Bernardo De Pace

Bernardo De Pace (March 31, 1881 – June 15, 1966) was an actor, musician and comedic vaudeville entertainer of the 1910s and 1920s, billed as “the Wizard of the Mandolin”. He learned to play mandolin in the Italian tradition under Francesco Della Rosa. De Pace’s repertoire and technique was described in the Brooklyn Life as involving “the most difficult violin and piano compositions, executed at inconceivably rapid tempi demanding an uncanny technique seldom heard on fretted instruments”. In 1927 the Minneapolis Star said that he had been recognized as one of the best mandolinists in the United States. He worked in England for nearly 10 years, starting in 1900, playing with the Blackpool Winter Gardens’ Orchestra for 3 seasons and touring the country for nearly 7 seasons with his brother Nicolas, until 1909 when they emigrated to the United States from Italy. By 1921 he had toured extensively both as a musician and a vaudeville performer. European tours Bernardo moved to Naples with his family when he was two. He began to play the mandolin at five years of age and it became his passion “to the exclusion of all else”. He impressed Luigi with his musical aptitude and received lessons