Houston, Texas – As one of the nation’s top accordion specialists, Mike Gabbanelli boasts the same precision, expertise, vision and charisma of his late father, the legendary John Gabbanelli. Mike has continued the family legacy of revolutionizing the accordion industry by merging the dying artisan trade with innovative ideas to create the best product in the market, the one-and-only Gabbanelli accordion.
At the age of 39, Mike is the youngest accordion specialist amongst a very few truly qualified accordion tuners in existence around the world. As the youngest of only three professionally trained tuners in the world that can do precision tuning by ear, Mike has a rare gift. His expert skills and caring spirit has continued to attract thousands of customers that will travel near and far seeking Mike to repair or tune their accordions.
A true testament of customer devotion lies in the backroom of the Gabbanelli’s retail showroom and distribution center in Houston, Texas. The room is filled with accordions from customers all over the world, all wanting Mike to repair or tune their instrument. Each accordion that needs to be repaired or tuned is either shipped or personally dropped off with an explanation of what’s needed or what happened, but the truth can only be discovered by a master technician. “Customers try to explain what happened with their accordion” says Mike with a chuckle, “but when I open up the instrument I can see what really took place, where they were at, what kind of weather the instrument was exposed to, if someone else tried to fix it or if the customer’s story fits with the actual damage”.
Although quiet and reserved, Mike comes alive when an accordion is in his hands. He can build, repair and tune an accordion like no other and spends his time servicing accordions or researching ways to improve the instrument. Each year, Mike travels to Italy and Germany to research and discover the newest parts and mechanisms that could improve the accordions. He also educates his factory employees on the shifting needs and wants of the Gabbanelli consumers and individually trains each employee, and supporting vendors, on how to perfect and improve their hands-on artisan craft.
In Houston, alongside his wife Elia Gabbanelli, Mike works diligently to ensure that each customer gets a quality product that is 100 percent Gabbanelli and upholds the family legacy that was passed down to him. Both are actively involved with every aspect of the business from concept development, manufacturing, quality control and repair/tuning. As the needs of the customers change, so must Gabbanelli; but something is certain: the hand craftsmanship will always be the heart of a Gabbanelli accordion and its revolutionary style and quality will always be its soul.
