Starting on a high note

Setting up shop

Jonathan Tam set up the Hong Kong Accordion Store in the summer of 2019. It wasn't planned. He had recently moved back to the city from abroad and was looking for an accordion teacher so that he could continue learning to play the instrument.

Soon he realized that there weren't that many accordion teachers in the city to choose from. He was beginning to consider the possibility of bringing experienced and well-trained accordion teachers from overseas to teach the instrument in Hong Kong. And then he met the Ukrainian accordionist and teacher Nazar Tabachyshyn through friends.

"Nazar told me that he was thinking of starting his own music school in the city, which I thought was a good idea, and so we decided to open the shop together," Tam said.

"In Hong Kong, it's not easy to find someone who graduated from a music conservatory with a focus on the accordion like Nazar has," he added.

Tam's interest in the accordion began in 2014 when he was studying in New Zealand. At the time, he would fix and tune pianos on the side. One day, a friend asked Tam if he could try repairing his broken accordion. Tam had never seen the instrument before. It seemed like a challenge worth taking up.

"It turned out to be very difficult to fix, as the structure of an accordion is so different from other instruments," Tam said.