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>> Hi, I'm London Scholle, and I am the accordionist
with Cincinnati Accordion.
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I work on the accordions here.
I give lessons here, and I do all -- everything here.
[ Chuckles ]
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>> My name is Matt, and with my son,
we started Cincinnati Accordion.
I work on accordions.
I appraise accordions, evaluate accordions,
and what could be wrong.
And overall, we're just trying to keep the accordion alive.
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It all started when my son -- he's a pianist --
wanted to play accordion.
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>> Like many kids, I played piano when I was younger,
and I was made to take piano lessons.
Very soon, it didn't become a chore.
I really enjoyed it,
and I kind of moved around with the different teachers,
and eventually got into little ensembles and bands,
and just kind of -- just kind of grew to love music.
♪
In the midst of all of that, for fun,
I picked up the accordion, which was a great instrument
and was nice enough
because I didn't have to relearn the piano side.
I already knew that.
>> We found an accordion.
It was free, and it was broken, and we brought it home.
Started trying to fix it up, and we got it working partially.
And it sounded like a witch boiling in oil.
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We went to Dayton, and we met a guy in Dayton
that basically fixed it.
And I showed him what I had done,
and he basically became my mentor from there.
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I don't know how,
but somehow my name got out in the accordion world,
and I started meeting other accordionists.
And eventually, I started fixing their accordions,
and I guess one thing led to another,
and now we fix a lot of accordions all the time.
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>> The name is Cincinnati Accordion,
but we are located in southeastern Indiana.
>> When we first started this, we were a little hesitant.
We were, like, Cincinnati?
Okay, we don't live in Cincinnati.
>> I worked in Cincinnati.
I was in Cincinnati all the time.
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>> When customers called us,
they generally didn't come out to the house.
We generally went to them or we would meet them somewhere.
>> We don't have a Cincinnati location.
We only have one location.
It's in Indiana.
>> Dearborn County, which is where we are,
is really the Greater Cincinnati Area.
We were Cincinnati,
and Cincinnati Accordion seemed to make sense.
That's why it's called that,
but we're Hoosiers through and through.
[ Laughter ]
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>> Cincinnati Accordion is really run
by myself, my son, and my wife.
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It's all about us doing it together.
>> I don't have to worry about working with people
I don't like.
I love my mom and dad.
We all get along very well.
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>> Julia, she takes calls.
She -- she's attentive to the customers.
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I repair things,
and I -- I deal with a lot of customer questions and all that,
but really I'm the one kind of digging into the accordion,
trying to figure out if it can be fixed
and what needs to be fixed.
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And then London, he's amazing.
Like, he plays it.
He does -- any time when someone wants to buy an accordion,
he really works with the customer to help them
find what's right for them and fit it.
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He does lessons.
>> I love giving lessons.
So I love teaching, because I love passing on my knowledge
to other people.
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>> He's the one that always goes on gigs to --
you know, if a customer needs -- needs him to play somewhere.
>> One of my favorite gigs of all time was
I was asked to play music for someone's anniversary.
We went to a beautiful park in downtown Cincinnati.
A beautiful gazebo there.
It's all lit up, and I sat up my accordion,
and I had learned their song.
You know, "their" song, their romantic song.
As they walked up, he kind of gave me a nod,
and I played their song, and she just loved it
and I think -- I think she started crying.
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It's not this 9-to-5 work schedule where we're going
to be yelling at each other if we don't get work done.
>> But it's really all of us together.
It's a very fluid thing.
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>> When customers bring us their accordions,
it's really an emotional experience for them.
>> We'll have people say,
hey, it's my great grandma's accordion.
You know, she's gone now.
This is what have to remember her by.
Can you fix it?
There can be a lot of pressure there,
but it's also really, really rewarding when they get it back,
they play it, and they go, this sounds
just like how grandma played it.
There's been a lot of people that have cried in this room
and in this house when they get their accordions back
because it's emotional.
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>> We're just about trying to make sure
that this kind of forgotten instrument is staying around,
and that we can promote it, and that we can make sure
that people are -- we're trying to help people understand it.
♪