Livestream | Creating Rainbows and Circles in Dynamics

Hi, I’m Dallas Vietty—accordion performer and educator based in Pennsylvania, USA. For over a decade I’ve helped students unlock expressive, creative ways to make music on the accordion. In this livestream, we’re continuing our month-long focus on dynamics by turning to poetic and powerful concept that have transformed the way I think about musical phrasing.

This episode is called “Creating Rainbows and Circles in Dynamics”, and it draws on the wisdom of two legendary musicians: cellist Pablo Casals and bandoneonist Rodolfo Mederos. Casals spoke of “rainbows” in music—how each phrase should have a shape, an arc of tension and release that feels as natural and inevitable as the rise and fall of a rainbow. Mederos introduced the idea of “circles”—a sense of departure and return, motion and resolution, that we can feel through carefully shaped dynamics and expressive direction.

These metaphors aren’t just beautiful—they’re incredibly practical. In this livestream, we’ll explore how these shapes can guide your phrasing and bring warmth, breath, and humanity to your playing. Instead of thinking of dynamics as only “loud or soft,” we’ll start thinking of them as tools for storytelling: ways to give emotional movement and structure to everything you play.

If you’ve ever wanted your music to sound more alive, more expressive, more felt—this session will help you start hearing and shaping dynamics not as a technical detail, but as a fundamental part of your voice as a musician.