Residents marvel at the music of the Ieda Family

Written for The Villager
   For over 20 years, the members of the Ieda family have been playing music for audiences not only in the western New York region, but also in the southern reaches of Florida, all the way to Ontario, Canada and many places in between.

   Parents, Annette and Jim Ieda, have lived in the western New York area most of their adult life.  The Ieda’s raised their three children in Angola, N.Y., but moved to Ellicottville seven years ago.

   Jim and Annette met while studying music in graduate school at SUNY Fredonia and have been married for 39 years.

   Both Jim and Annette have been playing for 57 years, starting when they were 5.

   Annette said she began playing instruments as a sort of “copy-cat” to her sister.

   “(My parents) didn’t start my sister that early, but did me because of my poking and prodding,” Annette joked.

   Throughout her life, Annette has learned to play 10 instruments, her husband two and their children play various amounts of instruments.

   Their children, James Ieda III, Christopher and Juliet began playing instruments while they were between the ages of 2 and 3.

   “I started the kids at 2 and 3 and they got very proficient at a very young age and got easily drawn to it as they got into college,” Annette said.

   Two of the children, James and Christopher, played in their latest performance on May 21, along with their wives.

   Holding the finale for the Salamanca Euterpean Club, a classical music club, the Ieda’s performed many compositions in front of a record number of 92 people from the club, family and friends at their home in Ellicottville. The event was open to the public.

   “It was magnificent! We were overjoyed that we have such a wonderful family concert to offer us around here … we feel very blessed that they’d invite us to a concert for all of us to enjoy,” said Margret Fitzpatrick, an audience member and Ellicottville resident. “For anyone who missed it, they really missed a wonderful event.”

   At the event, the family branched out into a new realm of music playing a quintet together.

   “This is the first time we played something from scratch that we haven’t done before; we usually only do quartets,” Annette said.

   For many years, before and after starting a family, Jim and Annette played in the Orchard Park Symphony, where their eldest son is now concertmaster.

   “I guess it’s a tradition of sorts,” Annette said.

   Annette continued to play in the orchestra after her children were born so that she could stay well versed in her instruments.

   “I played in an orchestra before we started a family and I wanted to continue doing that because I knew that if I didn’t keep playing in an orchestra and have something to practice for I would probably be too busy and just not do it.”

   Their other son, Christopher, also plays in the Finger Lake Symphony by his home in Canandaigua, N.Y.

   As a family, some of their favorite compositions to play are Fauré piano quartet and quartets by Shubert.

   All of the family members, except Juliet, teach or have taught music in schools.

   Even though they are retired, both Jim and Annette have studios and teach private lessons to many different people.

    “I have had students as young as 2 and as old as 90, so it goes to show that people are never too old to learn music,” Annette said.

   Besides teaching and performing once a year for the Salamanca Euterpean Club, Jim and Annette also play weddings, funerals, various benefits and in the past have as a family have played on the radio station WNED.

   Jim Ieda is also the music director at Holy Mary Catholic Church in Ellicottville.

   Since the concert, the family has already begun thinking about what they will play next year for their annual concert. The family is also in the early stages of planning a fundraiser for the Southern Tier Symphony, which has recently gone into deficit.

   “John Whitney is doing such a marvelous job by providing us with an opportunity for us to make such wonderful music, and it’s local, it’s just Olean, it’s not far at all,” Annette said.

   Currently, Jim and Annette belong to “Versatility,” a local musical group they have been involved with for two years that plays blue grass and Celtic music.

   “It makes me so happy to share my love of music with (everyone I can),” Annette said.