Comprised of mostly professional and semi-professional musicians, the Metropolitan Symphonic Band has had many performance highlights over the years.  Having originated in the 1920’s as an Italian processional band, their scope and list of experiences have developed into those of a full scale and active symphonic band and includes two tours of Italy where they played concerts in Florence, Rome, Sorrento, Terracina, Latina, and Patrica.  They performed at the Vatican in the presence of the Holy Father where they also premiered “Madonna Di Pace”, a work which had been written just for them and for that occasion by a former director, Walter Iacobucci.  In Rome they were awarded a Medal of Peace.

       Other performances include an award ceremony for the Italian Cultural Heritage Society of Western Pennsylvania, the Duquesne University Mid-East Music Conference in Pittsburgh, the Festa Delle Belle Arti in Carnegie Hall in Oakland at Soldiers Sailors Hall, the Strip District, and PPG Place.  They were featured at the Sons of Columbus of America National Columbus 500 Celebration.  The Band also played for the Statehood Celebration at the State Capitol Building in Harrisburg, and the West Virginia Music Educators’ Conference in Wheeling West Virginia.  That same year they were invited by the Consul General of Italy to perform in Philadelphia for the Day of the Republic of Italy Celebration.  They were included in the Sons of Columbus of America Incorporated National Convention which was being held in Pittsburgh that year.

      Their music has emanated from stages in the ballroom of the Hilton in downtown Pittsburgh, the Westin William Penn, the Sheraton in Station Square, Wilson Lodge in Oglebay, Nemacolin Woodlands, and the Main Stage at Station Square for the I.C. Light Italian Festival.  They continue to play annually at the Brodhead Cultural Center on the Penn State Beaver Campus, for the Crafton Performing Arts Council at the band shell in Crafton Park, and for the Italian Heritage Society of Monessen where their rendition of “Nessun Dorma” has become a standing favorite.  For several years, at the Gene Sachs farm, they participated in the Opera Society benefit which was known as the “Tito Capobianco Birthday Party” prior to his retirement.

        The Band was originally formed as a festival band for the celebration days of San Rocco, the patron saint of the Province of Patrica in Italy, the ancestral home of much of the Italian community of Aliquippa.  The Band’s home was the M.P.I. Club in Aliquippa which had also developed a school of music to insure that their musicians would all have proper training, and that there would be a constant stream of new band members.  In addition to lessons on their instruments, the students studied solfeggio and learned the traditional ‘ballabiles’ which were performed by ear during the serenade portions of the festivals.  Another purpose of the club was to teach English to the Italian immigrants, and to help them to qualify for U.S. citizenship.

         Early directors of the band included Walter Iacobucci’s father, and Umberto Biancucci, the father of another later director, Vince Biancucci.  Walter Iacobucci Jr. followed Vince in 1975, and during his tenure, the band enlarged its venue and became the Metropolitan Italian Symphonic Band.  Aldo DiIanni followed Walter Iacobucci as director, and upon Aldo’s retirement, his brother Tony DiIanni assumed the role as Music Director for the group.

       The Band has a wide-ranging and well-rounded repertoire that features Italian idiomatic forms, symphonic transcriptions, overtures from operas, wind ensemble literature, jazz, pop, swing, marches of all kinds including the “Marcie Sinfoniche”, (the Italian processional marches), big band sounds, ballades, tarantellas, and polkas.

Laura Smith

Band Member and Spokesperson

Webpage maintained by: rpawlish@wpa.net