Titano accordions are an example of how a brand name alone can drive a large business. Actually, Titano should not be mentioned in Vapaalehdykkä web site, as it is just a brand name, not a producer.
The Titano Accordion Company was founded by Edward “Ed” and Dorothy Traficante in Minneapolis, USA. They wanted to provide high-quality instruments for their Traficante music school chain, and to achieve this goal, they traveled to Castelfidardo, Italy, to find accordion manufacturers. They made an agreement with the Victoria accordion factory. However, no sources provide exact years of events, but presumably, this happened in the 1940s.
An interesting detail is that Hohner produced an accordion model under the name Titano. The name was apparently not widely used, as there is no accordion by this name in Hohner’s catalog—and once the Titano Accordion Company registered the word Titano, other manufacturers could not use it in this market area.
The Traficantes struck gold, as Titano quickly became a well-known brand in the United States. In schools where accordion could be studied as a major, Titano was the dominant instrument brand. The first training started in 1946 at the University of Houston, Texas (with Bill Palmer as the driving force).
After World War II, the Victoria and Titano brands merged, and their collaboration lasted about 50 years. During this time, Titano Victoria sold about 60,000 accordions to the United States. Adriano Picchietti led Titano Victoria in its early days.
The Titano brand expanded its market area when Allan Jones founded Titano Accordions (New Zealand) Limited in 1957. This opened the Titano brand to the New Zealand market. Later, after Allan Jones’s death, his widow Marie Jones continued the business with their child Maurice. They expanded operations to Australia and other parts of the South Pacific region.
Ernest Deffner purchased the Titano Accordion Company in 1965. His wife Faithe Deffner (b. 1932) managed the company, as she had solid expertise in business and instrument knowledge. With the acquisition, the company’s headquarters moved from Minneapolis to New York City.
Over the years, Ernest Deffner’s company expanded operations by growing the distribution network for retail. A key channel was accordion teachers and music schools. Faithe Deffner worked particularly with Bill Palmer and Bill Hughes to develop concert accordions.
In Canada, Fred Kent worked with his partner Loren Cartwright on Titano retail. The company Mid-West Musical Instrument operated in Winnipeg. Like in the United States, Titano was marketed in Canada through private music schools. These included the Ontario Conservatory of Music, Dominion Conservatory of Music, and United Conservatory of Music.
Titano accordions were known for their quint melody basses. These instruments have a normal-looking melody bass keyboard, where the converter switch can change chord basses to melody basses. The arrangement of keys is an extension of the standard bass arrangement. This was easier for piano accordion players to adopt than the melody bass accordion key arrangement. William Palmer developed the quint melody bass, which Titano patented.
Titano collaborated with at least the following musicians: Willard A. “Bill” Palmer, Bill Hughes, Robert Davine, William Schimmel, Pauline Oliveros, Donald Balestrieri, Carmelo Pino, William Popp, Joan Cochran Sommers, Harley Jones, Yuan Fang, Carl Elmer, and Lloyd LaVaux.
On January 21, 1971, Ernest Deffner died after a long illness. At that time, Faithe Deffner became the company’s official leader, although she had been maintaining the business for a long time. Accordions were experiencing a downturn, and Faithe Deffner began working as a background influencer in accordion culture. She tried to unite the resources of U.S. retailers and get the general public interested in accordions. Faithe was appointed as the leader of the Accordion Industry Council.
In 1990, Harley Jones became a partner and retailer of Titano Accordion Company International, and in 2007, Busso Music continued importing Titano accordions to the United States after Faithe Deffner. At the same time, U.S. imports were centralized in Virginia.
In 2009, Faithe Deffner traveled to New Zealand for the Coupe Mondiale competition to receive recognition for her long-standing work for accordions. Deffner died on June 3, 2014, in Florida.
What about the Titano manufacturer? Dari and Picchietti combined the brand names Titano Victoria and the company moved to a larger factory space in Castelfidardo on Via IV Novembre. Victoria stopped producing the Titano brand name in 1992. The current owner of the Victoria accordion factory, Riccardo Breccia, led Titano Victoria from November 1984 to January 2014. After this, the factory was renamed Victoria Accordions. Pigini has produced instruments bearing the Titano brand name after Victoria.
The treble grills in Titanos manufactured by Victoria are usually very decorative and finished. Various embossed decorations were typical. Such grills were no longer produced at the Pigini factory.
Depending on the perspective, Titano could be seen as just a brand name or as an accordion factory (Titano Victoria). During the Traficante and Deffner era, the Titano range was developed and designed specifically for the U.S. market. In Finland, Titano was imported by J. Silfverberg Oy. The company’s advertisements in Hanuri magazine ended after issue 1/92.
The business under Ernest Deffner and his brand name was extensive. The Ernest Deffner Inc. company started operations in 1934, and it included Titano Accordions, PANcordion Accordions (Pancordion was made in Italy at Cav. Sante Crucianelli’s factory), Pigini, Roland V-Accordions, and Hohner’s North American retail and Ernest Deffner Publications. Busso Music, Inc. handles product marketing, distribution, and training—it’s quite a large business cluster. Deffner’s operations are based in Alexandria, Virginia, USA.
The Titano brand belongs to the Titano Accordion Company, and it is owned and managed in the United States by Frank Busso and in New Zealand by Harley Jones. In Europe, the sale of instruments is handled by Titano Italia (Law Firm Ballone Burini).
Sources
- http://www.accordionlinks.com/manufacturer.html (8/5/2020)
- http://www.accordions.com/deffnermusic/ (8/5/2020)
- http://www.accordions.com/pancordion/ (8/5/2020)
- http://www.titano.com/history.htm (8/5/2020)
- http://www.accordions.com/fdeffner/ (8/5/2020)
- http://www.accordions.com/memorials/mem/deffner_faithe/index.shtml (8/5/2020)
- https://ernestdeffner.com/about-us (8/5/2020)
- https://www.strumentiemusica.com/in-evidenza/castelfidardo-la-storia-vera-di-un-accordatore-di-fisarmoniche/ (8/6/2020)
- https://it.linkedin.com/in/riccardo-breccia-44a03b170 (8/6/2020)
- Federico Pigini (8/6/2020)
- Edwin Erikson (8/8/2020)
- Edwin Erickson (8/12/2020)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-bass_system (8/12/2020)
- Castelfidardo e le Fisarmoniche (Nazzareno Carini and Sandro Strologo)