INPERSON
A Man of Many Hats
Murrysville resident Frank Catanzano celebrates his eclectic life as an artist, musician, writer and active community member.
Murrysville’ s Frank Catanzano is truly a jack-of-alltrades. Whether it is music, sports, reading or writing, artist, musician and author Catanzano seems to have a knack for it all.
Catanzano, 71, grew up in Edgewood and attended Edgewood School, class of 1965. During his senior year, he was elected a co-captain of the 1965 undefeated Edgewood Vikings football squad, which was one of the smallest teams in the WPIAL at the time.“ Each player had to play both ways, due to the few numbers of boys we could field,” he recalls.“ I was a defensive back and blocking back. The other co-captain, Fred Wickstrom, and I were recruited by Clarion University to play for the Golden Eagles football team.”
During his first year at Clarion, he was invited to play percussion in the college symphony. He took up painting in oils, which he still practices today. Nearly all of Catanzano’ s paintings deal with musicians.
Catanzano spent two years at Clarion, majoring in English, finally earning a BA in Journalism from Point Park University, where he pursued master’ s degree in Computer Science.
Playing the drums in local bands became important in Catanzano’ s life because it led to meeting his wife, Murrysville resident, Shelly McTigue.
“ I met her at the Lamplighter Lounge in Delmont,” says Catanzano.“ My band, Walker and Company, was playing three nights a week there, as well as Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at the New Frontier after-hours club from 3 a. m. until 6 a. m.— I couldn’ t imagine doing that today!”
The two were married and have two children, Alexis and Jon. The entire family became involved in the Murrysville
area. Shelly became cheerleading instructor for the girls in the Franklin Area Midget Football Association( FAMFA). Catanzano volunteered to coach the defensive backs on the Cubs squad, served on the FAMFA Board of directors and eventually on the Executive Board. He created the first sponsorship program for FAMFA, where board members would approach local businesses to invest money in the organization in return for their participation in the football program’ s activities.
“ I grew to love Murrysville and the residents of the community,” says Catanzano.“ Being an only child, I spent a lot of time reading and practicing my drums,” he continues.“ I already had been studying drums and percussion with the famous local drummer, Babe Fabrizi. Since I was six, I studied paradiddles, flams, rolls and the other basic rudiments of drumming. Even though they sound like deserts, the 28 basic rudiments were important basic techniques of drumming which any serious student must learn.” He continues to play clubs like the Wooden Nickel, Johnny’ s and Nola on the Square in Pittsburgh with The Express— a group of local musicians and vocalists.“ The guitarist and I have been playing together since 1971!”
During his music career, he’ s been fortunate to play prestigious venues including the Holiday House, where national acts like Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, the Letterman, Joey Hetherington, Frankie Avalon and Vic Damone appeared. In 1974 he became the drummer for the well-known singing group from Turtle Creek, PA— The Vogues. He also became a partner in his own PR and marketing firm Mangus / Catanzano for many years, and later became the PR Director for The Pittsburgh Symphony, working with favorites like James Taylor, Marvin Hamlisch and Loren Mazel.
In addition to fostering a love for music, Catanzano has been a serious reader nearly all his life. At 14, he became interested in writing Haikus— three line poems that describe its subjects in 17 syllables.“ In retrospect, this was an excellent training device that helped me learn how to describe life with wellcrafted words,” he says.
Catanzano is also the author of four thriller novels. His latest,“ Prey to the Lord,” is dedicated in memory of his cousin Michael, and a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book will go to his JUST BE foundation, which raises awareness and equips adults with the tools to stop child molestation.
“ Living in Murrysville has been ideal for my family and I,” he continues.“ Franklin High School prepared Jon and Alexis well for college. Both of them performed at a high level, and Football coach Phil Fulmer named Jon one of the outstanding student-athletes who represented Tennessee football well.”
Catanzano continues to be quite active, despite being diagnosed with Parkinson’ s disease in 2005. He has also served as the president of the Western PA Chapter of the Parkinson’ s Foundation. n
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