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http://www.accordions.com/news.aspx?d=13-Jan-2017&lang=es&s=12592
http://www.accordions.com/news.aspx?d=13-Jan-2017&lang=es&s=12592
13-Jan-2017
by Rob Howard
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 Anne Romagnoli (nee Piatanesi), music teacher, businesswoman and expert on accordion manufacture and repair, died Friday January 6th at the age of 90.Anne Romagnoli was the longtime owner of the Italo-American Accordion Manufacturing Company, widely known in the Midwest for new and used accordions. Many considered her to be the Chicago area’s First Lady of Accordions. The company has been located in Oak Lawn at 5510 W. 95th St. since 1996, when it moved from its long-time home in Gage Park, at 3137 W. 51st t St. It was founded in the early 1900s in the city’s ‘Little Italy’ neighbourhood and purchased by Mrs. Romagnoli’s father and uncles in 1915. Mrs. Romagnoli and her husband, Giuseppe ‘Joe’ Romagnoli - known as the last man in America who could build an accordion from scratch - owned the business from the early 1950s until his death in 1994. She also was owner of the Republic Music School of Chicago, which for years was headquarters at 59th and Kedzie in Chicago, across the street from the Colony Theatre. At the school, Mrs. Romagnoli taught accordion to hundreds of students, young and old. In the 1950s, before the guitar bands became popular, the Italo-American employed as many as 100 people. Today, it has a small staff. |