Taking the World by Storm: An Interview with Accordionist, Cory Pesaturo

Cory Pesaturo wants his fifteen minutes of fame, soon, before he's too old to enjoy it. "Twenty-two is getting very old in the 'try to get famous' music world," says Pesaturo. "Most people want thirteen-year-olds playing these ridiculous concertos." Don't get him wrong: Pesaturo can play the hell out of those concertos; he's even been dubbed "The Fastest Musician on the Planet." He's already been the childhood success story.

By the time he was fifteen, he'd met the president and played a gig at the White House, won the U.S. National Accordion Championship, and earned himself a reputation as a rebel, ala accordion master Dick Contino, by refusing to play the songs everybody expected accordionists to play. "The problem is, unless you're at least a basic level musician, most people would not be able to tell a difference between the way I play now and the way I played when I was fifteen, although musically, I'm a hundred times more knowledgeable."

Pesaturo has mastered an instrument that makes most people think of old men playing the 'Lady of Spain', so it's no wonder that his primary concern is bumping up the "cool" factor of his chosen career path. "It does look a little goofy, I will say in a minute," says Pesaturo, of the accordion, "the image isn't great." They don't call it the squeezebox for nothing, and for a kid growing up learning how to play, times were tough. "I was pretty ridiculed for it, as the accordion is in general. That did not get me gals."

The accordion's not an easy instrument. In addition to requiring dexterity in both hands, one needs near Herculean strength to play continuously, while standing, since Pesaturo's favorite acoustic model, the Sonola, weighs nearly 25 pounds. That might not sound like much, but with constant movement needed to open and close the bellows and fingers that fly as fast as Cory's, one can understand why the maximum time he can play before his arms turn to jelly is about two hours. (Think playing an accordion is tough? Try flying with one. The feat requires splitting an acoustic model into two pieces, which must be carried on, and lots of bubble wrap.)

With such a focus on his music, Pesaturo has had little time for much in the way of what he calls a 'normal' social life. "I always say I sacrificed my college life for my music career," he says, but he's hoping that his life as a touring musician will make all his sacrifices worth it: "I have catching up to do!"

He won't have to wait long. Last week, Pesaturo traveled to LA to audition for 'America's Got Talent'. This week, he went to Africa for the Tunis World Music Festival. "This is the first year that my career is really branching out all over the place," says Pesaturo, and he's not kidding. He's still waiting to hear back about a gig in Egypt for July, and in October, he'll be in Scotland.

"I'm almost hoping the Egypt thing doesn't come through," admits Pesaturo. That's because he's been invited to speak about his records lists and Global Warming relations at the Eastern U.S. Weather Conference V in Providence in July. "Paul Kocin is going to be there. He's, like, my hero. He's everybody's hero in the weather world."

That's right; when people say Pesaturo is taking the world by storm, they aren't kidding: he compiles weather statistics for fun, spending up to three hours a day researching records and recording information. He compiled a report about New England winters that earned him the nickname, The Snowman, which he uses as an online moniker. He's even an official weather spotter for the National Weather Service.

But his interest in weather goes beyond snow. In 2005, the year Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Pesaturo was compiling a list of weather records being set that year. "That was by far the most impressive year on record the last 150 years. Nothing's even come close, so I had my work cut out for me." He sent his list out to meteorologists around the country, and now, universities use his lists as a research tool, so he's rushing to finish his 2008 list. Wikipedia even asked him to put it on the site, but quibbles about sourcing has held up the process.

"I didn't tell my parents I was doing it, because if they knew I was doing three hours a day of non-musical stuff while they're paying thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dollars for me to go to music school, they would have killed me."

Pesaturo also loves Formula 1 autoracing so much that he'll often turn down gigs that take place during the races. "If I wasn't a musician and I did my life over, I probably would have been a racecar driver." He's even managed to combine his interests: during a recent car show in Newport, Cory met with two people from Speed TV, the station that broadcasts the races in the U.S. Since then, he's had his music being played during the national Formula 1 broadcasts. "God, family, F1, people don't realize how important racing is to me. They have no idea."

As for the future, Pesaturo hopes to give the accordion an image that appeals to a young, hip crowd. "I want to bring the accordion back, that's the main thing," says Pesaturo. His job as a demonstrator for the Roland V digital accordion will surely appeal to an 'all-electronic, all-the-time' generation. He wants to show the unlimited potentials of the instrument: "We've got to show that the accordion can be a rock instrument. It can be everything." He wants girls to think he's hot.

Pesaturo's versatility on the instrument will certainly help. "I try to be as diverse as I can possibly be, so I go play some French gig, do Italian background music for a video, or do a big jam session at a jazz place, or go play at an orchestra," says Pesaturo. "I try to be able to do all of it. That's the goal." And if the music career doesn't work out? He can weather the changes by pursuing a career in meteorology.