Wally Stark

Walter (Wally) Stark (1912-2007) was born in Chicago, Illinois and introduced to the concertina by his cousin, Rudy Patek, owner of the Patek Music Store. Wally spent many years at Patek’s teaching, repairing, and meeting many concertina players.

Wally attributed his love for the concertina to Rudy Patek, Henry Schukert, Henry Silberhorn, Frank Schmidt, Ben Ray, Charlie Blim, Larry Dust, and Joe Stacy, and Pearl Queen builders, Otto Schlicht and Paul Ewald.

Wally taught concertina to approximately 1,500 students over a 47-year span. Stark had 15 unpublished compositions plus hundreds of arrangements to his credit.

Wally retired to Garland, Texas where he joined the Texas Accordion Association.

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