Franco Cambareri

Melbourne composer Franco Cambareri was barely able to walk when he first heard the magic sound of the piano accordion - an instrument he promptly fell in love with and dreamed of one day possessing.

From the shores of the Calabria region of Italy and at the tender age of fifteen, Franco boarded the steamer Neptune to make the long voyage down under and soon after arriving in Melbourne he started working to help pay for the rest of his family to join him in Australia.

Franco was seventeen when he finally had enough money to put a deposit on an accordion and pay for one music lesson per week - his determination to learn meant he spent many a long hour in study and practice.

In the early sixties Franco spent twelve months in Rome furthering his studies in music and on his return from the eternal city he formed a quintet which met with instant success and enjoyed popularity on radio, television and at social clubs and night clubs around Melbourne.

With this experience and after releasing several EP records it was time to move on and in the mid sixties the Trio Franco was born, a combo that was to become so much in demand they sometimes performed even two or three times a day!

The group was awarded second prize at the first ever International Song Festival in Melbourne and went on to record and release a number of EP's and a full length LP album. One of the highlights of this period was the collaboration as producers and actors on the weekly television musical program"Carosello". There followed an overseas stint on the South Pacific island of Fiji where the Trio Franco delighted audiences at many and varied venues.

During this time Franco somehow managed to also teach music and accordion to many young aspiring musicians and today some of Melbourne's finest can lay claim to having their careers initiated from those early lessons.

Franco finally stopped playing and performing in public in the mid seventies in order to pursue a totally different career path but when he eventually retired the passion for music returned as strong as ever.

He decided to devote himself to composing the music he loved and to date has written over three hundred and eighty original instrumental works and has sixteen CDs to his credit. The first of these, "Tender Feelings" (released through Colossal Records of Australia), received significant airplay on a number of radio stations across the country.

Franco's compositions are also available through various web sites around the world including frosinisociety.org and musicforaccordion.com both of which specialize in the electronic distribution of sheet music specifically for the accordion and many of his songs can be heard on YouTube and Soundcloud.

Some years ago one of Franco's compositions titled "Pour Aline" was amongst the top ten awarded in the instrumental category from thousands of entries in the Australian Songwriters Association Songwriting Contest.

Another composition titled "Capricciosa" also featured on ABC Classic FM as part of the ABC's "Sunday Live" concerts which are broadcast throughout Australia and internationally through radio and the internet. Guitarist Giuseppe Zangari and flautist Sally Walker received enthusiastic applause for their performance of the song in a recital transmitted live from the Harold Lobb Concert Hall at the Newcastle Conservatorium Of Music.

Capricciosa again featured in a concert (March 2016) held at the world famous Sydney Opera House and billed as "Postcards from Italy", a journey through Italy via some of the country's most memorable melodies performed by acclaimed musicians Victoria Jacono-Gilmovich , Giuseppe Zangari , Cosima De Vito and Daniel Tambasco.

The Postcards from Italy concert delivered a combination of instrumental and vocal gems that are an iconic part of the Italian Identity , showing off Italy's musical heritage through a diverse array of regional styles, instruments and dances.

Still more recently the ever popular Capricciosa was part of the programme at a series of concerts held at The Auditorium of the Narrabundah College in the Australian Capital Territory performed by Sydney Conservatorium graduate flautist Jane Reyner and internationally acclaimed award winning composer and guitarist Marian Rudos.

Franco’s compositions cover many styles ranging from European and Continental favourites such as waltz, tango, polka to the more contemporary and very popular Latin styles salsa, cumbia, bachata, merengue and are performed regularly by all manner of combos from one man bands to full orchestras at countless venues where music for dancing is featured.

Franco Cambareri dedicates the music he writes to his family and friends of which he has many - not surprising for a man and musician whose inspiration for composing comes unmistakably from the heart.