Larry Malmberg
(1923-2009)
Inducted 1997
While Larry Malmberg was in high school in the Twin Cities he became interested in playing accordion, following in his father’s musical talents. A musician since the 1930s, Malmberg taught accordion, piano, and organ. Larry also opened his own accordion music school in Minneapolis. In addition to teaching and performing, his peers recognized him as an outstanding professional accordinist. He was unusual in that he had an extremely broad range of musical literature, including classical music, show tunes, old-tyme, jazz, and other mainstream music. Malmberg had a phenomenal amount of music committed to memory. Malmberg’s career resume’ consisted of performing with The Viking Accordion Band, The Whoopee John Orchestra, Leon Bonrud’s Bravarians, The Minnesota Orchestra, and The Golden Strings Orchestra & Quartet. Other accomplishments include being a teacher to The 1963 World Champion Accordinist “Skeets” Langley appeared in a movie made for HBO entitled Hometown Boy Makes Good, and was a regular on radio and television performing live. He recorded the background music for The Medora North Dakota Amphitheater & Playhouse for many years, and was bandleader for the American Swedish Salleskapet Celebration in Minneapolis for over 30 years.
