Mark McDonnell

In the spirit of Mark's last post with the picture of his Hooft concertina. I have attached a picture of three of Pierre's concertinas. They are from left to right Bb/F wood ends, C/G metal end and C/G metal end finished in Oct 2005. The first two are in the possession of this family and the last one was purchased by a player in Adelaide. I am attempting to put together a photographic record of all of Pierre's concertinas so if you own one could you drop me an email markmc@unimelb.edu.au. Cheers, Mark

Hi Ken, Great to hear you will be visiting Australia. I would love to get together with you if you have the time. I also live in Melbourne. There are many Irish sessions around town and I run a very popular session every Tuesday night. Drop me an email (markmc@unimelb.edu.au) so we can make some plans. Cheers, Mark

I am sad to inform everyone that Pierre Hooft died on Monday, February 27, 2006 in Adelaide, South Australia. He was 83 years old. His funeral was on Monday March 6 and he was laid to rest in the Crystal Brook Cemetery, South Australia. Pierre was diagnosed about 2 year ago with cancer which was treated, but just before Christmas 2005 he had a relapse and his health declined rapidly. He continued to work on his concertinas before and after his treatments; finishing his last one in October 2005. It is a 30 button metal ended C/G Jeffries copy that is the best he has made. It sounds brilliant and is a joy to play. Pierre was passionate about everything to do with concertinas and over the past decade he was committed to making quality concertinas. Although he started making them late in his life, he succeeded in making instruments similar in quality to the finest ever made. Pierre’s concertinas are some of the most beautiful sounding concertinas you will hear. They had a quick response with a rich, sweet, mellow sound that you would expect to find in reeds that were 100 years old. He had a rare gift that was honed through a lifetime of work as a silversmith and in the last 20 years in making little pieces of steel sing beautifully in his concertinas. He will be sadly missed by his family and friends. For more information about Pierre’s concertinas look at Ken Coles’ November 2002 article on concertina.net (http://www.concertina.net/kc_hooft.html) entitled “Pierre Hooft: Concertina Maker Down Under.” In the months to ahead I plan to put together a short piece on Pierre’s adventures in concertina making and will make it available to readers on Concertina.net. Mark McDonnell