On August 28, 1990, I performed a solo accordion recital at the fifth Music at the Palace recital. I was assisted by pianist Thomas Soplinski, an undergraduate organ major at West Liberty State College, and the City of God Accordion Ensemble. My program consisted of:
Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5
Johann Sebastian Bach: Four Keyboard Works
George Friedrich Handel: Suite for a Musical Clock
Vittorio Monti: Czardas
Eugene Ettore: Concertino—Accordion Miniatures
Alan Hovhaness: Suite for Accordion
Pietro Deiro: Grand Etude de Concert, No. 3 Fiume Po
Walter Girnatis: Musiquettes, Six Pieces for Harmonica and Piano
J. S. Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D, with the City of God Accordion Ensemble
To listen to some of the pieces I played during my recital at Prabhupada’s Palace, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGNqnAQHUOo
I sent press releases announcing my August 28th recital to the Wheeling News Register and the Moundsville Daily Echo, as I had done for all the previous Music At The Palace recitals. A handful, actually less than a handful of local Wheeling and Moundsville music lovers attended our recitals.
Mike Westbury hires me to play accordion.
One person who attended my accordion recital at the Palace was 69-year-old Mike A. Westbury of Wheeling. Mike was born May 13, 1921. If I remember correctly, he grew up in Long Island, New York, and as a youngster showed remarkable talent in music. His main instruments were saxophone, clarinet and flute, but he told me he had played all the instruments of the orchestra professionally at one time or other. He was in demand as a musician in New York City and played with many big bands. He also played in the pit orchestra for the Tonight Show, hosted by Johnny Carson and others. This was broadcast live from the NBC Studios in Rockefeller Center.
Mike told me he once performed with the great vaudeville accordionist Pietro Frosini late in the 1930s or early in the 1940s. Mike was a young man, perhaps still a teenager, and had accepted a gig playing clarinet with an accordionist. When Mike arrived at the venue, the accordionist was sitting on a stool on stage and warming up. His accordion was not even strapped to his body; it merely sat on his knee, a good distance from his body. Frosini was warming up by playing the Allegro molto appassionato movement of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with such accuracy, brilliance and passion that Mike was taken aback by his virtuosity.
Pietro Frosini (1885-1951), born Pietro Giuffrida, was an Italian vaudevillian accordionist, composer, and arranger who became one of the first accordion stars in the United States. A pioneer of the chromatic button accordion, he toured internationally, recorded for Edison and Victor, and composed over 200 works for the instrument. After vaudeville’s decline, he served as a staff accordionist at WOR radio in New York City until his death in 1951.
Mike told me he made a lot of money in the music business, so much that he purchased a restaurant for about $1,000,000 in Fort Lee, New Jersey, right across the Hudson River near the George Washington Bridge. Unfortunately, when a Mafia representative reminded him that he must contribute a portion of his restaurant’s earnings to the underworld organization in return for their “protection,” Mike refused. His restaurant burned to the ground a few weeks later, and Mike lost his entire investment.
When Mike retired from show biz in the 1980s, he and his wife Jerri moved to Wheeling, West Virginia. Although Mike had officially retired, he still worked from time to time as a musician, music teacher and band director. He directed the string orchestra which played Strauss waltzes at the annual December Festival of Lights concert at the Glessner Auditorium at Oglebay Park. At this event, he hired me to play piano with the strings.
80-year-old Mike Westbury entertains my parents during dinner (June 23, 2001).
At my wedding reception I joined Mike and his quartet to play a polka (June 23, 2001).
Mike also directed a quartet of musicians which performed swing and big band music at wedding receptions in Ohio and West Virginia. From 1990 to 1994 he hired me to play accordion, with double bassist Edward Parshall and drummer Ronald Rose. Ron served as band director at Marshall County High School for decades until he retired around 1993.
I hired Mike and his quartet to provide music for my wedding reception at South Fayette Township Fire Hall on June 23, 2001. Mary Kay Welter and I were married a couple hours earlier at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Oakdale, Pennsylvania. During dinner, Mike strolled from table to table playing violin, and later led his quartet in dance music. I joined them with my accordion for a polka. Unfortunately, Mary Kay and I were divorced nine years later.
When Mike’s 83-year-old wife Jerri passed away on March 23, 2005, he was devastated. He sold his house at 70 Hubbard Lane and moved into an apartment at 1208 Warwood Avenue in Wheeling. He began going blind. This was extremely difficult for him. By this time, I had lived in Pittsburgh for a decade, but I visited him sometimes when I came to West Virginia to see my friends during the New Vrindaban festivals. Mike used to tell me, “Old age ain’t for sissies.” He passed away on December 29, 2014 at the age of 93. Both Mike and his wife Jerri (1921-2005) were buried at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Wheeling.
Henry Doktorski, M.Mus., C.A.G.O.
Organist, Pianist, Accordionist, Composer, Conductor, Author, Educator, Chess Instructor
Phone: 951-435-9209
Website: http://henrydoktorski.com