Prior RUK Accordion Orchestra member.

I am a relative newcomer to the accordion, although music has been a lifelong passion for me. I started with piano lessons around age ten, then switched to clarinet and played in concert and jazz bands through high school and college, even doing a short stint in a Shriners band in my home state of Connecticut. When my high-school band needed brass players, I switched to baritone horn and then tuba (and Sousaphone in the marching band). I also sang in church choirs for many years.

Accordion had always appealed to me, starting with Mitch Miller and the Gang Christmas sing-along albums from the 1960s. In 2009 I decided to pursue my interest more deeply and bought my first chromatic button accordion, a beginner model. I found a wonderful teacher (the late Roberto Cassan in Boston) and soon afterward I bought my first full-size (120-bass) accordion, built by Claudio Beltrami in Stradella, Italy.

Through the accordion, I have been introduced to many genres of music and made friends around the world through attendance at national accordion conventions, local events such as the Somerville Squeezebox Slam and the Northeast Squeeze-In, and membership in the Massachusetts Accordion Association and the Accordion Friends group on Facebook. For several years I organized an annual week-long accordion retreat on Cape Cod called “Cape Accordion”, inviting a small group of accordionists from around the country to jam, share tips and experience, and generally bond over accordion music. When our venue switched to a farm in the Ozarks of Arkansas, it became “Coop Accordion” — and we continue to reunite annually in different locations around the country.

I love all kinds of music that features the accordion, including French musette, Scandinavian polkas and waltzes, Italian tarantellas, Django Reinhardt-influenced jazz, the American Songbook, and Christmas music (both sacred and secular). Some of my favorite players include Frank Marocco, Richard Galliano, Marcel Loeffler, and old-school swing-musette pioneers such as Gus Viseur, Tony Murena, Jo Basile (Joss Baselli), Marcel Azzola – and last but not least, my late teacher, Roberto Cassan.

It is a great pleasure to participate in the RUK Accordion Orchestra, with such an immensely talented director/arranger in David Rukhelman and a very enthusiastic and dedicated group of fellow accordionists.