Longtime Germantown resident and native Tom Di Nardo, 89, who went to Germantown Friends School and later became one of the region’s most prolific music writers, passed away on Sept. 19 in the city of Catania, Sicily, Italy, after a brief illness.
Di Nardo’s son, Marc, and daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Drum, traveled to be with him in the final stages of his illness. According to his family, Di Nardo was nearing the end of a trip where he had visited friends and locations in Tuscany, and family in his ancestral region of Abbruzzo, along with finally touring Sicily for the first time, bringing a lifelong dream to fruition.
“Our grief is profound,” his daughter, Lisa DiNardo Parker, told the Local, “especially because of the suddenness of his passing. But we rejoice in the knowledge that his life was so rich with experiences and relationships with so many people.”
Di Nardo, who also lived in Mt. Airy for a few years after graduating from Tufts University with a degree in electrical engineering, worked in engineering for 36 years for the Philadelphia Electric Company as his “day job.” His real passion, though, was interviewing and getting to know many of the country’s most talented and acclaimed musicians, particularly in the classical music and operatic fields.
Over the years, he wrote thousands of articles as a freelance journalist about symphonies, chamber music groups, ballet and dance companies, jazz and pop artists and more. Most of his articles appeared in the late Philadelphia Bulletin and the Philadelphia Daily News.
Dennis Creedon, who worked at the Academy of Music for 28 years and was the director of education at Opera Philadelphia (formerly Opera Company of Philadelphia) for 11 years while at the same time being a teacher, told us, “Tom was always a positive force and voice in the music community. He will be sadly missed.”
Kile Smith, a composer and friend of Di Nardo, told the Local last week, “Tom almost single-handedly brought Romeo Cascarino’s opera, ‘William Penn,’ to the stage, in 1982. The Naxos CD of Cascarino’s orchestral music, conducted by JoAnn Falletta, never would have existed without Tom.
“He always had stories to tell, gentle and funny. Many of the musicians he interviewed became friends. He was surrounded by friends, especially at his house come Christmastime, where he and Margie served homemade pizza. It was a family recipe, and the dough had to come from a particular store in South Philly.”
Di Nardo’s countless compelling stories are contained in two exceptional books, “Performers Tell Their Stories: 40 Years Inside the Arts” and “Listening to Musicians: 40 Years of the Philadelphia Orchestra” (Jaygayle Music Books, 2016).
But his most recent work, “The Philadelphia Music Book,” is a collection of 65 of his mini-biographies, most of them about jazz and classical musicians. It’s practically an encyclopedia with more than 300 biographies and stories about Philadelphia area musical artists who have gained national and international recognition. (Other local writers contributed to the book as well.)
“I spent all of last summer and fall working on the book,” Di Nardo told the Local in March of this year. “The hard part is condensing the life of a musician into 300 to 350 words. I want to give the musicians the respect they deserve. For the jazz musicians I wrote about, I listened to every single record of theirs.”
Among the many boldface musicians from Northwest Philadelphia that he profiled were Lola Falana of Germantown, singer/dancer/movie star; Leslie Odom Jr. of East Oak Lane, “Hamilton” star; Kurt Vile, of Mt. Airy (his real name), a hugely popular indie rocker; Arthur Tracy, of Germantown, a Central High grad who became one of the Great Depression era’s most successful radio and recording stars (he died in 1997 at age 98); Hugh Panaro, of East Oak Lane, Broadway co-star of “Les Miserables;” Grover Washington Jr., of West Mt. Airy, the nation’s leading proponent of “Smooth Jazz;” the Dixie Hummingbirds, the most successful gospel music group ever (The Rev. Joe Williams, pastor of the Mt. Airy United Fellowship Church, was a member); and Vincent Persichetti, of Roxborough, whose classical music compositions were performed by orchestras all over the world.
“Tom spent many wonderful times with his beloved and long-time partner, Margie Jones, particularly enjoying traveling to diverse places from Europe, Russia and South America and including traveling with the Philadelphia Orchestra on tours,” said son Marc. “More recently, due to Margie’s health issues, Tom cared for Margie in a way that showed his deep love and concern for her.”
Di Nardo is survived by his beloved partner Margie Jones, son Marc DiNardo, daughter Lisa DiNardo Parker, sister Martha Neuringer, daughter-in-law Elizabeth Drum, brother-in-law Allen Neuringer, and grandson Quinn Parker.
Donations may be made in his memory to the Film Music Society or Philadelphia Sinfonia.
Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.
