Rich Bernier – Living Category – Inducted 2024

Rich was born and raised in Norwich, Connecticut, and fell in love with the accordion after attending numerous Polish functions with his parents, Walter and Sylvia Bernier.  At the age of nine, he started taking private lessons on the accordion.  Rich remarks that during his seventeen years of instruction, his teacher had to give him a polka or oberek to keep up his interest along with the lessons he was given.  Since then, Rich and…

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Gary Brueggen – Living Category – Inducted 2018

  Gary Brueggen was born in the small farming community of Cashton, Wi, where at the young age of two he became captivated by polka music he heard on the radio. Recognizing his potential, Gary’s parents bought him his first set of drums at five years old, and by the time he was nine, he played his first job with the Ridgeland Dutchmen. At age 10, he was given his first concertina, which began his…

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Chester Budny – Deceased Category – Inducted 2015

  Born on May 20, 1921 in the “Old Polish” Fleet Avenue neighborhood of Cleveland, OH, Chester Budny became one of the city’s great southside musicians of the 1940s and 1950s. At the young age of 4, he displayed a keen interest in music and was given a violin at age 6. Later at the age of 12, Chester bought himself a drum. Since the young artist loved to sing while he played he be-came…

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Edward “Eddie” Biegaj – Living Category – Inducted 2014

  Eddie was born in Toledo, Ohio to a musical family.  Mother Gina is a trained clarinetist and vocalist while father, Dionysius “Danny” Biegaj played trumpet and sang.  With the help of “Busia” Helen (his maternal grandmother) at a young age Eddie started his love for polka and Polish culture and heritage by singing along to the 78 RPMs and 45’s of such greats as Frank Wojnarowski, the “Connecticut Twins” and “The Naturals”.  He started…

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Frank Borzymowski – Living Category – Inducted 2013  

  Music has always played an important part of Frank Borzymowski’s life. His first professional gig was at the ripe old age of 14 and it wasn’t long after that all of Baltimore’s Polonia wanted to book Joe and Anita’s boy for their functions. Frank’s high school and college years were filled with great memories playing polkas at Baltimore’s Polish Home, Blob’s Park and all the many Polish parishes through-out the east side of the…

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Richard Bobinski – Deceased Category – Inducted 2010

    Richard J. Bobinski was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on January 18, 1939, to Mr. & Mrs. Robert Bobinski.   Rich began playing the trumpet when he was about nine years old after seeing a Harry James movie. His first instructor was Polish and it wasn’t long before he had Rich playing music from the instructor’s collection of Polish music.   He and his brother Bob started their own band shortly after they were…

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Stanley “Stas” Bulanda – Living Category – Inducted 2009

    Stanley “Stas” Bulanda’s love for polka music started at a very early age while listening to the music of his fathers’ and uncles’ polka band.   They would let him sit on the stage and started his musical education. After a few years, they even allowed him to sit in on the drums at some of their engagements. It was in high school that he teamed up with a few of his friends…

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William “Wesoly Bolek” Borek – Deceased Category – Inducted 2008

    William (Bill) Borek was born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, on July 19, 1941, to Joseph and Stella (Socha) Borek. His dad owned and operated a very successful Polonia Bakery in northern Rhode Island for many years, where he and his younger brother Edward would work as kids helping to bake and deliver bread, rolls and many traditional Polish pastries. This is where Borek developed and cultivated the work ethic and appreciation for Polish…

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Adam Barthalt – Pioneer Category – Inducted 2006

    Adam Barthalt was born in Ridgewood, Queens, NY on June 11, 1935. Adams’s deep-rooted interest in music began unpretentiously at the age of three with a toy accordion he received from his grandparents while on a visit with his mother to Europe.   By the time Adam was seven, he had graduated to the “real thing” and began his formal musical education. At the age of twelve he earned his first pay, which…

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Billy Belina – Living Category – Inducted 2004

