The shape-shifting sounds of the accordion | Maria Telesheva

**Elise Hu** (0:03)
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. There might be just one acoustic instrument in the world capable of sounding like a bassoon, a piccolo or a full organ all in one. And that instrument is the accordion.
That was Maria Telesheva. She's an 18-year-old from Eugene, Oregon, who's been playing the accordion for about 12 years, which is to say most of her life. She moves easily across styles, often in duets with her dad.

**Maria Telesheva** (0:50)
Now, I love playing music in many different styles, from Bach to Beatles to ACDC, especially in a duet with my father. He is my teacher and a professional accordion player himself.

**Elise Hu** (1:06)
It all started with a small accordion sitting in her family's living room, and a simple question she asked her father as a little kid.

**Maria Telesheva** (1:13)
We actually had this tiny little accordion in our living room, and one day I just came up to my dad and said, hey, can you teach me how to play this?

**Elise Hu** (1:22)
More than a decade later, she's performed everywhere, from NPR's Tiny Desk to now the TED stage. Today, Maria plays works by classical composers and pulls back the curtain on the accordion itself. It's 226 buttons, it's chin switches, the bellows that act like a pair of lungs, and the 35 pounds of it that make a performance as much a workout as a piece of music. And stick around after Maria's talk and performance, Ted curator Chloe Shasha Brooks joins us to share how she discovered Maria and the surprising links Maria may have to go to just study her instrument in college. That's all coming up right after a short break.
And now, our TED performance and talk of the day.

**Maria Telesheva** (5:21)
Thank you so much. And hello, everyone. I am 18 years old, and I am from Eugene, Oregon. I've been playing the accordion for about 12 years, and it is such a pleasure to be here and share the beauty and versatility of my instrument with all of you. Recently, I had the privilege of performing for NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts. Thank you.
And there, I performed the piece that I have just played for you called The Prelude and Fugue by one of my favorite classical composers, Jokan Sebastian Bach. Now, I love playing music in many different styles, from Bach to Beatles to ACDC, especially in a duet with my father. He is my teacher and a professional accordion player himself. Now, before I play my final piece for you, I'd like to briefly familiarize you with this instrument. So this is a professional model of a B-System Chromatic Button Accordion, which has 120 buttons on the left side, and only 106 on the right side, not that many. There are also registers, which I use to change the tone of the sound, so I can imitate other instruments such as the bassoon, the piccolo, the organ, and so on. And they are also duplicated up here, and these are called chin switches, which, as you can guess, I can operate using my chin. And additionally, this middle part here, which I constantly push and pull, is called the bellows, and the bellows act as the lungs of the accordion, since they pump air in and out and control the dynamics. Now, considering this instrument weighs about 35 pounds, I would say it's a bit of a workout, as well as an intense brain exercise to handle.
And you may be wondering why I chose to play such a unique instrument. Well, when I was little, we actually had this tiny little accordion in our living room. And one day, I just came up to my dad and said, hey, can you teach me how to play this? So I started off by learning a few chords and simple melodies, and I just fell in love with the instrument, even though the first ever accordion I played didn't even have all the notes.
So I would say that having a teacher at home, living with me, also helped me progress pretty quickly, which has brought me to where I am today.
And now I would like to play for you Moments Musicaux by composer Franz Schubert.

**Elise Hu** (10:12)
I'm Maria Telesheva at Play at TED 2026 And now here's curator Chloe Shasha Brooks on the day she first saw Maria play and why working with her was a reminder of just how much music can give a kid.

**Chloe Shasha Brooks** (10:24)
While watching videos of live music shows to find a young performer for Play at TED, I came across high school student Maria Telesheva on NPR's Tiny Desk series.