Cory Pesaturo - American Champion, Masterful Musician

Nov. 11, 2013 - PRLog -- The Music Man

He is a world champion on his instrument.

In fact, he became one of the youngest musicians to ever win an American championship.

Cory Pesaturo, 26, is not yet a household name, even though he’s been globally prominent on his instrument since he began playing at age nine. Cory’s relative obscurity could be because he specializes in the accordion.

Cory started his career as an acoustic accordionist, and has since transformed the instrument. He is one of only a handful of musicians to win a world championship on both acoustic and digital accordion. In addition to all that, he’s also won a world championship in jazz accordion.

He performed on four occasions at the White House and played at seven other public and private events for President Bill Clinton. In 1999 he performed at a prestigious state dinner.

More fun facts: Cory graduated as an accordionist from the New England Conservatory of Music, a rare occurrence indeed for a traditional conservatory. His prominence on has given him the opportunity to play around the world, collaborate with Wynton Marsalis, take the stage on “Late Night with David Letterman,” and accompany a handful of “American Idol” performers.

Beyond his exalted status in the squeezebox world, Cory is a masterful and versatile musical talent, able to play accordion in any genre: classical, jazz, klezmer, folk, pop, and anything else he’s asked to do. Just don’t ask him to play a polka.

Cory has also placed his work in television programs, video games, and dance clubs, where he digs improvising on the accordion behind techno DJs.

In fact, he has revolutionized the technology behind the accordion and has managed to bring what has always been a quaint and antiquated musical sound into the mainstream and beyond. His electric accordion, with wild LED lights and flaming design, is partially responsible for that. “People are sticklers when it comes to the acoustic accordion,” he said, “but if you play an electric accordion, you can more easily establish it as a cool, hip and accepted instrument. Then you can make your own rules.”

Whether he’s improvising through a Bach composition, dueting with partner and violinist Yasmine Azaiez, or ripping it up on the dance floor, he can play it all, as he turns the accordion into a mind-boggling spectrum of sound. In Cory’s hands, it is anything but just another instrument. Once you witness his virtuosity, and versatility—not to mention his ability to simply accompany as well as lead—you know you’re listening to one of the best musicians ever to lay his hands on those buttons.

“I’m always pushing to be a great musician that happens to play the accordion, rather than simply an accordionist that plays the accordion,” he says. “I’m trying to change the image of the Lawrence Welk idea of an accordion player that has run like a virus through the opinions of the country for 50 years now.”

That he has. And he’s only just begun.

Check out Cory Pesaturo. He’s got over a hundred videos on YouTube, a Wikipedia entry, and a web page with his name on it. If you’re looking for a unique talent, with consummate ability, musical wherewithal, and boundless musical potential, you’ve found your man: Cory Pesaturo.

Just don’t ask him to play a polka. Or anything else you are used to hearing on an accordion.