Born 16 Sep 1914, and raised in Giulianova Italy, Violist Anthony “Tony” Iovane immigrated to the United States in 1953. Having graduated from the Conservatory of Music Statale Pescara with further study at Rome’s Conservatory of Santa Cecilia, and a teaching gig in Bologna, Anthony felt America held a better promise for achieving his musical ambitions.
Landing first in the Bronx, in New York, he would soon travel to Indianapolis, IN and spend several years playing with the symphony orchestra in that city. By 1957, Baltimore called, and Anthony finally found a permanent home where he could fulfill his musical ambitions. For the next thirty years, Anthony would perform with the BSO, teach at the Peabody Institute, and occasionally perform with other orchestras, including the Gettysburg Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania. Capping his career, Iovane would travel and perform with the BSO’s “Harmonie” 1981 European Tour that would include East Germany; traveling again with the 1987 European Tour, he would retire following their return to Baltimore.
Anthony Iovane died of heart disease on the 28th of January 1996 at the St. Josephs Medical Center in Baltimore, leaving his wife of 42 years, the former Josephine Tringali. Josephine would pass away three years later in Charlotte, NC.
Several months ago, we received a call from the Dublin Methodist Church in northeast Harford County, regarding an urn of cremated remains left on the steps of the church. Inside was a tag identifying the crematory (Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore) and the name of the deceased, Anthony Iovane. Nothing else accompanied the “package,” no contact information for the individual who left it there, nothing. Adding further mystery to the discarded urn, the funeral home that had retrieved Anthony’s ashes nearly thirty years ago, had long shuttered its doors and Anthony lived in the northern Baltimore City community of Guilford, nowhere near Dublin.
The superintendent of Green Mount, also a board member of the Northern Chesapeake Heritage Foundation, traveled to Dublin to retrieve the urn and assured the church that we would provide a proper burial for Anthony.
What happened to that last request and why wasn’t it carried out? How did his urn end up in northeast Harford County, and who left it at the church? Those are questions that will most likely never be answered.
After several weeks searching for family members, Anthony and Josephine had no children, I finally identified a close relative who was shocked to receive a phone call regarding the discarded ashes of a relative. Adding to the mystery of Anthony’s “travels” was the revelation that Anthony’s ashes were to be spread in the Atlantic Ocean between Maryland and his native Italy. Unfortunately, it seemed that Anthony had a bit of a temper, not unlike many “artists,” no insult intended, and was not the easiest person to live with. Not able to take part in our efforts to give Anthony a final place to rest, I assured the relative we would find a suitable home for him.
Regardless of his shortcomings and temperamental nature, no man is without flaws, Anthony Iovane deserves dignity in death. With that in mind, we obtained permission from cemetery management to place Anthony in an unsold space in what has been known as “Strangers Row” in the cemetery. This area was historically reserved for travelers, ships captains and crew, and others who died in Baltimore and could not be sent home for one reason or another. It is also the resting place for many infants and toddlers whose families would later move on from Baltimore.
Obtaining a suitable marble a headstone, we engaged a local monument maker to inscribe it for us, thus giving Anthony Iovane a final resting place and recognition he deserved as a contributor America’s historical cultural landscape.
