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Anthony Bianco

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Musician

Double bass player, long-time member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Dec. 3, 1917 - Oct. 24, 2011 Double bassist Anthony Bianco held a 55-year tenure with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the longest-serving musician in the orchestra's history. Born in New Haven, Conn., in 1917, Mr. Bianco was first drawn to another low-register instrument, the tuba. Calling himself a "late starter" on the bass, it was not until he was 18 that he was introduced to it. And even then it was to play jazz with his older brother. Studying privately instead of entering a conservatory or university, he became so proficient in jazz that the Artie Shaw Band expressed interest in him. He turned down that offer in 1941 because he had taken to classical music as a student of famed bass player Sam Levitan -- that and a passionate desire to play under the Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini in the NBC Symphony Orchestra. It was an appropriate goal for an Italian-American musician (his parents were born in Salerno, Italy). In 1944, he subbed for that orchestra, but a year later he won an audition in Pittsburgh, then headed by conductor Fritz Reiner, and was hired as principal. He served in that role for 26 years. When he retired from the section in 1999, PSO music director Mariss Jansons presented him with a Golden Laureate Award. Mr. Bianco also was a renowned teacher with several of his students taking principal positions in major orchestras. He taught bass at Carnegie Mellon University for 60 years, as well as coached students at a Chatham University summer program from 1956 to 1970.

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