The OTHER Accordion Guy

Photo by Richard Lautens, Toronto Star.

I’m not the only accordion guy in town, and I’m glad to see some younger folks taking up the instrument. Here’s an excerpt from a Toronto Star article titled Squeezing Life Into His ‘Hood:

Ronen Segall uses his bright red accordion to inject life into his Huntley St. home near Bloor and Sherbourne Sts.

The 25-year-old is an information technology employee by day, but come the weekend he’s an accordion-squeezing entertainer. French favourites are always a crowd pleaser, he finds.

Segall played the piano for years but he was looking for a more portable way to share his love of music. He picked up his 48 bass-button piano accordion in Kensington Market about a year and a half ago.

He admits it takes a sense of humour to walk the streets with an accordion. But he is a social guy.

“I like talking with people. I think this breaks the ice.”

Segall can be hired to play events but doesn’t play for money on the street.

To earn cash as a busker, you need to crank out the show tunes, he explains, and he prefers songs from movies such as Amelie and the Oscar-winning tune “Falling Slowly” from the film Once.

Segall likes to play music on a stone bench in front of his home. “I think it adds a nice atmosphere to the street.” When he plays it’s common for people to stop, start a conversation and occasionally dance. “Old folks love to dance,” and a French tune is almost guaranteed to get them stepping, Segall says.

You can catch Ronen at the corner of Bloor and Brunswick on weekends or at Crêpes A GoGo in Yorkville. I salute him with a filet mignon on a flaming sword for his keeping the accordion alive!

[Thanks to vinyl demon for pointing me to this story!]