News and Happenings at the museum!

Accordion Museum Brings Music History to Connecticut

September 24th 2024

Rita Davidson Barnea, Editor Accordion USA News
Did you know that there is a wonderful accordion museum, The New England Accordion Connection and Museum, in North Canaan, CT.? The museum is in the railroad station in the center of North Canaan, right in the center of town. Business owner Paul Rummuni’s love of accordions originated with his mother. Paul sat down with Ann Nyberg to talk about some of the things that the museum has to offer.. Continue

With More Than 500 Accordions On Display, This Small Town Museum In Connecticut Is A True Hidden Gem

Posted in Connecticut Museums, Small Towns June 14, 2023 by Lisa Sammons
There are plenty of great large, expansive museums in Connecticut that cover a variety of topics, or at least really broad topics. The Yale Center for British Art has more than 2,000 works of art spanning more than a century. Historic home museums like the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum typically cover specific time periods, but have a variety of items on display documenting what life was like in that era. Places like that are great, but there’s something special about going to a museum with more of a specific focus. Sometimes, these places may sound a little wacky to the uninitiated – there’s a whole museum devoted to what?! – but they’re often quite interesting! I’ve found in my travels that some of these museums are often more educational and fascinating than even larger, more renowned sites that cover a broader array of topics. One such museum with a hyper-specific focus is the New England Accordion Connection and Museum Company in Canaan, CT. This unique accordion museum in Connecticut is a great day trip. Continue...

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Jerry Homolka produced this video interview and it captures the essence of our mission here at NEACMC. Thank you Jerry & Enjoy Everyone!!

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Read reviewer/author Charles Cassady’s interview with Paul from Kirkus Reviews:

Lavishly Illustrated Essays on Accordion Culture Find Grace Notes

I’ve told that story about a hundred times. It still gives me goosebumps,” Angelo Paul Ramunni says, referring to the serendipity that led him to create an accordion-based museum in his home in Canaan, Connecticut—and, by extension, his lavishly illustrated book, Accordion Stories From the Heart.

The coffee-table–friendly volume relates many a tale with its full-page photos of accordions in all their hand-crafted, mother-of-pearl–inlay glory, which are “as intricately exquisite as any prized violin or piano,” as Kirkus’ review describes them. One story is about a little Hohner that succored its Russian owner through grim years of totalitarianism in the Soviet Union. Another tells of a Karpek “square box” in Chicago that earned its player command performances before Al Capone. A third relates the acquisition of a Detroit-made 1920s accordion, lovingly, proudly, and painstakingly refurbished by a blind man.  Read Full Interview Here

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