Pietro Deiro

[1][2] Born on August 28, 1888, in Salto Canavese, Italy, the younger brother of Guido Deiro, Pietro Deiro emigrated to the United States as a steerage passenger on the S/S La Savoie in 1907 and went to live with his Uncle Frederico and work in the coal mines of Cle Elum, Washington.

[4][5] Pietro Deiro was the first president of the American Accordionists Association (1938) and promoted himself as "The Daddy of the Accordion," much to his brother Guido's chagrin.

It is a four-act opera devised and performed by Schimmel and Goodman, who did all of the singing, playing, movement, sets and lighting.

Spectators were encouraged to page through a large, heavy book containing philosophical musings as well as slogans and pictures, the latter being vaudeville cutouts in black and white as well as color – showing Pietro Deiro in various degrees of headlessness – or disembodied – or simply a displaced head in other parts of the body and accordion.

[citation needed] The mystical aspect of it is a sense of Radiance that comes through saintly martyrdom or simply allowing the music to enter the world forever through an "uncorking" process.

This installation was part of The American Accordionists' Association Master Class and Concert Series, The Seminars – The 2009 title being 'Welcome Home Skinny' – an anagram for 'Pietro's Return'.

This installation was part of The American Accordionists' Association Master Class and Concert Series, The Seminars – The 2010 title being 'Don't Like Opera'.

On July 31, 2016, Dr. William Schimmel performed his own 5-minute "House Version" of Pietro Deiro's Concerto in D – one of his last and largest compositions dating back to 1950.