''The Maestro,The Man, And Tortellini Again'' Told By Cheryl Ann Elias.

About the Book

Book Description Imagine you have boarded a time machine bound backwards for the first years of the Twentieth Century when immigrant boatloads were disembarking on America’s shores. This is just the beginning of the world you enter in the book “Notes On This American Life”. It’s the story of how Dr. Gil Guglielmi’s Italian roots sustained his metamorphosis from immigrant son to the fulfillment of the American Dream. First and foremost family was everything in this hostile environment. The outside world was so obviously unwelcoming to these foreigners who struggled with the language as they labored under the most severe of working conditions that greeted the first generation of his family the moment they set foot on American soil. There were no social programs to ease their adjustment. Like the blind they had to feel their way around and learn the new landscape by trial and error. And there were numerous trials. From the plantation master’s glare and whip to the cruelty of digging coal from the mines of Southern Illinois you get a feel for what life must have been like for your own immigrant ancestors. This story serves as a reminder to all of us “just how far we have come” because of those brave relatives who struck out like Columbus for the New World. Gil was the first of the new American generation to survive his birth. Before the Great Depression hit, Gil’s father gave him the clarinet that was simply something new in his life at the time, but later on would open doors of opportunity and success the two earlier generations never had the chance to explore. Like a typical kid Gil was only sometimes interested in making music until a teacher came to town and took this gifted kid under his wing, a teacher who would inspire him and become the role model for his own adult life. The journey from kid clarinet player to professional musician and respected Philadelphia area music educator and conductor was anything but smooth for this high school drop out. To make matters worse World War II demanded his presence in Europe. How did he survive Normandy Beach and The Battle Of The Bulge? He credits his mother’s love and devotion with his survival and his success. The War ends with Gil settling down to a domestic life with his first wife, a marriage that struggled along as Gil juggled several jobs to support them and his emerging desire to become a teacher, a “professore”. How he finds a way to make this desire a reality will inspire anyone who has ever encountered discouragement in the face of serious obstacles like circumstance or age. “Notes On This American Life” will leave you humming an upbeat tune.

About the Author

Dr. Gil Guglielmi is a first generation American of Italian heritage who began his music career at the age of nine, turned professional at fifteen, served his country in World War Two, and after graduating from Temple University spent more than forty years as a music educator in Bucks County Pennsylvania’s Centennial School District and as Conductor of the Warminster Symphony Orchestra. He received his Master’s Degree in Music from the College of New Jersey before becoming the oldest student to ever receive a Doctorate from the Combs College of Music when he was in his seventies. Dr. Guglielmi is Maestro of the Southampton Community Band, which he helped establish at the age of eighty. He lives with his wife Emily, a musician and music educator herself, in Trevose, Pennsylvania, except for summers when you can find them in the medieval quarter of Siena, Italy. Cheryl Ann Elias is an award winning Broadcast Journalist for KYW Newsradio in Philadelphia.