Victoria

In 1919, the predecessor of the Victoria Accordion Factory was founded in Castelfidardo. The factory was founded by Dario Dari and Adriano Picchietti, and the accordions had a brand name Dari & Picchietti, Castelfidardo, Italy. The aim was to produce various size accordions. In 1930 (or 1935, sources differ) the name of the factory was changed to Victoria. The reason for this was the market: most of the factory’s accordions were sold to English-speaking countries, where Victoria was a better name than the hard-to-pronounce Dari & Picchietti [Piketti] . The name was modeled on the Queen of England. After the Second World War, Victoria and the Titano accordion factories were merged. Titano was a famous name especially in the United States, and these two brands co-lived for circa 50 years. During this time, Victoria sold about 60 000 accordions to the United States.

In 1984, the father of Riccardo Breccia acquired the Victoria accordion factory. The family have had a long tradition in the accordion manufacturing: The grandfather of Riccardon worked at Paolo Sopran’s factory. He was specialized in reeds and his specialty was steel. After World War II, Riccardo’s grandfather left the Soprani factory to set up its own reed factory.

Riccardo Breccia has five brothers, four of whom are working in Victoria accordion factory (2014). In 1991, Riccardo met an accordion teacher Elke arenholz, who became his wife. From 2000 onwards Victoria factory began to make wooden bodies for accordions. The wooden accordions have been made for wood before, but Victoria makes accordions with the same methods as violins: the same materials, the same adhesives, and the same colors.

The idea of the wooden accordions came of the fact that Elke and Riccardo were looking for a better sound, and at the same time a lighter accordion. From the violin world they found a red spruce (warm and dark sound) and maple (sharper sound, more toptunes). Although the reeds forms the majority of the sound, the wood is having an effect to the sound. All wood to factory comes from Italy, Val Di fiemme (Trentino, northern Italy). In this area, the trees are getting specific minerals from the soil, which gives a unique sound. This wood is expensive, but the violinbuilders are using this wood, too.

The current premises of the Victoria factory (2014) are approximately 300 square meters. In the facilities is held seminars, courses and, of course, built accordions.