  Billy Belina has spent a major part of his life playing and promoting polka music. Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1947, Billy has his parents to thank for much of his success in the polka industry. In his early years, Billy often joined his parents on the two-hour drive to Connecticut to watch the local polka bands. He endeared himself to accordion greats such as Ray Henry and Al Soyka and soon desired…

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Roger Bright – Deceased Category – Inducted 2003

    Roger Bright of New Glarus, Wisconsin, was a musician, bandleader, recording artist, deejay and performer.   Roger Bright was born February 12, 1937, and died August 28, 2001, at Boulder Colorado Community Hospital from a heart attack he suffered while performing at a polka festival in Boulder.   Roger began his musical career at age twelve. He formed a band at age fifteen and made his first recording at the age of nineteen. …

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Michael “Mitch” Biskup – Living Category – Inducted 1995

  Michael “Mitch” Biskup born in Montreal Canada, joined a new polka band back in 1969 called the Golden Brass, which soon became one of the top five polka bands in the nation and in 1971 captured the “Triple Crown” by winning the IPA Awards for Best LP, “Let The Sunshine In,” Best Instrumental Group and Best Single Recording.   Although the combinations of musicians and instrumentation changed over the years (as well as a…

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Fred Bulinski – Living Category – Inducted 1992

    Having been raised in an ethnic community in Niagara Falls, New York undoubtedly had something to do with Freddie Bulinski’s early exposure to and fascination with Polka music. He was born February 5, 1947 to Fred and Martha Bulinski, the eldest of three children. His sister, Suzanne is administrative head of the Emergency Department at Rochester General Hospital; and his brother Dan is a Colonel in the U.S. Army, serving as the Professor…

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Kenny Bass – Deceased Category – Inducted 1989

  Kenny Bass (Peter Bastasic, Jr.) was considered one of the all time polka greats that made Cleveland the great polka center that it is.  Since 1948 he had hosted radio programs on local area stations including former WSRS, WJMO, WBKC, WELW, WLYT and currently on the Chardon station.   His parents the late Mr. and Mrs. Peter Bastaci raised Kenny, one of seven children (he had six sisters), instilling in him a liking for…

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Antonina “Antoinette” Blazonczyk – Deceased Category – Inducted 1987

  Antonina “Antoinette” Blazonczyk was born and raised in the southern mountainous part of Poland in a village called Chocholow.  Also known as “Gazdzina z Chocholowa” – Antoinette was a “goralka” and extremely proud of her Polish Heritage.   Back in the 1940’s Antoinette Blazonczyk recorded four 78 rpm records as a vocalist featuring authentic “goralska” music on the Podhalan Record label.  In 1948 she had purchased the Pulaski Village located at 17th & South…

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Johnnie Bomba – Living Category – Inducted 1980

  Johnnie Bomba was born in Chicago.  While in the 4th grade at Sacred Heart School.  He started playing clarinet with the school band.  In 7th grade he already played with local dance bands, and in 8th grade formed his own group.  In De La Salle High School he was the first chair alto clarinetist in the concert band.  He formed a 15-piece dance band and played dance halls, ballrooms, and hotels. During World War…

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Ray Budzilek – Living Category – Inducted 1973

    Ray is the son of Frank and Lottie Budzilek, who were both born in Warsaw, Poland.  He played polka music at about 8 years of age on a toy piano.  He then switched to accordion and began playing at weddings.   He organized a musical aggregation in his late teens in his home town of Cleveland.  It developed into a big band sound with a huge following.  Ray’s vocals, his accordion, plus the…

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Eddie Blazonczyk, Sr. – Living Category – Inducted 1970

  Eddie Blazonczyk was a native Chicagoan, son of Fred and Antoinette Blazonczyk, who for years operated the Pulaski Village Ballroom and later the Club Antoinette in Chicago.  Eddie started playing polkas in the early fifties with a four-piece combo known as “Happy Eddie and his Polka Jesters.”  They performed at many Polish weddings, anniversaries and other engagements in Chicagoland.   In 1958 Eddie went into the Pop music field as a song writer and…

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