![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Ernie-Coopman2-236x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ernie Coopman (1933-1998)<\/p>\n
Inducted 2019<\/p>\n
Ernie Coopman was born in Northern Wisconsin. As a child he played with a toy button accordion found in his toy box from Santa. In 1946 his family moved to Southern Minnesota, still playing that toy button accordion until the bellows broke. Ernie eventually got a piano accordion, but was not happy with it and wanted to learn how to play a concertina instead. Earning money while working on a farm, he was able to finally buy his first concertina and started practicing dilligently. In 1950 Ernie entered military service for two and a half years. Upon\u00a0returning to Minnesota, he and his friends played music at various gatherings around the area. Ernie\u00a0joined The Little Fisherman Band in 1955 and played with them until late 1956 when he switched to The Jolly Brewers and bought the ownership of the eight-piece band, writing and composing arrangements for himself and other concertina players. Tragedy struck Ernie in the fall of 1967 when Ernie\u2019s right hand was severely\u00a0injured, and doctors were pessimistic as to his ever playing again. With strong determination and practice, he was able to continue playing concertina. After his recuperation and dogged determination to play again, he formed a\u00a0three-piece combo called Ernie Coopman and The Stagemen, playing clubs, weddings, ballrooms, the Bandwagon televison show of Mankato and many area polka festivals. Ernie was described as a good-hearted & good-natured person, and a great personality on stage when performing. He played his last job on the Bandwagon TV show in September of 1998. Ernie was inducted into the World Concertina Hall of Fame in 2005, his\u00a0family accepted this award proudly in his name.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ernie Coopman (1933-1998) Inducted 2019 Ernie Coopman was born in Northern Wisconsin. As a child he played with a toy button accordion found in his toy box from Santa. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,6],"tags":[420,424,65,425,141,57,45,426],"class_list":["post-881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-42","category-inductee","tag-420","tag-ernie-coopman","tag-inductee","tag-jolly-brewers","tag-mankato","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-music-hall-of-fame","tag-stagemen"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}