Volunteer
Squeezes In Music Among Duties
By DENISE DICK
[ A reprint from the Youngstown Vindicator Staff Writer
Youngstown, Ohio on Saturday 9/2/2000 ]
CANFIELD - Jules Verne wrote a famous novel about traveling
the world in 80 days. George Basto does it in an afternoon.
The North Jackson man, who lost his left hand in a corn
chopper accident when he was 27, has been playing the accordion for 46
years. A volunteer in the Canfield Fair international exhibit since 1962,
Basto, 70, strolls through the building, playing ethnic music that corresponds
to the nations represented, including Croatia, Italy, Lebanon and Germany.
"I’m the type of person that if you tell me I can't do
something, I’ll prove to you that I can," he said. Basto, who is Serbian,
Hungarian, and Russian, uses his right hand to press the instrument’s keys
and squeezes the bellows using his left arm.
Best compliment: “When I was at a Slovenian Festival
in Enon Valley, Pa., a few weeks ago, one of the Slovenian accordion players
came up to me and said, ‘Mister, you have one hand, but you play like you
have two hands,’” Basto said.
The compliment sent his spirits “sky high” for about three
days.
“You hear from your friends that you play well, but when
a professional from Europe tells you that, it’s really something,” he said.
Plays by ear: Basto doesn’t read music. What he
plays he plays by ear.
“I just listen to music and think about it,” he said.
“If I can't come up with it in my head right away, I hum it or whistle
it until I can figure out how to play it.”
He also enjoys ethnic dancing, from Israeli, Serbian,
and Romanian to Ukrainian, German, and Greek.
He started while a student at Youngstown University, now
Youngstown State University, dancing with the university’s folk dance club
with the encouragement of Marilyn Koscinski, a former physical education
teacher at the school.
Basto formerly arranged the entertainment and parking
for building exhibitors. Several years ago he arranged, through the fair
board, a parking area near the building for exhibitors.
They used to have to park in the public lots and haul
their cultural displays from their cars to the building.
“You can’t ask for someone better to work with than George.”
said Anne Martinko of Canfield. who has volunteered in the building in
previous years. “He treats all of the nationalities with respect.”
