-est sense of the word. Even so, the performance seemed to me to be a great success, carried out in typical NYC fashion, by the very seat of our collective pants.After seeing 3 nights of amazing concerts by everyone from Evan Parker and Matt Wright, Calder, Pamplemousse, Lisa Moore and Argento, I thought the Italian works were a great close to the festival. With such a truly diverse make-up of approaches, ensembles, ideas, and styles of music over the course of the 4 days, it seemed perfectly fitting that the closing pieces were performed by an ad hoc group of performers, with myself and other NYC freelancers joining Filippo Perocco and Livia Rado from L'arsenale, along with musicians from Argento Chamber Ensemble. A diverse festival capped with a diverse and slightly unintentional but no less talented ensemble, serendipity lurking in every corner.2011 or bust.