Stanley Grabowski

Stanley L. Grabowski (1913-2002) of St. Paul, Minnesota and later, Kansas City, Missouri, started playing the concertina at the age of 14 and played professionally for 69 years. He started by being a solo performer, playing the intermissions at movie theatres in the 1930s and 1940s.

Stan played in the Ben Kurysh Orchestra in St. Paul, Minnesota where Stan and Ben were billed as the “Concertina Twins.” He arranged many concertina duets for their performances. Stan taught dozens of students for about 16 years.

Stan learned reed making, tuning, and repairing concertinas at the Otto Schlicht concertina factory in Chicago, Illinois. He started working for the Keating Music Company in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1931. He would travel to cities and towns around Minnesota demonstrating the concertina and selling them from his car.

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