Frank Mento ----------- I grew up in an Italian-American family in Campbell, Ohio, where music was always in the air. Aunt Josephine heard Caruso sing and knew all the famous opera arias by heart (she sang them to me when I was small). My cousins used to play the piano at Grandma's house during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter festivities. Consequently, I began studying piano at the age of eight with a neighborhood teacher who also introduced me to the organ. She was organist at St. Joseph's Church, Youngstown, Ohio, where there was a pipe organ, an old two-manual Wirsching. That was my first experience with a pipe organ, and it was a revelation! The sound intrigued me! It was after hearing pipe organs in movies like El Cid, with Charleton Heston, and The Sound of Music, with Julie Andrews, that I definitely was convinced of wanting to become an organist. I started playing the organ in my parish church, St. Lucy in Campbell, Ohio, where there was an old Hammond electronic instrument! The first time I ever heard of Bach was during a Walt Disney movie on the life of Beethoven shown on television one Sunday afternoon. Young Beethoven was supposed to play Bach during a recital, but he played his own works instead. Someone in the audience whispered, "That's not Bach!". My first real contact with Bach was through the Two Part Inventions, but it was after listening to a recording of Bach's works by E. Power Biggs on the Flentrop Organ at Harvard that I really wanted to deepen my knowledge of the instrument and Bach. I began studying organ seriously when I was 16 with Orlando Vitello who was organist at St. Columba Cathedral, Youngstown, Ohio, where there was a three-manual Casavant. It was Mr. Vitello who gave me the desire to pursue a career, so, he asked me to be his assistant organist at the cathedral. I entered the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University where I studied organ with Samuel S. Badal, Jr., who was a student of Edwin Arthur Kraft (who studied with Widor!), and received a Bachelor of Music degree. I went on to graduate study at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati where I studied with Wayne Fisher (who had studied with Dupre) and received a Master of Music degree. It was while pursuing a doctor of musical arts program in Cincinnati that I discovered the joys of playing a harpsichord and continuo playing with Eiji Hashimoto as a teacher; all this just before going to Paris, France, to do doctoral research. Paris represents a turning point in my life, for here is where I decided to live and pursue my career. I continued organ study at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris with Suzanne Chaisemartin. The lessons took place at Saint-Augustin where there is a three-manual Cavaille-Coll. What a pleasure to play a Cavaille-Coll instrument! I then decided to make it a point to know all there is to know about these symphonic instruments. After receiving a Licence de Concert degree from the Ecole Normale, I was appointed Titular Organist at Saint-Jean de Montmartre Church in Paris, as the result of a competition. This church also houses a Cavaille-Coll instrument. I have since given recitals on all the major organs of Paris: Notre-Dame, Sacre-Coeur, the Madeleine, Saint-Etienne du Mont, Saint-Augustin. I gave a recital of the complete organ works of Maurice Durufle to commemorate his 80th birthday. I have equally furthered my knowledge of the harpsichord by studying with Huguette Dreyfus, one of the finest harpsichordists in France who has taught most of the major young harpsichordists in France. She is the finest teacher I ever had! It is thanks to the harpsichord and to Huguette Dreyfus' teaching that I have changed my outlook on Early Music and Bach. I am currently Titular Organist at Saint-Jean de Montmartre Church in Paris, as well as Professor of Harpsichord at the Conservatory of the 18th precinct in Paris, and it is as a harpsichordist that I played the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto, by Bach, in a concert in Paris.