Al was inspired by music first because of his parents who dated when they lived in Germany. His dad, his uncle and their friends would “serenade” their girlfriends when they sang and played guitars and violins outside their windows. Both families moved to The United States and Al’s parents were married. For fifty years, his dad and uncle performed every other Saturday night at the Liederkranz in Lancaster. His mother even performed and sang.
Al developed his own love of music as a child and started taking piano lessons at the age of ten, learning chords and different styles of music. At the age of fifteen he played in different bands which continued through high school, college and medical school.
There are many parallels between Al’s life and his brother’s. They both attended medical school at Penn. Al was head of the psychiatry department at St. Joseph Hospital in Lancaster, while his brother headed up the psychiatry department at Lancaster General Hospital. Al and Peggy had 5 daughters and his brother had 5 daughters and a son.
Their families are also very musically inclined and their daughters developed a love of music. Peggy directed eight of the girls who performed in a singing octet. They played and performed at local Catholic churches. Peggy was a music major in college.
One group he is part of—The Big, Big Jazz Band started in the mid-sixties with people who worked at Armstrong Cork Company, as it was called then. Now the band has many professional musicians. They have played at Long’s Park, Lancaster Country Club, and the Fulton Theater among other local venues. They play music from Gershwin, Cole Porter, Sinatra, Nat King Cole, the Glenn Miller Band, Count Basie Band and Bing Crosby.
Today Al plays keyboards in four bands – The Big, Big Jazz Band, The Moonlighters Big Band, The Bluebirds Ragtime Band and Good Friends, a small band with Sousa bass horn, banjo, drums and piano. Al has also directed the children’s choir at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Lancaster since 1990.
Al and the Big, Big Jazz Band will play at Homestead Village this summer!
