News Detail
A Story About A Unique Musical La Salle Connection
While it is not the sorrowful fate in Longfellow’s phrase “ships that pass in the night”, there is a strong hint of kismet in the remarkable musical connection of two La Salle Academy students who are decades apart and have never known one another.
One of the two, the younger by nearly 64 years, is La Salle Senior Danielle Renzi from Johnston, Rhode Island. She is an exceptionally accomplished accordion musician who found a piece of music, “La Musette”, that she mastered and played before a live audience at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa on March 30, 2011. That performance was taped and became a nationwide episode of From the Top, the hit NPR radio program featuring America’s best young classical musicians.
Playing Gabriel to Danielle’s Evangeline is Angelo Di Pippo, world famous composer of “La Musette” and a 1947 graduate of La Salle. By pure coincidence he “. . . heard a recording of a recent radio program featuring outstanding musicians. One of the artists was an accordionist named Danielle Renzi,” said Angelo “She was brilliant and she mentioned that she attended La Salle Academy in Providence. What stunned me was the fact that she played a composition of mine entitled “La Musette”. This series of events startled me.”
To see and hear Danielle playing “La Musette” click here
While it is not the sorrowful fate in Longfellow’s phrase “ships that pass in the night”, there is a strong hint of kismet in the remarkable musical connection of two La Salle Academy students who are decades apart and have never known one another.
One of the two, the younger by nearly 64 years, is La Salle Senior Danielle Renzi from Johnston, Rhode Island. She is an exceptionally accomplished accordion musician who found a piece of music, “La Musette”, that she mastered and played before a live audience at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa on March 30, 2011. That performance was taped and became a nationwide episode of From the Top, the hit NPR radio program featuring America’s best young classical musicians.
Playing Gabriel to Danielle’s Evangeline is Angelo Di Pippo, world famous composer of “La Musette” and a 1947 graduate of La Salle. By pure coincidence he “. . . heard a recording of a recent radio program featuring outstanding musicians. One of the artists was an accordionist named Danielle Renzi,” said Angelo “She was brilliant and she mentioned that she attended La Salle Academy in Providence. What stunned me was the fact that she played a composition of mine entitled “La Musette”. This series of events startled me.”
To see and hear Danielle playing “La Musette” click here
After his La Salle years, Angelo graduated from Holy Cross College and earned a Master’s degree from C.W. Post College. He also holds an honorary doctorate from Five Towns College. He has played the accordion on thousands of recording sessions.
Angelo has recorded and concretized with such artists as: Peggy Lee, Billy Eckstein, James earl Jones, Judy Collins, The Ramones, Robert Merrill, Harry Belafonte, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Randy Newman, Theodore Bikel, The Four Lads, Roberta Peters, Don Sebesky, Mary Duff and Gilbert Becaud.
Angelo and his Jazz Group have made appearances at the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island and many other Jazz venues, including Birdland and the Café Bohemia in New York and he has been voted best accordionist in America in the prestigious Keyboard Magazine Poll.
Danielle has been playing the accordion since age 7. She is an honor student and is part of the Lasallian Youth Community Service Team. Danielle was a 2008 New England Music Festival Classical Cup Champion and won first place in the 2009 Roland V-Accordion Festival. She is captain of the state champion varsity track and cross country teams. She finished 4th in the 3000 meter run in the State Championship Meet in 2011.
La Salle Academy is a high school rich in history and grounded in the person and teachings of Jesus and the Catholic faith, which are core to the school's life and culture. The De La Salle Middle School provides a strong holistic foundation for students to transition into high school. The high school and middle school provide students of diverse ethnic, economic, and religious backgrounds, a community to foster growth in the tradition of St. John Baptist de La Salle’s ideals of faith, service, and community.
