| Tie that binds? For this family, it's music |
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Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.... Leading a Carolina Pops concert next door at War Memorial Auditorium: Grammy Award-winning California conductor and musical arranger Victor Vanacore. Their other connection? Blood. Springsteen’s maternal grandmother and Vanacore’s maternal grandfather were siblings. “Quite a coincidence,” Vanacore says about him and his cousin playing in the same complex on the same night. It wasn’t planned that way. The Greensboro Symphony Orchestra booked Vanacore to lead a Hot! Hot! Hot! Pops concert of Latin music and dance more than a year ago. Rocker Springsteen’s “Working on a Dream” tour stop was announced in late January. Vanacore and Springsteen trace their connection to 19th-century Italy. Vanacore said his grandfather, Amedeo Sorrentino, and Springsteen’s grandmother, Adelina Sorrentino, were among siblings who came to the United States about 1895 from a small town near Sorrento. Vanacore, 60, was born the year before Springsteen. Although he visited the Springsteens as a child, the cousins did not see each other much growing up, since the Springsteens lived in New Jersey and his family lived in Connecticut, Vanacore said. “But it’s funny how we would grow up in totally different places and still pick up music,” said Vanacore, who praises his cousin’s talent. “I think it’s like basketball. It’s either in the genes or it’s not.” Vanacore’s brother, David, also carries that gene. He composes music for “Survivor,” “The Apprentice” and several other television reality shows. Victor often works with him, and has also arranged music for “American Idol.” And Vanacore’s son, Victor III, will play drums in Saturday’s Pops concert. “He is the one who looks like Bruce, more than I do,” Victor Vanacore says. But from their early years, the cousins’ musical styles diverged. Springsteen was inspired to take up the guitar as a youngster after seeing Elvis Presley on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” He found his niche in rock and roll, playing guitar and singing in bands who played the Jersey shore clubs. His first album, “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.,” was released in 1973, and he went on to become a rock icon. In contrast, Vanacore studied piano as a child, then mastered clarinet and saxophone. By his teens, he was playing piano in nightclubs for opera and Broadway singers. Infused with a love of jazz, Vanacore earned a degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston. He became conductor and arranger for acts such as the Jackson Five, Johnny Mathis, Ray Charles and Barry Manilow. Now, he leads Pops concerts with orchestras worldwide. Vanacore recalls he and Springsteen performing in the same city just once before, about 25 years ago when he toured with Manilow. His fellow musicians were surprised then that Vanacore could take them backstage at Springsteen’s concert. “Nobody knew I was related to him,” Vanacore recalled, laughing. He last saw his cousin three or four years ago, when he and his brother attended a Springsteen concert in Los Angeles. Vanacore says he doesn’t know whether he will see Springsteen in Greensboro. “Being that close,” Vanacore said, “you never know.” |