by Therese Horvat
Special to The Leaven
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Playing and teaching music and preserving related Slavic cultural traditions were the passion and the mission of Don Lipovac. Through Sept. 21, an exhibit at the Strawberry Hill Museum and Cultural Center here celebrates the legacy of this award-winning, master accordionist who lived from 1935 to 2014.
The exhibit highlights Lipovac’s love of his Slovenian heritage and the expansive range of his musical talents. Items displayed include a small button accordion he began playing at age 4. Other accordions and tamburitza string instruments are available for viewing along with music arrangements, awards and certificates, costumes and photographs. Vinyl records and CDs from across Lipovac’s career are featured, representing music performed by him, his orchestra and the St. John’s Catholic Club Tamburitzans that he directed from 1967 to 1996. Programs from tamburitzan concerts fill one wall of the display.
Mary Boggio-Smith, volunteer, was the mastermind behind creating the exhibit from materials donated by Lipovac’s niece and others to the museum. Boggio-Smith had never met the accordionist nor heard him play. She became well-acquainted with him by sorting through boxes and totes of memorabilia. She worked with a committee to develop the exhibit with the goal that visitors experience Lipovac as a down-to-earth person with extraordinary musical talents.
“I want the exhibit to bring back visitors’ memories of Don and his music and pay tribute to him,” she said.
Joe Dragosh, Lipovac’s lifelong friend and financial sponsor of the exhibit, is thrilled that Lipovac is receiving the attention he deserved but never craved.
“It couldn’t have happened for a better person,” Dragosh said.
Dragosh and Lipovac were like brothers growing up in the neighborhood near the Slovenian parish of Holy Family in Kansas City, Kansas. Dragosh recalls that the two boys used a wagon to transport Lipovac’s accordion that was too heavy to carry to his lesson several blocks away. By that time, 8-year-old Lipovac had transitioned to a piano accordion and was being trained to become a classical musician. He later earned two degrees from the Kansas City Conservatory of Music.
Dragosh said that Lipovac developed rapidly as a musician of note. In the 1950s, he won the Ted Mack Amateur Hour and took first place in the American Accordion Association Competition at Carnegie Hall, both in New York. Next, he placed fourth in the International Accordion Contest at the World’s Fair in Brussels. Lipovac went on to perform a variety of music at popular night spots and other venues in the Kansas City area. He and his orchestra traveled the country with a booster club of followers. In 1992, he was inducted into the Polka Hall of Fame in Euclid, Ohio, near Cleveland.
Dragosh believed that his longtime friend would consider his work with the tamburitzans his greatest achievement.
“Don taught these young performers well with the idea that the Slovenian and Croatian cultures would be carried on musically,” he explained. “He had a profound impact on music in the metropolitan area and a profound impact on many people.”
To reserve a visit to the Lipovac exhibit, go online to: strawberryhillmuseum.org/plan-a-visit or call (913) 371-3264.
Don was a very talented but humble person.