"I feel the accordion is a romantic instrument and when you try to write modern music for the accordion it just doesn't seem to fit," Soprani said. "The accordion missed the romantic era. I'm trying to make up for it by arranging romantic pieces for the accordion."

Last year, he arrange Fritz Kreisler's "Three Old Viennese Dances" for the Landsdowne Symphony. Next season, he will do a solo performance with the Immaculata University Symphony, with a world premiere of his own arrangement of Carmen Fantasy.

"I just love the instrument," said Soprani, who pumps the bellows of the accordion like a violinist bows the violin. "I have fun. There's nothing like it."

Sinagoga, a music teacher with the Neshaminy School District, said he invited her and other students to a rehearsal for a show that he had with Pavarotti several years ago. "He instilled a love of music in all of us."

For her school's production of Fiddler on the Roof, she called Soprani who had done the musical whenever it was in Philadelphia. He played the accordion in the pit for her play, she said, and "gave me some pointers from all the years he'd been doing it."

Soprani, who took up the accordion at age 5, has played with Pavarotti whenever he is in the area, and fulfilled his dream of playing with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Soprani was performing a weekly solo on the Children's Hours on television, starting at age 11. "My mother was the force behind me, said Soprani who admits that, at times, he would have rather been playing sports than practicing.

Sam Fire of Northeast Philadelphia, who was stationed in Pusan, South Korea in 1953 saw Soprani's USO show and recognized him from the Children's Hour. "I played the accordion when I was young," Fire said. "I would watch Joe every Sundayh. He was a fabulous little player. He would play some fantastic thing every week."

In Korea, "the USO shows were a great uplift for us," Fire said in a recent interview.

Soprani said, "My favorite audience is a GI audience. They were just hungry for entertainment. They gave me standing ovations.

"We went to 40 bases in Korea," said Soprani, who was the band leader for the 10-member unit, known as Broadway Ballyhoo.

It was cold performing during those outdoor shows, said Soprani, who once wore three military jackets during a performance but "still managed to play the 'Flight of the Bumble Bee' " wearing gloves.

The USO performers had been served a Thanksgiving meal, before boarding the ill-fated plane for Miho, Japan, which was less than an hour away. When the pilot realized that he overshot the runway, he tried to gain altitude but could not, Soprani said. "It was just a miracle we survived."

He lost the accordion, a gift from his grandfather, who "took me everywhere I had to play," he said. The military later sent him a package with some sheets of water-logged music, his arrangement of "Lover" by Rodgers and Har. "I saved it as a souvenir," said Soprani, who has not flown since 1959.