Dom Frontiere

Dominic Frontiere has led a career that has cut across at least four musical genres over a half century. Born into a musical family in New Haven, CT, in 1931, Frontiere took up several instruments as a boy before settling on the accordion, at which he developed a daunting proficiency. At age 7, he was studying with virtuoso Joseph Biviano, and at age 12 he gave a solo recital at Carnegie Hall in New York. Concurrent with his instrumental training, however, Frontiere also studied classical music, particularly composition and arranging. In 1949, he succeeded Dick Contino —an accordionist who also enjoyed a brief thrust at film and rock & roll stardom in the low-budget movie Daddy-O— in Horace Heidt's band, and also became Heidt's lead arranger. In 1952, after three years in Heidt's band, Frontiere quit the group to move to California, where he studied at U.C.L.A. with composer Mario...

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Dom Frontiere Albums

2 records