Pasquale Troise ( 1895 – 21 March 1957) was a popular bandleader, arranger and composer, active in England from the 1920s until his death in 1957. Born in Minori, a small fishing village near

Sorrento Sorrento ( , ; ; ) is a City status in Italy, city and overlooking the Gulf of Naples, Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the southern terminus of a main branch o ...

, Troise started playing the clarinet in the village band from the age of seven, then took up the mandolin, aged 12. Moving to London in the early 1920s he joined the London Radio Dance Band, performed in some early radio broadcasts with 2LO, and made his first stage appearance at the Plaza Theatre, Haymarket in 1932. With help from Colin Wark he formed his own band, initially known as Troise and his Mandoliers and later Troise and his Banjoliers. The classic instrumentation was piano, bass, drums, accordion and eight different sizes of banjo. Angy Palumbo was among its members. Troise secured a recording contract with

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, record label * Decca Gold, classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, musical theater record label * Decca Studios, recording facility in West ...

, and toured the country with his band. In September 1940 the band (initially as the Mandoliers) made its first appearance on the long-running BBC radio series

Music While You Work ''Music While You Work'' was a daytime radio programme of continuous live popular music broadcast in the United Kingdom twice daily on workdays from 23 June 1940 until 29 September 1967 by the BBC. Initially, the morning edition was generally ...

. As the Banjoliers they became the most used band in the series, with over 470 appearances.Reynolds, Brian. ''Music While You Work: An Era in Broadcasting'' (2006), pp. 26-7 and pp. 195-198 On the death of Pasquale Troise in 1957, the BBC negotiated with Mrs Troise to enable the Banjoliers to continue under the direction of conductor Jack Mandel, with use of the band's established music library. Under Mandel the band went on to perform in another 217 programmes until the show was discontinued in 1967. Its final performance was for the 60th anniversary celebration of ''Music While You Work'' in 1982.

Frederic Curzon Frederic Curzon (4 September 18996 December 1973) was an English composer, conductor and organist, associated with the theatre, early cinema and light music. He sometimes wrote under the pen names Graham Collett and Harold Ramsay. Biography Curz ...

was a friend and dedicated his orchestral piece ''Capricante'' (1949) to Troise. From the 1930s Troise was living at Rochester Terrace,

Camden Town Camden Town () is an area in the London Borough of Camden, around north-northwest of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is identified in the London Plan as one of 34 major centres in Greater London. Laid out as a residential distri ...

.'Mandoliers in Car Crash: Troise Injured', in ''The Manchester Guardian'', 13 June 1938, p.11 He died at his home in Bromwich Avenue, Highgate, aged 62, survived by his wife Louisa.Obituary, ''The Times'', 22 March 1957, p. 10

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Troise and his Banjoliers
British Pathe, filmed in 1933 {{DEFAULTSORT:Troise, Pasquale 1895 births 1957 deaths Italian banjoists British mandolinists English bandleaders English banjoists English light music composers Italian emigrants to the United Kingdom Italian light music composers Italian mandolinists