Video published on February 19, 2017: Joseph Natoli writes: “I just completed and recorded a new composition for accordion called ‘Children’s Suite’ which includes the following four movements 1) Innocence, 2) Play, 3) Wonder, and 4) Joy.
Many composers have written children’s suites for many different instruments as well as for orchestra. But I am not aware of a substantial work in this genre for accordion, so I wanted to contribute to the accordion literature with this offering.”
As the video indicates, the inspiration for ‘Children’s Suite’ by Joseph Natoli came from his two granddaughters. The first movement ‘Innocence’ was written for the first birthday of his first granddaughter. The third movement ‘Wonder’ was written next for the birth of his second granddaughter in 2016, with the remaining two movements (‘Play’ and ‘Joy’) being completed in very close succession in December 2016.”
Joseph performs the composition on the Roland FR-8X.
The movement structure of the piece is slow, fast, slow, fast, with some of the elements in the 4th movement ‘Joy’ being borrowed from the second movement ‘Play,’ since children are often most joyful when they are at play. The video discusses the thoughts and inspirations behind each movement.
Joseph Natoli makes his home in Northeast Ohio with his wife, JoAnn, and has been a performer and advocate of the accordion since the age of seven (inspired to play the instrument by his grandfather — also Joe Natoli, and his father, Frank Natoli). Joe started his studies with prominent Ohio accordion teacher, the late Mickey Bisilia of Youngstown, Ohio, and won the 1972 AAA US Virtuoso Accordion Championship under Mr. Bisilia’s tutelage, while placing first runner-up several months later in the Coupe Mondiale world accordion competition in Caracas, Venezuela.
More recently, Joe won the grand prize for the first Roland US V-Accordion competition held in Los Angeles, California, in 2008. Joe’s education includes Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in music theory and composition from the University of Toronto Faculty Of Music in Toronto, Canada, where he was the first student accepted there to use the free bass accordion as an applied major instrument, studying with renowned Canadian accordionist, Joseph Macerollo.
Mr Natoli started his musical career mostly as a performer, but had always been interested in composition, and has focused on his compositional craft even more in recent years. Joe has written many original pieces in all musical styles and genres for standard and free bass accordion, all of which are available by inquiries to janpressmusic@yahoo.com, including his latest 2017 pieces, “Children’s Suite” for accordion solo, and “Smooth” (a Latin jazz piece for solo or accordion quintet).
Some of his most recent recordings include an all-acoustic accordion CD called “Omaggio,” which is dedicated to the many musical influences in Joe’s life from various composers, musical friends and family members. Joe has also released an all-digital Roland V-Accordion CD entitled, “Waltz for Ron,” which contains a bevy of original compositions and arrangements of classical, light classical, ethnic and jazz pieces fully exploiting the orchestral possibilities of the Roland virtual accordions. Both CDs are available on the JANPress website.
A new CD will be released soon in 2017 called “Chameleon” which will focus on the widely diverse styles of Joe’s compositional output. Professionally Joe has enjoyed a career in Information Technology (IT) and over the years has been involved in both IT technical and leadership roles for many large companies. Joe studied computer science at Youngstown State University as well as Franklin University, and also achieved an MBA degree at Franklin University in Columbus, OH. Joe and JoAnn have three adult daughters and two granddaughters.
As with all original music by Joseph Natoli, you can purchase by contacting him at janpressmusic@yahoo.com
