Pietro Frosini
Pietro Frosini (9 August 1885 – 2 September 1951) was one of the first famous "stars of the accordion." He was born in Catania, Sicily, in 1885 and began to play the chromatic button accordion at the age of six. In 1905 he emigrated to San Francisco and was discovered by a talent scout for the Orpheum Vaudeville Circuit.
Frosini made one of the first accordion recordings on a
On the vaudeville circuit, Frosini met and became friends with another great accordionist, Guido Deiro. After seeing the great success Deiro had with his audiences, Frosini adopted some of Deiro's methods: (1) he began playing popular music along with classical and operatic selections, and (2) he pasted a dummy piano accordion keyboard over his buttons, as audiences wanted to hear the more novel and unfamiliar piano accordion.
Frosini gave up vaudeville in 1932 when the "
References
- ^ "Pietro Frosini: Dragspelets Trollkarl" by Gunnar M. Ohlander (Gotlands Allehanda, Sweden: 1990)
External links
- Frosini Society
- Pietro Frosini profile
- Works by Pietro Frosini at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Pietro Frosini at Internet Archive
- Book Review of Gunnar M. Ohlander's Pietro Frosini, Dragspelets Trollkarl
- Autographed photo of Pietro Frosini inscribed to accordionist Arvid Franzen
- Discography
- Pietro Frosini on Victor Records.
- Streaming audio
- Videos
- Amoureuse on YouTube
- Beautiful Heaven on YouTube
- Carnival Of Venice on YouTube
- Come, My Love on YouTube
- Curro Cuchares on YouTube
- New York Blues on YouTube
- Rhapsody No. 3 in A Minor on YouTube
- Vision Of Love on YouTube
- Vårserenad on YouTube