More than polka: Local teen accordionist has growing following and professional aspirations

Maria Telesheva has been on stage with an accordion since she was 6 years old.

From her time as her father’s “special guest” at his performances when she was a child to joining forces with him three years ago to form the touring group Duo Two Accordions, the 17-year-old Eugene native is a professional musician in the making and already an advocate for the complex instrument she loves.

“People are usually very surprised at how versatile it is,” she said of the accordion. “They think it’s just all polkas and waltzes, but you can really do a lot with it and I think we are able to showcase that.”

Telesheva and her dad imitate the electric guitar riff in “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC in their shows and recreate the slow acoustic swoon of “And I Love Her” by The Beatles with ease. She has played the haunting theme from “Schindler’s List” and her and her dad’s musical interpretation of “The Legend of Dracula.” Her range of genres is expansive, and she likes it that way. 

Telesheva has yet to decide what she will do with her passion for accordion, but her recent participation in a national fellowship and the success of her solo and duo performances show that her talent is getting noticed.

A family affair

Maria Telesheva’s father, Sergei Teleshev, is her teacher, inspiration and bandmate. 

Teleshev is a professional accordionist with Russian and Ukrainian roots and came to the United States for the first time in 1996 to perform with his trio in the Oregon Bach Festival. After touring with the trio internationally for a few years, he and his wife, Olga, decided to move to Eugene permanently in 2000. His reason for choosing Eugene was simple: “Because Eugene is the best city in the world to live,” he said. 

Telesheva was born in Eugene and started to play accordion when she was a young girl.

“We had this tiny accordion in our living room and I just came up to him and was like, ‘Hey can you teach me how to play this?’” Telesheva said. “So he taught me a few chords and it just kept progressing.”

The accordion is a traditional Russian instrument, but it’s also a traditional instrument in many other European countries. Its widespread popularity on the continent makes it hard to pinpoint where it originated.

“It’s kind of like a joke,” Telesheva said. “The French think the accordion is French, the Germans think it’s German, the Russians think it’s Russian.”

The father-daughter duo both play the Russian model of accordion, which, according to Teleshev, has the most beautiful sound, but is also the heaviest type of accordion, weighing in at about 40 pounds.

For Telesheva, who is 5 feet, 1 inch tall, the weight is challenging for her frame. She may soon, however, get a lighter accordion with a $10,000 grant she recently won from the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award. With a lighter accordion, she could stand and sing with her accordion, which would broaden her repertoire.

Telesheva and her father play classical, jazz, pop and original music, making their own arrangements for accordion by ear because sheet music for accordion is rare. Sergei Teleshev, who has performed with countless groups over his lifetime in the music industry, loves to perform with his daughter.

“We understand each other and she’s very talented,” he said. “It’s lots of fun to play with her, plus we are close to each other so we can rehearse anytime.”

International recognition

Telesheva has been competing and performing in international accordion competitions since she was 6 and won the 10-and-under category at the Leavenworth (Washington) International Accordion Celebration. Recently, however, she’s been getting recognition for her talent from the broader music community.

After placing first in two categories last year at the Leavenworth competition, she was noticed by “From the Top,” a nonprofit and National Public Radio program that features young, talented, classically trained musicians. Their fellowship program offers practical resources to up-and-coming musicians about how to make a living in music. Recordings and interviews from the fellowship will be aired sometime this summer on “From the Top’s” radio program and website.

This fall, Telesheva will perform in Kazakhstan in a UNESCO international youth arts festival. While she is no stranger to playing internationally, having competed and performed in several countries already as a child, she will play with a symphony orchestra for the first time in the Kazakhstan festival.

She and Teleshev also have a large following on their shared YouTube channel, Sergei Teleshev Accordion, which has more than 25,000 subscribers.

Hopes and challenges

Accomplishments aside, Telesheva is also a 17-year-old girl. She’s a student at North Eugene High School and math is her best subject. She likes everything art-related — she recently took a ceramics class at school and loved it.

Telesheva’s life is anything but ordinary for a teenager, however. When she travels during weekdays for shows with her father, her teachers are accommodating. She fits in time with friends in between her practice schedule. On certain days, though, especially right before concerts with her dad, she has to practice a few hours a day.

“You can’t just stop practicing, but I do practice less on certain days and I still hang out with friends,” Telesheva said. “I make it work.”

Telesheva has always dreamed of becoming a professional musician, but she will need financial help to achieve her goals — and a bit of courage. While there are many music conservatories in the United States, not many offer programs for accordion. Telesheva would most likely have to attend an institution in Europe, which would be costly and far from home.

“I might do that later on in life, but it’s not something I’m looking for at the moment,” she said.

Her backup plan is to pursue a degree at University of Oregon, perhaps in business.

Teleshev sees a lot of potential in his daughter, and he also is confident that she will choose what is best for herself.

“I hope she will become a musician, as she is, actually, already,” Teleshev said. “I see her growing as a musician and a performer. She’s very good at anything she touches.”