Carlo Alberto Cappa: Italian-American bandmaster

Life

Trained in the heart of Risorgimento Romanticism, his long career led him to reach full artistic maturity during the post-unification Realism period.

Carlo Alberto Cappa was born in Alessandria in 1834. The son of a major in the Sardinian army who fell in battle, he received a military education at the Royal Academy of Asti. At a very young age, he became first trombone in the band of the Sixth Lancers.

In 1858 he emigrated to the United States, where he played in Ned Kendall's band and in the New York Band directed by Claudio Grafulla. When the latter took over the Seventh Regiment Band in 1860, Cappa followed him, becoming one of its most esteemed members. After over twenty years of service, he became its director in 1881, a position he held until his death.

In parallel, he was first trombone in Theodore Thomas's orchestra, played the euphonium with the Mapleson Orchestra, and collaborated with the New York and Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestras. He was also the bandmaster on board the frigate US Congress. With the Seventh Regiment Band, he achieved great popularity in the United States and Canada, organizing concerts in theaters and public parks, including the famous annual appointments at Central Park.

Author of numerous arrangements and original pieces, he composed celebratory works such as Battle of Gettysburg and First Voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World. Recognized in America, he also received Italian honors, including the title of Knight. He died in New York in 1893 and was buried at the Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Works

Cappa composed numerous marches and band pieces, often celebratory and patriotic in nature. Among the most well-known are Battle of Gettysburg and First Voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World. His repertoire also included transcriptions of great European authors, thus bringing them to the broad American public.