Pete with his girlfriend Lori Tokutomi.
t’s not often a person gets to perform on the
same stage that his musical inspiration once did,
but for Pete Bresciani of Las Vegas, stepping onto
the 42-feet-deep Ronald O. Perelman Stage was
more about taking in the prestige of Carnegie
Hall in New York than anything.
“It was surreal. As a musician, I wouldn’t dream of
playing there, but I did and it was amazing,” Bresciani says.
His music journey began at age 7 when he saw music
legend Roy Clark playing the banjo on “Hee Haw,” and
asked for an instrument just like it for Christmas.
“I started taking lessons and that was it,” Bresciani
remembers. Since then, he’s mastered the banjo,
trumpet, piano and guitar, but the trumpet is his primary
instrument.
In 1985, Bresciani moved to Las Vegas to begin playing
music professionally. “I did classical and commercial
music. My influences are Doc Severinsen, Maurice André
and Maynard Ferguson. I play all styles of music—that’s
how you keep working,” he says.
Currently, Bresciani plays for Frankie Moreno, child
prodigy piano player and gifted multi-instrumentalist. At
age 10, Moreno made his national debut on “Star Search.”
Since then, he’s been named “Las Vegas Headliner of the
Year” three times, performed on “Dancing with the Stars”
and has sold out concerts at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy
Center and The Hollywood Bowl.
“For the last year or so, we’ve been playing with
symphonies around the country and Canada,” Bresciani
explains. “We added a 100-piece orchestra behind us and I
love it. It’s my favorite thing to do.”
Next to wowing crowds on stage, his favorite thing is
pickleball, which he took up five years ago after giving up
rock climbing.
“I was a professional mountain climbing guide. I’ve
climbed the Matterhorn, Mt. Blanc and some volcanoes
in Ecuador, El Capitan and Half Dome in Yosemite,” notes
Bresciani. “But when I turned 50, it started to be too much
to rock climb all day and do shows at night. With pickleball,
I can play in the morning, take a nap and go to work—no
problem.”
A 5.0 senior player, he was introduced to the sport
through a friend in a band he was playing in. That friend
wanted to find a sport he could play with his wife, but it
turned out she had no interest so Bresciani volunteered to
give it a shot.
“I found it was a great way to get in some cardio. It
wasn’t boring and, over time, I started to love it,” he
says. “I went ballistic with it. And then I played in my first
tournament and just got creamed.”
Undaunted, Bresciani continued to practice perfecting
his pickleball game. While he admits he’s less competitive
than he was in his youth, he’s still driven to succeed in
whatever he puts his mind to.
When Pete Bresciani is playing in
front of a crowd, he’s affectionately
introduced as Pickleball Pete.
In a normal week, when he’s not on tour, he puts in four
to five days of play at the Whitney Mesa Tennis Complex,
a public facility with four dedicated pickleball courts. He’s
also a member of TeamEngage Pickleball.
Bresciani has competed in several tournaments since
his first foray into competitive play, and took gold at the
Henderson Games. In another tournament, he is shown
on the website stats as taking gold, but didn’t actually
get the medal because of scoring discrepancies due to
confusion with the tournament’s overall scoring methods.
Bresciani takes it in stride, however, and keeps his
eye on the future as far as his game is concerned. His
musician mentality of playing with anyone who’s available
means he doesn’t have a regular partner, but Steve Cole
has been his go-to for the last three local tournaments
he’s played in. They met in 2011 and have played together
on and off ever since.
As far as his bandmates go, Bresciani hasn’t talked
them into pickleball yet, but he’s working on it.
“They all talk about trying it, but no one’s ventured out
to actually do it,” he says. Regardless, everyone’s aware
of his love of the game, and when he’s playing in front of a
crowd he’s affectionately introduced as Pickleball Pete.
Still, no matter what city Bresciani’s playing in on the
road, his paddle’s always in his bag, ready to go.
“I do play on the road when our schedule allows it.
Sometimes we fly into a city, rehearse all day, play
at night and head out again. But I do seek out fellow
pickleballers no matter where I am,” he says. “It’s such a
great sport and the social aspect is just like everyone says
it is—phenomenal. No matter where I go, I instantly have
friends all over the country.”
To see where Pete Bresciani and Frankie Moreno will
be playing next, go to frankiemoreno.com. •
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 |
MAGAZINE
57