Marv Nissel

Marv Nissel

Inducted 2025

  Marv Nissel started his interest in music in 1947 at the age of nine when his grandfather (William Nissel) and his father (Harold Nissel) were playing with The Christy Hengel Band of Wanda, Minnesota.  Marv began taking concertina lessons from Wenzel Fischer at the age of 13, and played his first dance job in 1953 at the age of 15.  He continued to play until 1961 when he entered the service.

  After his honorable discharge from the army in 1963, Marv bought his first Hengel concertina and moved to New Ulm, Minnesota where he played with various bands such as The Slim Kalz Dance Band, Norm Wilke & The Little Fishermen, Fezz Fritsche & The Goosetown Band, Lester Schuft & The Country Dutchmen, and The Cliff Hermel Polka Party Band. One of Marv’s most impressive honors was his performance for Vice President Hubert Humphrey at his campaign dance in 1968.

  In 1976, Marv began teaching concertina to ten students, which quickly grew to a cadre of over 60. Marv has composed two original songs for the concertina, “The St. George Polka,” and “Nissel’s Hoolerie,” and has also written over 500 arrangements for the concertina. In 1978, Marv and his wife, Carol, formed The Marv Nissel Band, and started traveling throughout the Midwest.  In 1986, Cliff Hermel, owner and operator of the Gibbon Ballroom, joined Marv’s band on drums, as did Marv and Carol’s two daughters, Lori and Jodi.  In 1987, the Minnesota Ballroom Operators Association (MBOA) awarded the band as the No. 1 Variety Band for the State of Minnesota. Between 1981 and 2002, the band won MBOA awards over 11 years for their outstanding contribution to the ballroom music industry.  In 1993, Mike Moldan joined the band.  During the mid-1990’s, the Nissels appeared at over 170 jobs annually and traveled nationally.

   Since 1995, Marv and Carol have had their own weekly radio show on AM-860 KNUJ Radio in New Ulm. In 2005, Marv was inducted into the World Concertina Congress; and in 2024, The Marv Nissel Band released their 28th album entitled Homecoming, which featured Marv on concertina, Carol on keyboard bass and piano, daughter Lori on trumpet, fiddle, and concertina, and both Jim Bartusek and Marv and Carol’s grandson, Chris Ebel, on drums. Marv Nissel is a well-deserved inductee to The Minnesota Music Hall of Fame with over 70 years of both performing and promoting polka music!  He has performed in 21 states, traveled over a million miles, and taught concertina music hundreds of students. His precise style of playing is easily recognized in the polka industry.  At almost every dance job, Marv is requested to play the “Ellen Polka”, a concertina solo usually played in the key of D.  Even though it is much more difficult to play the song in the key of E, Marv chooses to do so, because he thinks that it sounds prettier, and the dancers obviously agree because he is often told, “Nobody plays the Ellen Polka like you do, Marv”.