page_title: Bernardo De Pace
hierarchical_section_title: Bernardo De Pace
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Bernardo De Pace, from Music Trades magazine, November 22, 1919, page 43. De Pace was an Italian mandolinist who played before European royalty and immigrated into the United States in 1909 and became U.S. citizen in 1924. He toured the United States for years (roughly 1909-1920), ran his own opera company with his brother Nicolas and worked the vaudeville circuits. The photo was part of an advertisement for Lyon &amp; Healy mandolins: "Thought he had orchestra_Bernardo De Pace puzzled San Francisco audience with Lyon &amp; Healy mandolin__Chicago, Ill., Nov. 18. -- The accompanying portrait shows Bernardo De Pace, the eminent mandolinist who has been touring the vaudeville circuit of this country for the last seven years, in company with his brother the guitarist. Mr. De Pace has achieved great popularity here as well as abroad for his skill on the mandolin, and his technique, purity of tone, and amazing skill in double stops have attracted much attention. He uses the Lyon &amp; Healy "Own Make Mandolin," of which he said recently: When I played my Lyon &amp; Healy "Own Make Mandolin" lately at the Casino Theater, San Francisco, to an audience of four thousand people, it surprised me to hear that some of them were betting that I had an orchestra of mandolinists playing with me, behind the stage. Since I have used the Lyon &amp; Healy instrument I have greatly increased my success at vaudeville performances and concerts."
context_page_description: Bernardo De Pace was an actor, musician and comedic vaudeville entertainer of the 1910s and 1920s, billed as "the Wizard of the Mandolin". He learned to play mandolin in the Italian tradition under Francesco Della Rosa. De Pace's repertoire and technique was described in the Brooklyn Life as involving "the most difficult violin and piano compositions, executed at inconceivably rapid tempi demanding an uncanny technique seldom heard on fretted instruments". In 1927 the Minneapolis Star said that he had been recognized as one of the best mandolinists in the United States. It added that he was more than a mandolinist, that his skill was in playing on human emotions as few musicians were able.
  Growing up in the Golden Age of the Mandolin, he was one of its star performers in both Europe and the United States. De Pace won an international mandolin contest at an early age, and as his grandson Bobby De Pace later put it, "From 11 to 17, he played for kings and queens."
context_section_description: Bernardo De Pace (March 31, 1881 – June 15, 1966) was an actor, musician and comedic vaudeville entertainer of the 1910s and 1920s, billed as "the Wizard of the Mandolin". He learned to play mandolin in the Italian tradition under Francesco Della Rosa. De Pace's repertoire and technique was described in the Brooklyn Life as involving "the most difficult violin and piano compositions, executed at inconceivably rapid tempi demanding an uncanny technique seldom heard on fretted instruments". In 1927 the Minneapolis Star said that he had been recognized as one of the best mandolinists in the United States. It added that he was more than a mandolinist, that his skill was in playing on human emotions as few musicians were able.
  Growing up in the Golden Age of the Mandolin, he was one of its star performers in both Europe and the United States. De Pace won an international mandolin contest at an early age, and as his grandson Bobby De Pace later put it, "From 11 to 17, he played for kings and queens." He worked in England for nearly 10 years, starting in 1900, playing with the Blackpool Winter Gardens' Orchestra for 3 seasons and touring the country for nearly 7 seasons with his brother Nicolas, until 1909 when they emigrated to the United States from Italy.
  By 1921 he had toured extensively both as a musician and a vaudeville performer. For many years, De Pace was mandolin soloist at the Metropolitan Opera in addition to his turns on the vaudeville stage. His talents were also recorded in the newly emerging film industry; his camp performance style is captured in a Warner Bros. Vitaphone short from 1927 (Bernado  [sic] de Pace: The Wizard of the Mandolin) which was released on DVD in 2007 as part of The Jazz Singer deluxe edition, and two MGM shorts from 1929. He also released a series of recordings ranging from light classical pieces to original compositions in traditional Italian style.
caption: De Pace in 1919 from Music Trades magazine
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