Do you know Papa Joe De Clemente? He is one of the most upbeat, positive, musical, and friendly people I have ever met. He exudes positivity and caring toward everyone who meets him.

During the past several years, “Papa Joe” De Clemente has volunteered once a week early in the morning to assist the music teacher, Linda Holcomb, at an elementary school music program at Public-school 203Q, in Bayside, Queens which may be one of the only elementary schools in the five boroughs of New York City that has a student accordion band.

The school started their accordion band fifteen years ago. They meet once a week, at the beginning of the school day to practice various songs that they will perform throughout the year. Papa Joe volunteers his time to join the students for rehearsals and he inspires them to be better accordionists. Among the many things he does for them, he also fixes their accordions! Hopefully, these activities will resume very soon.

Joe shares his love for the accordion, “To me, music has been a language that crosses all barriers, speaking to all people and bringing joy to those who listen. The box has been my pal for over 60 years and I am glad the Lord gave me this special gift” Joe has been married to his wife, Janet, for 49 years and is the father of 4 children and has 11 grandchildren. Over the years, he has shared his love of the accordion with many people all over the world who developed a love and appreciation of the instrument because of his enthusiasm.

Papa Joe says, “Greetings from Bellerose, Queens, NY, the epicenter of the Corona Virus.  As you may know, my passion is to perform for people at Restaurants, Halls and Clubs. However since New York got hit with the virus we have been ordered to stay home since March 17th, so my last gig performance was on March 15th , which was for a birthday party.  All of my gigs since that date (March 17th) have been cancelled because of the NYS Stay Home requirements. Unfortunately, the virus also caused the closing of the NYC Public Schools, so the PS203Q Accordion Band hasn’t met anymore and it hurts not see their faces as they perform for the other students and their parents.  I truly miss seeing the kids each week.

So what can an accordionist entertainer do when he is ordered to stay home?  Well you can spend a lot of time practicing, which is good, however, it doesn’t feed the performer’s personal satisfaction of seeing and hearing the positive responses from one’s customers.  So, like several of us performers, we had to come with another way to deal with our situation, so several of us started reaching out to the public by doing on-line Live Performances.

On March 26, 2020 I decided to start doing live secular performances on “Face Book Live”. My program is called; “A Cup of Joe with Papa Joe”.  Every Thursday afternoon, I set up my all of my equipment in preparation of performing that night at 7:30 pm on Facebook Live.  I put on a 60 to 90 minute performance and watch the responses come in. I usually play American-Italian style songs that reflect the 1940’s thru the 1970”s era.  Most shows yield about 500 viewers with one of my shows yielding as many as 1.2K viewers. Doing that has helped me to connect with people as far as Australia, some being other accordionists and others just being average people who just what to hear and see something good for a change.

Since I also have a passion for Gospel music, on Sunday – March 29,2020 I started playing a 15 minute weekly live performance session of Gospel Music at 10:30am. That session may not yield as many listeners, but is still reaching over 100 viewers of people who are spiritually minded and are praying for this virus situation to end. 

Periodically, I also sit in the front half of my driveway, toward the front of my house, and play for the nearby neighbors who seem to enjoy the music. I usually get a few smiles and they also wave to me.  Unfortunately, as of this date, April 30th, we have been told that the shut-in order will continue through May 15, 2020which means I will be continuing my Thursday nights and Sunday mornings for a while longer. I pray that this virus will end soon so I may back to enjoying the reality of playing more gigs again for parties and restaurants.”

Join Papa Joe on Sunday, May 3, 2020 for FB Live, Sunday Song & Scripture at 10:30 AM EST

We all look forward to the day when we can again go outdoors, live a less restricted life, and see and hear Papa Joe in person!

For further information:
Joedeclemente@yahoo.com
“Papa Joe” De Clemente
Cell: 516-946-0198