Tony Romandini obit

Tony Romandini Has Died

 

He was not on the list.

It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of former Vanier electric guitar teacher, Tony Romandini on June 3, 2020.

Tony taught here for over 20 years and retired in 2012. In addition to being a guitarist and teacher, he was a respected composer and arranger. As a teenager he studied guitar in New York, and by the age of 15 had performed with Maynard Ferguson. By the age of 20 he was working for the CBC and performing in clubs around Montreal and abroad.

In addition to performing on guitar, Tony also played banjo, mandolin, and classical guitar. He gave concerts of classical music in France and Germany during the 1960s, and has performed with the Montreal and Quebec Symphony Orchestras.

Tony appeared several times in the Montreal International jazz festival, including as a backing musician to Oscar Peterson in the pianist’s appearance with the MSO at the festival in 1985.

Those of us who knew and worked with him will remember him fondly not only as an amazing musical talent, but as a warm, generous person with a wonderful sense of humour.

He was a Canadian jazz guitarist, composer, arranger, and teacher.

He was born in Montreal, Quebec to Italian immigrants. He started playing guitar at the age of 8, and by 20 years old he was working at the CBC as a session guitarist. In the 1950s he would play heavily in the Montreal Jazz circuit with other well-known musicians including pianists Paul de Margerie, Roland Lavallée and Maury Kaye.

Tony went on to become a first-call jazz session player, playing with jazz legends including Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and many others. Later in his career, Romandini performed in Manuel de Falla's La Vida Breve with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, before finally settling down into teaching at Concordia University (1974–77) and later McGill University (1979–2000). He continued to give guitar lessons at Vanier College in Montreal.

He played a 1949 Epiphone Emperor.