The family of musicians on this page appears in the various bands that Joe has assembled. Each is a musician in his/her own right and performs in other venues as well. Please give them a warm welcome when you see then performing with together with Joe in one of his acts.
JOE DOMITROWICH As a serious student of the accordion in his youth, and with formal training in technique, Joe mastered the art of playing the traditional acoustic accordion at an early age. More recently, the advent of digital technology has awakened Joe's interest in diverse genres of music and inspired him to arrange and perform an unusually broad repertoire, meticulously blending the familiar timbre and sound of reeds and bellows of the traditional acoustic accordion together with digital samples of other instruments. Joe is known for delivering live music that is both entertaining and technically challenging to perform.Joe's ethnic roots are in Burgenland, Austria, at the cross-roads of Eastern and Western Europe with strong cultural influences from Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia. With a youth steeped in a culture of European immigrants, it is no wonder that Joe's repertoire often reflects his heritage.
Joe particularly enjoys performing technically challenging pieces where audiences are populated with serious accordion aficionados and in intimate settings with appreciative listening audiences.
MARGOT TURRELL is an accomplished entertainer and recording artist whose appearances as lead vocalist with Alpiners U S A have become an Oktoberfest tradition in the Bay Area. After immigrating to the US with her parents, she began performing in CA during the days of Joe Smiell's Oktoberfests in Pleasanton. She has also made numerous appearances at Alpine Village and Old World in southern California. Later, she teamed with accordion virtuoso Stas Wisniach in the Bay Area to form the duo International Varieties. Born in Bavaria, Margot sings in authentic Bavarian dialect. Everyone who hears her is amazed when they learn that Margot is entirely self-taught as yodeler. Margot now lives with her husband Bill in Oregon where they moved in 1997.
MATTHEW MEDEIROS is a highly skilled and versatile musician whose abilities on drums are a rarity among bands playing the European ethnic circuit. He began learning drums in 1976, and studied Jazz and Latin rhythms for 5 years with Daniel Sabanovich in San Jose. In the late 70s he played the rhythm & blues scene throughout the South SFO Bay area. Matthew cites many different music types as influential to his playing, and has a keen interest in European ethnic music, having traveled many times to Europe to experience first-hand German ethnic music and the German language. Matthew's technical expertise and diverse abilities on drums provide a solid backbone for the great variety of music played by Alpiners U S A.
PETE ESTABROOK has a Bachelor of Music degree from Berklee College (Boston, MA) and a Master of Fine Arts degree from California Institute of the Arts (Valencia, CA). He is on the faculty of Pacific Union College, Santa Rosa Junior College, and formerly Sonoma State University, where he has taught Trumpet and Jazz courses since 1996. With 5 album credits to his name, Pete regularly freelances in a variety of settings including: Theater Shows, Brass Quintet, Top-40 horn section, Chamber Orchestra, Jazz Quintet, and Dance band settings. He has played European Folk/Dance Music for 25 years. His newest interest includes learning to play the Alphorn.
TERRY SHEHORN is well known for his strong vocals and stage presence, as well as his superb and unique style on lead guitar. He is a long time favorite on the California nightclub and concert scene, where he has been entertaining audiences for over 40 years. He has opened for such legendary bands as The Yardbirds, The Lovin’ Spoonful, Jefferson Airplane and Herman’s Hermits. In July, 2010, Terry opened for country star Dwight Yokam.
STEVE FRENCH has been a working musician in the Bay Area for nearly 40 years. He began playing guitar at the age of 12, and his earliest influences included both the rock and roll of Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke and Elvis Presley, and the country western music of Hank Williams, Lefty Frizell, and Bob Wills. Accomplished on both six-string guitar and pedal steel, he has performed at hundreds of nightclubs, festivals and stage shows, including seasons at California’s Great America and American Musical Theater of San Jose.
FRED McCARTY is a musicians musician. A veteran of many musical genres, Freds background includes composition and performance experience in Jazz, Classical, Rock, Bluegrass and Country. He studied Classical Guitar with Stanley Watson at the Hochstein School of Music for Young Musicians in Rochester, NY, Jazz theory under Chuck Mangione, and is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA. Fred has won numerous Local, State and National awards as a Singer, Songwriter, and Band Leader of Fred McCarty and Company and The Contenders. He has recorded and released numerous CDs in various genres, including country, classical guitar, standards and American folk rock, including many of his own compositions. His warm, rich vocals and expressive fluid guitar work are a welcome complement to the already wide variety in repertoire of Alpiners U S A.
LIANA BRAUNOVA DERNER is a talented mezzo-soprano vocalist and entertainer who completed her music education in Prague (Czech Republic), first in classical and opera singing at The National Conservatory and then at the Pop and Jazz Conservatory. With this extensive technical background, Liana deploys her talents in a variety of musical genres and in multiple languages. She has performed in various operas in Prague, including Lancelot (L. Fiser) and The Bartered Bride (B. Smetana), as well as musicals, including Cinderella, Dirty Dancing, Rusalka, My Fair Lady, Zorba the Greek and others. As a soloist with Swing orchestra "Bonus", the “Big Band Prague” and the "ReBelcanto," professional singing ensemble, Liana has frequently performed throughout the Europe including Germany, UK, Austria, Italy, Romania and Canary Islands. In 2007 Liana relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area where she has since appeared at the Civic Theater in Saratoga, the American Musical Theatre of San Jose, and, in 2010 and 2011, with Opera San Jose (Marriage of Figaro, La Rondine and La Boheme).
DAVE DALLY is conductor of the Monterey Peninsula College String Ensemble and has guest conducted Monterey Bay Symphony Pops Concerts, Central Coast Section Honor Middle School and High School Orchestras and Youth Music Monterey Orchestras. He is the first violinist, founder and arranger for the Monterey String Quartet, and is Concertmaster of Ensemble Monterey and I Cantori di Carmel. He has been Concertmaster of the Monterey Bay Symphony, Hidden Valley Operas, Monterey Opera and played first violin with San Jose and Monterey County Symphonies. He graduated with honors from U.C. Berkeley in music where he studied conducting with Michael Senturia and James Cunningham and violin with Felix Khuner and Virginia Baker. David is also proficient playing trumpet.