This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
HOLLADAY - Back in his heyday, before Elvis, Larry Pino had hundreds of music students along the Wasatch Front.
But everything changed with Elvis. All of a sudden, guitars were in. Accordions, Pino's favored instrument, were out.
"The accordion got a bad reputation, you know, like Polish jokes," says Pino, now 84, between teaching lessons recently at his basement music studio, which is tucked between a frame shop and a yoga clinic along 4800 South, just west of Holladay Boulevard.
"But if people hear it played well, by artists, they appreciate it," he said. "And we [accordion players] don't like to keep it under wraps."
That never-say-die attitude and a love of teaching have kept Pino active in Utah's music community for 55 years now. His sons have grown and are living elsewhere, and he has a home in southern California. But most days, Pino can be found at his studio, walking students through the fine points of pulling sweet sounds out of their accordions or, to a much lesser extent, teaching piano.
"People are always asking me when I'm going to retire," Pino says, noting he teaches 35 hour-long lessons each week. "But I don't have any plans to. I'm so immersed with my work. My students are my extended family."
Some like Pat Whall, a retired school teacher, have a history with Pino that extends to the early 1950s when he first opened a music shop in downtown Salt Lake City on 500 East between 300 and 400 South.
"He's a really good teacher, a caring person," says Whall, a Rose Park resident who first studied under Pino when she was in junior high school. She later became one of his part-time instructors while attending the University of Utah, but she put down her accordion for 40 years while teaching math and English, primarily at Hillcrest Junior High School in Murray. Upon retiring, she returned to Pino.
"He has a good way of putting things and gives you instruction in everything, even the stuff you're not that crazy about - like music theory - but you need," she adds.
Francel Allen thinks so highly of Pino that, for the past seven years, she has made the 80-mile round trip weekly from her home in suburban Ogden to his studio in Holladay. Quite the commute for someone approaching 81.
"So what does that tell you about how I feel about him?" Allen asks rhetorically. "He's so knowledgeable and talented. He has a touch on the keyboard that is unbelievable. There's not just notes coming out of it. There's so much feeling in his playing. And he is so patient. And I've tried his patience, believe me."
Pino appreciates the compliments, in part because he knows they are true.
"There's a lot of people out there peddling lessons," he says. "But I love to teach and I consider myself one of the best. . . . I'm well-liked and appreciated in the community."
Pino grew up in Bingham Canyon, one of eight children of Italian immigrant parents. He started playing accordion as a boy, but his career took off when he used G.I. Bill payouts after World War II to study at the New England Conservatory of Music.
After four years there, he returned to Salt Lake City in 1951 and started teaching. At one point, he had 750 students a week. With help from 38 teachers, Pino had studios in downtown Salt Lake City, Holladay, Provo, Bountiful, Granger and Sandy.
"We had a big operation. It was very hectic," he says. "I ended up being an employer more than a teacher. I had the bear by the tail and couldn't let go."
But let go he did after Elvis Presley hit the scene, gradually closing all of the studios except for his mainstay in Holladay.
Pino plans to keep teaching "until the Big Man [in heaven] calls," he says, having no desire to give up the satisfaction derived from giving "my students the gift of music."
Ask student Barbara Garrett what she has gotten from Pino, however, and she will tell you much more than musical instruction.
"He's really good at helping children - and even adults - with low self-esteem gain confidence in themselves," says the Murray woman, who first started taking piano lessons from Pino in exchange for cleaning his studio. "After learning with him, I feel I can do anything. The music may help with that, but it's the teacher as well. That's what makes him great."