Retired prof donates guitars to grads
Three seniors in the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University left campus last week with more than just a diploma.
The students - Nicholas Frank, Angela Buzzacco and Shaun McCune - also left with new guitars thanks to Pietro Pascale, a retired faculty member who taught in the YSU Beeghly College of Education from 1972 to 1992.
The graduates all earned bachelor’s degrees in Music at YSU’s Spring Commencement on May 11 - Frank in Jazz Guitar Performance and Buzzacco and McCune in Classical Guitar Performance. Pietro has gifted one guitar a year to a deserving graduate, but this year gave away three in honor of Dana’s 150th anniversary.
“Other than my wife and kids, my experience at YSU was the thrill of my life,” Pascale said.
The guitars were made by Pascale’s brother, John, a luthier who previously built guitars for the Guild Guitar Company, whose guitars have been used by artists ranging from Jimi Hendrix and Bonnie Raitt to Tom Petty and Sheryl Crowe. Now retired, John Pascale is currently an independent builder of more than 100 classical guitars.
The guitars were presented to the students at a recital earlier this month in Bliss Hall on campus.
“In my 12 years of teaching at YSU, Dr. Pietro Pascale and his brother, John, have been the biggest supporters of the Dana School of Music’s guitar studio,” said Francois Fowler, YSU professor of Guitar. “Their encouragement and acknowledgement of these three talented graduating students is very special.”