JOSEPH NATOLI, born 1953, makes his home in northeast Ohio and has been a
performer and advocate of the accordion since the age of 7. Joe started
his studies with prominent Ohio accordion teacher, Mickey Bisilia of
Youngstown. Like many other accordionists of his time, Joe developed his
classical performance skills in state and national competitions hosted by
the American Accordionists' Association, eventually winning its national
title at the age of 18 in Washington, D.C.. Later that year (1972), Joe
became the AAA United States representative in the Coupe Mondiale
world accordion competition held in Caracas, Venezuela, where he was
chosen first runner up. Joe also released an album for Giulietti Accordion
Corporation that year under the Neofonic label entitled Accordion
Masterworks presents Joseph Natoli and Richard Romiti, which includes
many unique solo and duet arrangements and original compositions for the
free bass accordion. Joe started his musical academic career at the Dana School of Music in Youngstown, Ohio, where in 1973 he wrote his first serious accordion compositiom Toccata No. 1 (originally called Toccata), which is still being performed today in Europe and was used by 1st runner up Werner Glutsch at the 1980 Coupe Mondiale competition. Joe then decided to move to Canada to complete his music education, receiving his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees (1976 and 1977 respectively) in composition and electronic music at the University of Toronto, where his principal composition teachers were John Weinzweig, Edward Laufer, and Gustav Ciamaga. Joe was the first student ever to be accepted at the University of Toronto using free bass accordion as an applied major instrument, studying with renowned Canadian accordionist Joseph Macerollo. While at the University of Toronto, Joe participated in the first International Accordion Symposium as a performer and composer, for which his Eclat for Five Accordions was commissioned. In 1978 and 1979, Joe also received 2 substantial Ohio Arts Council grants to write and record Prism/Rebirth for free bass accordion, flute, clarinet, violin, viola, and a large constituent of percussion.
Joe later returned to school for his Computer Science degree and has worked as a Systems Engineer and Information Systems Manager since 1984. Because of his years of computer experience, Joe was one of the first people in his local area to make a success of his own completely computer sequenced top-40 band, which stayed together for 12 years. Now he is using his MIDI arranging and orchestration skills towards a more serious slant. Joe is currently working on producing his own CD projects, one of which will be a light classical accordion CD of recognizable favorites as well as original compositions, but enhanced with MIDI orchestrations behind the solo. Joe also uses his MIDI equipment as an electronic studio to create various electronic avant garde compositions. He continues to compose as well for solo free bass accordion and other instrumentation. Natoli is the founder of JANPress Publications (http://janpress.freeservers.com/janpress.htm) and can be contacted at janpress@raex.com.
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