On March 6, 2022 at 3:15 PM PST, Mike Zampiceni will present a virtual concert for the Silicon Valley Accordion Society.

Mike was raised with accordions from birth. His father, Joseph Zampiceni, was a noted accordionist, teacher, composer, arranger, and accordion music publisher, so accordions were part of the Zampiceni household from day one. Mike began formal study of the piano at age 7, then the accordion at age 8, and had his first series of paid engagements at the age of 11 when he played for San Jose area parades on the back of a promotional flatbed truck.

When Mike was 14, he advanced to his father’s orchestra where he played either the accordion or drums. He began leading his own band at the age of 17 when he joined the musician’s union.  During high school he discovered he had a beautiful tenor voice, and was encouraged by my choral teacher to compete in a regional high school music competition. After winning first place in the vocal category, he started taking voice lessons at 16. He received the Bank of America Achievement Award in music upon graduating from high school.

He entered San Jose State University as a music major. His performance concentrations were voice, piano and organ. After graduating with a B.A. in music, he returned after a year and worked on an M.A. in music. It was during this time that he was chosen as tenor soloist with the San Jose Symphony in a performance of a Bach cantata.

After teaching, performing, and selling pianos and organs for about five years, he decided that he needed to switch careers and became a technical writer for thirty years before retiring in 2014. Nevertheless, he had never left the music profession and continued to play engagements and teach students. For example, he’s played for special performances with accordion selections in the San Jose Symphony and San Jose Civic Light Opera.

His retirement “job” for the past several years has been playing and singing at parties and special events, and he currently has more than a dozen students ranging in age from 7 to 70. It is wonderful to see the popularity of the accordion spanning all generations, thanks to Mike!