Rudy Cipolla, born Rodolfo Cipolla, was an

Italian American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...

mandolinist and composer. Born in the province of

Cosenza Cosenza (; local dialect: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000; the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Province of Cosenza, which has a populati ...

in 1900, he emigrated to the United States at a very young age, settling in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

at age 8. Though his father played both guitar and mandolin, Rudy was self-taught on both

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

and

mandocello The mandocello ( it, mandoloncello, Liuto cantabile, liuto moderno) is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family. It is larger than the mandolin, and is the baritone instrument of the mandolin family. Its eight strings are in four paire ...

. He moved to San Francisco in 1931 and found work as a musician on local radio. From 1941 on, he owned a shop called the ''Book Nook'' in San Francisco, selling candy and comic books while composing music. He played a concert of

Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread a ...

with the

San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony (SFS), founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The San Fr ...

under

Enrique Jordá Enrique Jordá (March 24, 1911 – March 18, 1996) was a Spanish-American conductor. Born in San Sebastián (Guipúzcoa, Spain), later on he was a naturalized US citizen. After conducting in Madrid, Cape Town and Antwerp, he was music direc ...

in the 1950s. It was not until 1983 when he released his first album, ''The World of Rudy Cipolla'', produced by his friend and fellow mandolinist

David Grisman David Grisman (born March 23, 1945) is an American mandolinist. His music combines bluegrass, folk, and jazz in a genre he calls "Dawg music". He founded the record label Acoustic Disc, which issues his recordings and those of other acoustic mu ...

. He has numerous compositions for mandolin, some of which are part of the soundtracks of the films ''

Capone Alphonse Gabriel Capone (; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the ...

'' and ''

Peggy Sue Got Married ''Peggy Sue Got Married'' is a 1986 American fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola starring Kathleen Turner as a woman on the verge of a divorce, who finds herself transported back to the days of her senior year in high sch ...

''. Shortly after he died in 2000, Grisman and other associated musicians hosted a benefit concert for Cipolla's family at

The Freight and Salvage The Freight and Salvage (known as "The Freight") is a nonprofit musical performance venue in Berkeley, California that primarily hosts Americana music and world music acts. History The Freight was founded in 1968 and derived its name from the ...

.Richard B. Simon. ''Grisman and Friends Pay Homage to Late Mentor'' MTV News, March 30, 2000. Retrieved from http://www.mtv.com/news/820317/grisman-and-friends-pay-homage-to-late-mentor/. Accessed November 17, 2020 The city of Cosenza wanted to remember him as part of the Invasioni 2000 Festival with a concert performed by Beppe Gambetta, who knew him personally, and

Carlo Aonzo Carlo is a given name. It is an Italian form of Charles. It can refer to: *Carlo (name) *Monte Carlo *Carlingford, New South Wales, a suburb in north-west Sydney, New South Wales, Australia *A satirical song written by Dafydd Iwan about Prince Char ...

References

External links

Rudy Cipolla ArchivesRudy Cipolla discography at DiscogsRudy Cipolla credits at IMDb
Musicians from California Music of California Music of the San Francisco Bay Area Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area American mandolinists 1900 births 2000 deaths Italian emigrants to the United States {{US-musician-stub