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Jazz Articles » Take Five With… » Take Five with Accordionist Nathan Koci
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data-original-title=”” title=””>Sam Sadigursky is a modern take on Klezmer jazz.
As an accordionist, he has performed and recorded with Sam Sadigursky,
Guy Klucevsek
accordion
b.1948
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data-original-title=”” title=””>Guy Klucevsek, South African artist William Kentridge, Maira Kalman, the
Michael Leonhart
trumpet
b.1974
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data-original-title=”” title=””>Michael Leonhart Orchestra, and the improvising chamber quartet The Hands Free (Caroline Shaw, Eleonore Oppenheim, James Moore). As a seasoned music director, he has conducted Tony-award winning shows on Broadway, off-Broadway, and internationally. Credits include Sufjan Stevens and Justin Peck’s Illinoise, Anais Mitchell’s Hadestown (1st National Tour), Daniel Fish’s reimagined Oklahoma! and Most Happy In Concert, and Ted Hearne’s The Source. He gravitates towards new works, having recently collaborated with William Kentridge on his multi-modal theater work The Great Yes, The Great No as a musical arranger and performer, touring internationally through 2026.
Instruments:
Accordion, free-bass accordion, piano, banjo, trumpet, french horn.
Teachers and/or influences?
My main accordion mentor over the years has been Guy Klucevsek. He’s been such a bastion of the new music and downtown music scenes in NYC for a long time, both as an accordionist and a composer. We met in 2005 when he was in my hometown, Charleston, SC, performing on the Spoleto USA Festival. Once I really got serious about the instrument, he really gave me a lot of guidance as a performer and artist in general. I’ve had the good fortune to perform his music solo in the last few years, and it’s really humbling and satisfying. I also dedicated a new tune, “Second Hand,” to him on the Solomon Diaries album.
I knew I wanted to be a musician when…
As nerdy as it is, the first time I played duets in a French horn lesson with my teacher, I had to stop playing because I was grinning so hard. Social music making got me early, via wind band and jazz band and orchestra, but it’s the way of being with other people that makes the most sense to me, and I feel like being with other people is one of the only things that matters.
Your sound and approach to music.
I’m classically trained, but after my undergrad, I got a bit of a masters degree playing in clubs with small jazz ensembles, and wine shops with folk singers. I’m always trying to stay curious about simplicity and complexity, and how they can both exist and contribute to a moment. I trained both as a pianist and a brass player, so the combined keys and lungs/bellows of the accordion has always made a particular sense to my ears. I try to approach most things like chamber music of some sort, with an ear always to the orchestration of the moment, even in improvised settings.
Your teaching approach
Most of my learning, and therefore my teaching, boils down to listening to music. Emulate the things you like, unpack them and figure out what you like and why, and then set to creating more of those type of things.
Your dream band
We had the good fortune of a roster of amazing guests on The Solomon Diaries albums (Volumes IV-V).
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