Tom Torriglia
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Tom Torriglia (Tor-il-ya) is one of the most sought-after musical entertainers in the
Bay Area due to his incredible musical talent,
professional attitude, theme-appropriate outfits and his ability to make
everyone have a great time.
Tom is typically used as a strolling or stationary soloist, as a "meet and greet" person, as a pied piper for groups of people going from one location to another and in any other number of ways. In addition to working as a soloist, Tom performs with other strolling musicians or as part of a combo for dancing or listening. Tom specializes in both playing and singing Italian and Italian-American favorites. The fact that Tom sings, especially in Italian, really helps to enhance the ambience of Italian-themed events. He gets people singing along on O Marie, O Sole Mio and of course, That's Amore. Everyone loves it when Tom goes table to table during a dinner and plays and sings the Pasta Song. Tom is also quite frequently hired to play French music and Polkas and he typically performs for weddings, birthday parties, anniversaries, corporate events and conventions, and anything else where people want to have some fun, festive music. Tom began his professional musical career in the late '60s. In 1989, Tom was asked to be part of Those Darn Accordions (TDA), a band that was only going to perform one gig ever. That one gig turned into 7 years. In 1989, Tom established the month of June as National Accordion Awareness Month tm. This yearly event gives Tom a forum in which to talk about the accordion and its popularity throughout he world.In 1990, Tom came up with the idea and spearheaded the effort to make the piano accordion the official musical instrument of San Francisco. It became law in May, 1990. In 1991, Tom co-produced the first San Francisco Accordion Festival tm and the Ms. Accordion San Francisco Pageant tm at the Anchorage Shopping center at Fisherman's Wharf. This festival is now currently held at the Cannery at Fisherman's Wharf.In 1990, Tom was asked to be on the founding committee of the Cotati Accordion festival and for three years Tom headed up the publicity for the festival. In 1997, Tom founded the in-line skating, accordion playing duo Bellows and Blades. In 1999, Tom founded the highly successful Squeegees' polka band along with fellow accordionist Ruth Peckham and in 2000, founded the mambolicious Italian swing and pop-music band, Bella Ciao. Tom is active in many musical and social organizations. Tom is a total grammar geek and founded the National Association for Good Grammar. Tom volunteers his time for Music In Schools Today (mustcreate.org). Tom was born February 8, 1953 in San Francisco and is of northern Italian descent. Tom is a cancer survivor and currently resides in the Marina district of San Francisco. ###
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