MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – Meet Nathan Longo, accordion aficionado and self-proclaimed “Sparkles” enthusiast. His Italian Giulietti accordion from the glorious ’60s hardly leaves his side. “This is the accordion I play the most,” he states, eyeing it as if it were a partner at a questionable dance party.
At my behest, he’s decided to grace us with his presence on the Vermont Statehouse lawn—a stage more accustomed to political grandstanding than to spontaneous accordion serenades. “I’ve played downtown some,” he admits, sounding a little like a reluctant politician, “but I’ve never played at the Statehouse.” Not yet, anyway.
I ask him about stage fright, anticipating some dramatic revelation. Reporter Joe Carroll inquires: “Performing for people, you get a little stage fright?”
“Ah, it’s not a little,” Longo replies, deadpan. “It’s a lot.” Well, that clears up nothing. Imagine the tension of squeezing air and music from an accordion in front of a massive audience of… one.
As if to mock the whole idea of stage fright, Longo plays an untitled masterpiece he conceived in the last decade. If it had a name, he jokingly suggests it would be “Patience.” And oh, does he have a lot of that. “You have to be very patient,” he quips, likely referring to anyone who’s ever listened to him play.
One might think he’d rather be fixing accordions in his workshop—a mere block from the Golden Dome— than serenading a glaringly empty lawn. “I’m a lot better fixing them than I am playing them,” he optimistically states. Supporting this claim, he adds, “There aren’t many people that fix accordions… I’m a lot busier than I thought I would ever be.” Busy? More like the last unicorn in a field of horses. Who knew the accordion repair business was booming?
What started as a retirement hobby has evolved into a 30-hour-a-week gig for the 74-year-young Longo. “There really are more people that are interested in accordions than I ever thought,” he muses, probably wondering where all these people were when he was learning to dance with them. One can only hope they bring excellent hearing aids.
Raised in Orange County, this young tinkerer faced academic tribulations that would make anyone second-guess their career choices. “It took forever for them to teach me how to write my name,” he explains. “But nobody knew about dyslexia then.” A scrap of irony in our education system: eager future accordionists blurting names without actually knowing how to spell them.
Longo eventually found solace in fixing high-end machinery in Massachusetts—dyslexia be damned! “Dyslexics have a really good 3D visualization,” he asserts, maybe making up for lost time. He picked up the accordion at the tender age of 50, clearly aiming to keep his brain from turning into mush. “They’re very expressive and they’re extremely versatile,” he notes. Some might argue this describes Longo himself during his solo performances.
Back at the Statehouse, the Super Senior continues to play on, squeezing every drop out of life—or perhaps just the life out of his accordion. After all, isn’t that what we all aspire to do: wring out every last bit of joy until there’s nothing left but the sweet sound of our questionable choices? Here’s to you, Nathan Longo: the accordion king of Montpelier!
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