After the Pettine family emigrated to the United States in 1889 and settled in Providence, Rhode Island, Giuseppe was regarded as a child prodigy of the mandolin because of his great concert appearances.

Members of his school of American mandolinists include William Place Jr. (1889–1959) and Alfonso Balasone (Albert Bellson, 1897–1977).

For this he worked in close cooperation with the well-known VEGA musical instrument manufacturers company in Boston, creating the "Giuseppe Pettine Special" model, a soloist mandolin modelled after the modern Neapolitan mandolin designed by the Vinaccia luthier family of Naples.

This concerto also exists in an unpublished incomplete version for solo mandolin and orchestra consisting of winds and plucked instruments.

Another of Pettine's compositions for solo mandolin is his Fantasia Romantica, a substantial work in which he emphasizes the wonderful possibilities of the instrument by including seldom-heard harmonics, both natural and artificial, with chord arpeggios and virtuosic scale passages.