When Larry's father died several years later, he had inherited his father's accordion.  It was a boisterous instrument, built to be heard in rooms filled with uproarious talk and laughter.  Its fingerworn keys spoke the years his father had filled smoke-blue dancehalls with music and happiness.  

 Following his father's death, Larry had moved into his grandmother's Minneapolis duplex.  "She lived upstairs," he says.  "At the time I was taking piano lessons.  We couldn't get my piano up the stairs, we couldn't even hoist it up, so I told my grandmother that I wanted to try a piano accordion". 

 Larry took lessons at the music store.  He learned quickly.  And for a time he studied at MacPhail. 

 By the age of 13, he had lost both parents.  His grandmother took care of him, and he took care of her.  By age fifteen, Larry's music paid the bills.  The accordion had become his friend for both pleasure and necessity.   

 It wasn't long after, Larry began playing classical music with noted musician Les Samualson's ensemble: accordion, vibes, violin, bass and guitar.  The ensemble played at Sheik's Café. 

 In 1939 through the war years, Larry taught accordion each afternoon and played the stage bars until after midnight.  He worried that he didn't have a steady job, but he soon found that he earned more playing the clubs than he could have earned working elsewhere.  For a time he returned to Sheik's Café until changing music trends brought him back to playing clubs. 

 But Larry's talent and range of music styles brought him more glamorous opportunities.  In 1944, when live music was a part of local radio programs, he was on the music staff of several local radio and television stations.   

 In 1953 he played the Radisson Hotel Flame Room, where big acts were brought in form New York including the Ed Sullivan Show.  Larry often wrote musical scores for the visiting acts.  He recalls having played with Liberace and the Four Ladds.   

 His excellent musical arrangements drew national tour invitations from the visiting gourps.  Larry declined them.  Minneapolis was his home. 

 He moved from the Radisson to the Aglasie where he played for seven years.  His accordion's popularity was flourishing in those days.  Larry and his early teacher, Les Samualson, opened a teaching center, the Professional Music Center.  During that time, Larry and other accordionists were appearing on television.  Following each television appearance, students flocked to the center for lessons.  At one time Larry had more than 50 students.  He was definitely a polished teacher.   

 In 1963, one of his students, Skeets Langley, competed in Europe against more than twenty countries.  Skeets won first place in the world for his performance of Tchaikovsky's Concerto, an arrangement Larry had spent months adapting to accordion.  "I must've torn it up and started over five times, "Larry said.  "It was twenty four pages."  Larry has tutored contest winners through 1991.   

 Larry's musical career glitters with significant names.  Dina Shore, Pavarati, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Minnesota Opera and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.  He wrote a  score for Phantom of the Opera, and has performed in Victor Victoria when it played in the Twin Cities. 

 Larry is seventy-two.  He still tours with the Golden Strings Quartet.  The Quartet entertains often in prominent establishments as well as farming community auditoriums and dancehalls.  Larry and his friends play it all-classical, jazz, polkas and popular music.  "We tell some jokes too", Larry says.  "You have to have some humor." 

 The years, miles and towns have drifted past with the music: Merle, Medford, Beaver Dam, Airfield, Blue Earth.   

 When asked how his family coped with his hectic schedules and over-the-road performances, Larry reflects "you have to have on understanding wife to be in this business.  I've got a wonderful and understanding wife.  Last year, Louise and I celebrated our 50th anniversary together."  Larry has three sons, two are musicians. 

 Larry plans to further his career by compiling and publishing much of the jazz pieces he has written over the years.

Online Catalog

Piano Accordions

• Concertinas
• Cases
• Song Books
• Instruction Videos