We are very excited to announce that VIDA GODINA, Canadian Women's Button Accordion Champion will be performing in concert at the “Canadian Slovenians Have Talent” event at Slovenian Hunters and Anglers Club (Lovska Farma) on Sun. Aug. 4, 2019.
Vida was born in Montréal, Québec where she graduated with a degree in Classical Piano Performance from McGill University in 1988. In her youth Vida also had some training on piano accordion and chromatic accordion. She is self-taught on the button accordion.
Vida is not only an accomplished musician herself, but from the age of 15 she began to teach music to students, and continues to do so for close to 40 years. She teaches mainly piano as it is in higher demand, but also has some button accordion and piano accordion students, mainly from the Slovenian community. Vida has taught students as young as 5 years of age to seniors over 70. She prepares piano students for Royal Conservatory Examinations at all levels. Over the years she has taught hundreds of students and has even had up to 40 students at a time.
Vida’s musical path was most greatly influenced by her family. Vida’s parents were born in Slovenia, her mother from Dobrnič, and her father from Hinje. Vida's father founded a pub there that he left to his brother when he immigrated to Canada. Managed by Vida’s cousins now, the expanded pub and resort is called Domačija KRNC, which is the historic name of Vida’s family home.
One of Vida’s greatest sources of inspiration was her musically talented cousin Stefan who together with his brother had a popular musical band that played at “veselicas” every summer weekend in the Dolenjska region of Slovenia. Vida visited Slovenia frequently and recorded their music all throughout the 1980's. These joyful times inspired Vida’s lifelong passion for music.
Vida would tell you that....“The accordion has the power to stretch or silence tones like a singing voice, to let one flow freely with inner momentary expression, the bass section has continuous pulse like a heart beat – and together, performed with subtlety, one is drifted away to a fantastic dream!”
Welcome Vida!