Inducted - Detroit 2006
Sanda's earliest recollection of our music is from about age 3 as he listened to his mother, Zora, playing kolos and popular folk songs on her little button accordion. His father, Pavle, taught 8 of his 10 kids how to dance to Zora's kolos (the last 2 were too young at the time). Sanda memorized those melodies long before he ever picked up an instrument. At age 8, a family friend gave Sanda an old accordion needing repair and leaking air badly. He was so determined to play that accordion that he scavenged the entire house for glue, nail polish, safety pins and anything else to make the repairs. The 8-year old amateur engineer successfully revived the instrument and quickly taught himself how to play those songs he had heard his mother play. As his interest and skills grew, he would listen for hours to 78 rpm tambura records on a wind-up phonograph adjusting the speed to match the tuning of his accordion. By 1939, the budding musician was being asked to play solo for dances, parties, slavas and any other occasion where people wanted music.
Fortunately, Sanda's family owned Detroit's popular Blue Danube Inn which featured live tambura music three nights a week. Many famous tambura bands from the Midwest played at the Blue Danube and famous singers like Vinka Ellison and Edo Lubic were frequently featured with those groups. Unlike most other young boys, Sanda spent countless nights in the family kafana sitting up close to the musicians, listening and watching intently. Without realizing it at the time, tambura and violin served as the inspiration for the style of accordion that he adopted and plays to this very day.
One evening the Aberlich Brothers Orchestra was playing at the Blue Danube and Sanda was asked to play a few songs with them. He must have done well because that night, at age 14, he was asked to join their band, a relationship that continued until he joined the army in 1951. After his discharge, Sanda returned home to play with many talented tambura musicians for functions in the U.S. and Canada. It wasn't long before he joined the Slavuj Orchestra of Windsor, Ontario, playing the music he loved and making many lifelong friens. After Slavuj disbanded eleven years later, Sanda organized Orchestra Lira of Detroit in 1966. Some 40 years later, the group is still playing strong, and although Lira has had various members over the years, the blend of tambura and accordion has remained remarkably consistent.
Sanda's favorite musical memory is of a 1977 tour of Yugoslavia with his son, Pero. The group was recruited by the Kosta Manojlovich Choir of Lackawanna to accompany the folk part of their program as it toured for three weeks. Opportunities arose to perform with some of the best Yugoslav entertainers of the time, but even more exciting were two days spent with Janika Balaz who insisted on hosting an evening of dinner and music in Backa Palanka to hear as he put it, "the orkestar that I like to listen to when I want to hear music". An unforgettable thrill for Sanda!
Though self-taught, Sanda has composed a few pieces and routinely plays several of his own kolo compositions. He has also recorded four LPs, two 45s, and one CD with his various groups over the years, has performed on National Public Radio, and participated in an ethnic music concert at a major university. In the mid 1970s, Sanda formed and instructed a five-piece tambura group which consisted of members of Detroit's Ravanica Choir. His students later performed at the choir's Veselo Vece concert and some of them continue to play. Although largely unable to read music or instruct large orchestras, Sanda's 63 years of contribution to our music has thrilled thousands of audiences and served as a vital inspiration to many younger musicians.
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