Andy Stein will never forget that day in 1979. “I was walking through a street fair in New York and heard the Manhattan Rhythm Kings playing on a flatbed truck. When they took a break, I said ‘You guys are great. But you need a hot fiddle player.’ Brian Nalepka, their bassist, told me, ‘We don’t need a fiddle player, but Vince Giordano does.’” And ever since, Andy’s been the violinist with Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks.
Andy grew up in New York in a family of accomplished classical musicians. His aunt, Lillian Fuchs, was a famous violist who taught at The Julliard School. “When I was three,” he said, “she shoved a fiddle under my chin and said, ‘It looks good, but wait till he’s five.’ So when I was five, I took a few lessons from a neighbor.
“By age six I was getting a little more serious, taking two lessons a week from Dorothy Minty, an old friend of my dad’s, who had moved to New York to teach at Juilliard under Louis Persinger. I studied with her until I was 14. “Eventually I played second fiddle when she came over to play quartets. Chamber music was a big part of my musical growth.”
But soon, classical music wasn’t his only interest. He got into f
