Albert Storti

Throughout a career spanning over sixty years the late Albert Storti nurtured a passion and feeling for music which can only evoke the words of a famous philosopher who once wrote “Without music, life would be a mistake”.

Such is the story of the consummate professional who always managed to successfully combine his natural musical ability and unquestionable commitment with a healthy dose of entrepreneurial panache.

This ensured his services were in constant demand at a multitude of prestige venues including chic night clubs, piano bars, fashionable restaurants and five star hotels with engagements taking him all over Australia and even overseas.

Albert's exquisite piano style was sublimely complemented by his vocal ability which could only be described as that of the classic crooner whose vast and varied repertoire of international favorites, performed in English, Italian and Spanish, never failed to create that special, unique ambience which only the seasoned entertainer is capable of creating.

His performances invariably included a selection of his own popular compositions executed not only on piano but also, when the occasion demanded, on the piano accordion, another instrument with which Albert was highly proficient.

Albert was for a number of years contracted to the Federal Pacific Hotel chain and during this time he had the opportunity to tour Australia performing as far afield as in Australia's Northern Territory at the MGM Grand Darwin Casino and Lasserter's Hotel Casino Alice Springs, to the island state of Tasmania where he twinkled the ivories at the Wrest Point Hotel & Casino in Hobart and again at the Launceston Country Club Resort Casino.

He cherished particularly fond memories of the period spent entertaining guests at Sandals Night Club in the tropical far north Queensland tourist resort of Cairns, as was a stint overseas at the Excelsior Hotel in Milan, Italy.

Back at base Albert always enjoyed a well deserved reputation for providing quality music at a list of five star venues far too long to mention here but which, in downtown Melbourne alone, included the Windsor, Sofitel and Chateau Commodore hotels, the Menzies At Rialto (now the Intercontinental), the Park Hyatt and the Savoy Park Plaza.

It seems appropriate to conclude this profile of a musician who enjoyed a long and successful career with a comment printed some years back in one of Australia's most respected daily newspapers, The Age, and in which Peter C. Joyce, referring to Albert, wrote;

"His background piano playing is always unobtrusively relaxing the mood, with numbers ranging from Bach to Brubeck. Without doubt, the initial impression is one of excellence".

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